Native city Lagos will always be home for Eazi, but his story is very much an international one. He studied as a teenager in the Ghanaian capital of Accra, where his college party promotions led him to eventually making music himself and becoming Mr Eazi. Banku, his self-coined fusion of Ghanaian and Nigerian musical influences, has taken Eazi far beyond just those two nations closest to his heart, finding support not just in countries with large African diaspora, including here in the UK, but also places as far as Chile, who remarkably rank among the biggest supporters of Eazi’s music.

Global appeal and success is very much on the agenda for Mr Eazi, and he’s hoping to set many others on their way there too. Shortly after the GAFFER shoot, 30 musicians are announced as the second class of inductees into emPawa, the talent incubator programme that Eazi and a network of fellow African creatives are involved in to help exciting artists develop self-sustaining careers. It’s a project that Eazi could speak on for hours, but in the slightly less time we have with him he discusses his vision for emPawa, the reach of his own music as well as some of those warm footballing memories…