We were lucky to catch up with Grace Ojewole recently and have shared our conversation below.

Grace , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I first knew that I wanted to pursue music full-time when I started making music and recieved great feedback from people in the industry. Every time I doubted myself and wanted to give up God always reminded me that I’m on the right path and destined for greatness. Hearing from people in the industry about the great potential of my music motivated me to want to pursue music full time. And music just always seemed to find me and has been apart of my life forever. It’s in my veins and it genuinely makes me happy. I can’t see myself doing anything else as a career for the rest of my life.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m an Afrobeat/ Hip-Hop rapper born and raised in the Bay Area of Northern California. I recently just recieved my masters degree and I’m on to the next stage in my life. I attended Howard University for my undergraduate education and I feel like that’s when I got inspired to write poetry. I was always by myself living in a new state so to kill time I started to write poetry. Attending Howard University definitely motivated me to pursue my dreams and to not ever take “no” for an answer. A lot of notable alumni’s attended my alma mater, and that always motivated me to keep going even when I wanted to give up. After jumping that hurdle and receiving my bachelors degree I knew that I could achieve anything in life that I put my mind to. I had the opportunity to have Chadwick Boseman as my commencement speaker, which is a moment in my life that I will never forget and I’ll forever be grateful for that historical moment. His speech was inspirational and definitely motivated me to pursue my dreams and move to Los Angeles after graduation. After moving to Los Angeles I knew that my calling was music because it always just seemed to find me even in my darkest moments it’s always been my therapy. I wrote my first song and recieved great feedback and knew that this is what God wanted me to do with my life. I want my music to be able to touch many peoples lives and motivate people to always be confident and believe in themselves even when life gets hard there’s always light at the end of the tunnel. Knowing that I was able to help someone get out of depression or a dark place in their life with my lyrics and my music is rewarding.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist or creative is being able to write your own music. Just knowing that you wrote every lyric that you recorded is so dope to me. It gives me the chills and I’m able to articulate my words the best when I write my own music, because I know what place I was in my life when that lyric was written and I’m able to take myself back to that place in the studio. I feel like that’s what made me really fall in love with making music is writing my own music. Also being influenced by legendary rappers is a blessing and I’m grateful for the legends that came before me. Growing up rappers that inspired my Journey were Jay-Z, Notorious B.I.G, Tupac, Nas, Lil Wayne, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, 50 Cent, Lauryn Hill, Foxy Brown, Nicki Minaj, Lil Kim, Kanye West, Mac Dre, E-40, Too Short, Drake, Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole and many more. Their music always motivated me to keep going and inspired (me to grind and) be the best with my music. Another rewarding aspect of being an artist is being able to be free and do whatever you want with your music. There’s no rules to being creative, because it’s A-R-T.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

The goal and mission driving my creative journey is honestly my family, especially my parents. Seeing everything they went through to make sure that myself and my siblings could have a better life has always been inspiring. My parents came to the United States as immigrants from Nigeria, and kept going and never gave up on their dreams of starting a church. Their leadership in the community always motivated me to want to lead one day and be successful. Watching my parents put in the hard work always made me want to give back to them when I got older. I want to be able to make them proud which is my ultimate goal in life.

Contact Info:

• Website: TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@therealtitilayo?_t=8ithyr8f4Gc&_r=1
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/therealtitilayo/
• Twitter: mobile.twitter.com/therealtitilayo
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/Gracegurl95
• Other: SoundCloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/TRG3bKi8AuS6avcFA Spotify: open.spotify.com/artist/1ETmO6mTbjKrdVyineVGYR?si=BvoVLkDYTCiYIHNjVlND2A Apple Music: music.apple.com/us/artist/titilayo/1535862662 Tidal: tidal.com/artist/7463626