Tems recently sat down with Kendrick Lamar for an interview. She discussed various topics, including creative artistry, staying true to yourself and how her music career began.
In the feature with Interview magazine, Lamar revealed he was a fan of the 28-year-old. He then asked what inspired her to delve into music as an R&B artist. The “Free Mind” singer said Celine Dion was one of many artists who motivated her.
“I was an extreme introvert when I was younger. I didn’t really talk much. My mom’s friends would be like, ‘Yo, Temi, come take a picture,’ and I’d just turn around. I’m not sure when the first time I heard music was, but I found myself loving the radio, and I used to hear Celine Dion. Nigerians love Celine Dion. Her songs are very emotional, jump-off-a-cliff-type songs. They entered my soul. I think that’s where my love for music started,” Tems told Lamar during the interview.
She continued: “And then, when I was 9 or 10, I started writing songs, but it wasn’t songs with choruses, it was just verses of things I was feeling. Then I fell into this deep hole of music obsession, and it was the only thing that made me feel alive. I can’t describe the feeling when I first got my first CD. It was a Destiny’s Child CD that was fake, it had 30 songs, and I learned them all.”
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Like many artists, creating your own lane is essential when navigating the music industry. When the Compton native asked Tems about “positioning” herself as an R&B artist versus being put in a box, the singer revealed how she would risk it all for the love of music.
“I was prepared to die,” the Lagos native said. “I believed in myself so much that I didn’t really care if I never became anything or anyone. I just wanted to get a message out. I wanted to get my frequency out. And I was like, ‘Even if 10 people hear this, it’s fine.'”
Tems sets herself apart from other Nigerian artists who gravitated toward Afrobeats. She said she wants her music to have an “intense” feeling when fans listen to it.
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“I used to listen to a lot of Nigerian music and I wasn’t getting a lot of spiritual — I love Celine Dion, so, I love that intense feeling of, I’m about to jump off a cliff. That’s how I want my music to feel all the time, and Afrobeats wasn’t necessarily giving me that type of stimulation,” she explained.
“I want to make music that makes me pull my heart out, and if I can’t do that, I don’t want anything. I would rather do that and be broke than compromise. I didn’t really care about the money. It’s not that money is bad. Money is very good. But for me, even right now, I’m chasing a frequency,” Tems added.
Lamar was inspired by Tems’ journey and shared how she influences his creativity as an artist.
“We’re here to inspire each other,” Lamar said during the interview. “When you’re telling me the story about a kid in Nigeria, it makes me think about the people that gave me the guts to try to put something that’s just as creative out. So, to hear it come back full circle with people that I meet around the world, it gives me inspiration. And just hearing you speak inspires me to continue to do what I do.”
