#AtHome With PAUSE: Q&A with Alpha P

I love that! You’re super inspiring; the fact that your family were “Okay, cool. You can travel”, that sick!

Yes. My mom was kind of sceptical, but my dad was like, “Nah. Don’t worry, he’s safe. He’s a good boy. Since he’s good at home, if he’s going out, he’s not gonna turn into a bad guy or start behaving like a thug or something.” So my dad was like, “nah, you’re a good boy, so you’ll behave yourself out there so it’s a sure thing. Go and fight for what you believe in.”

Having family support is everything! Now tell me the background of your name because alpha is obviously like a Greek word for the first and then P is obviously an initial. So explain to me the whole name.

Okay! When I made the name, I was still in church. So get this, I was just a young boy in church, who was rapping but I didn’t have a name. All my friends had cool names, like street names, MC strong names, but I didn’t have a name and my name is Princewill. And I really fuck with wolves so I was like yeah, okay! I’ll be Alpha P. To use them the first letter from my name. I’ll be like Alpha P meaning like, the King of the Wolves. But that’s me. Basically, Alpha P is like saying Sir Michael. So the alpha then my name. So basically the idea was so that people know that Alpha P…cos alpha stands for two things. Alpha means the leader and also means the beginning of something. So if you’re looking at the biblical reference, the beginning and the end, then in the Wolfpack: the leader. So basically, Alpha P is the beginning of something new, a new sound, a new flow, just basically new vibes. So basically that’s what Alpha P stands for. Fresh sound, fresh everything, everything. So basically, that’s how I came up with the name.

You’ve touched on the fact that you love wolves and anyone who follows you on any of your social media platforms will know this! I mean, it’s not just the name of your project. We see it popping up everywhere. Explain to me, what’s the obsession with wolves?

Oh, I’ve just liked wolves since I was a kid because I like watching werewolf movies or vampire movies. I was always fascinated by the fact that men actually turn to wolves. I have always loved the concept of the full moon, the wolves, the whole pack because of that whole movement. With the pack, you can’t see a wolf wandering on its own. Being a lone wolf is very, very rare. And in that state, they’re very, very weak so I would just love the whole idea of “Oh, I’m with the team, I’m going to be gang; I’m with the pack.” So, basically that whole idea was what really made me like wolves. Apart from how they look and apart from every other thing; it’s because of the fact that they move with a pack. It’s always a family. It’s always some gang movements, like you can’t really come and attack a pack of wolves because you’re gonna be [laughs]…they’re gonna be all over the place fucking you up. So, I was like, “Yeah, because of this”, and I just love the movement. I love the whole idea of the full moon and everything’s so…I watched the movie Teen Wolf and it’s changed my life forever. Yo, when I watched it, I was like, “God, this guy should be me and I should be this guy.” Like, I tried so hard. I used to go out in the full moon to like try to change but nothing used to happen I was just a silly kid having fun.

I love that you’re so fun and free with it. To be honest, now that you’ve explained it, I’m getting it. I’m understanding. I’ve taken a few lessons away from that already, you know, rolling with the family, pushing a movement, not doing it by yourself. Kudos.

Now we’re about to play a game. You’ve just explained the alpha means leader. It means Sir. It means first. So I’m going to ask you five different questions and you just have to tell me whether you would like to be first or whether you would rather be the last.

Oh, okay.

• Being picked for a football team. Would you rather be first, or would you rather be lost?

I’ll be last, I suck at football. I’ll be last! [laughs]

• Going up to a buffet. Would you rather be first or would you rather last?

Let’s see. Okay, I’ll be first. I’ll be first. The good stuff goes first. So, I’ll be first.

• Siblings, would you rather be the first – so the eldest sibling, or would you rather be the last?

Ah, I’ll be the last – if I had the opportunity, I would be last so I can have people to look up and people to guide me while growing up so yeah.

• If you were buying a house on a new street, would you like to be the first or the last person to buy?

Erm…I would like to be the last. No! I would rather be the first person to buy cos I want to be alone. I just wanna be the only one. I wanna be able to come out of my building and be the only one on the street so that type of vibe. I like it.

• And in terms of endorsements, would you rather be the first in Nigeria or Africa to secure that deal? So, you’re gonna be the first but you’re also guinea pig. Or would you rather be the last person so that, you know, you always have the legacy as the very last person to have this type of endorsement deal?

Nah, I’ll be the first person because they rarely talk about the last people: they always talk about, “oh, he was the first to get to”… “Oh, he’s the first person to do this”. So, the first person it is!

Alright. We are now going to talk about the rest of 2020. We know that Corona has messed up a few plans and King of the Wolves, is a couple of months old. So what can we expect from the rest of the year?

Okay, lots of stuff. Lots of stuff. I can say some. I can’t say song because like, we’re still planning lots of stuff. But I have a couple of collaborations coming. I got two with my brothers in South Africa. One with Ricky Tyler. One with Tellaman.  Might have something Nasty C but I can’t say yet. I can’t say anything. Well, yeah. Then, um, I have a couple of stuff coming out new music coming soon. I’m dropping a project next month.

Oooh! Does it have a name?

Yeah but I don’t know if I can say it now…It’s called Wolves and Mustangs actually.

Okay! Wolves again. I love it.

Yeah, Wolves and Mustangs cos those are my two favourite things in the world, except for my family and my bag so yeah! [giggles]

Ey! And the bag. [laughs]

Wolves and Mustangs coming out next month unfailingly; just wrapping it up now. Doing the mixing and the mastering. Just getting everything ready so that’s gonna be out, and before the year ends, I’m gonna drop a new project again. It’s gonna be back to back music; got some collaborations in the UK coming soon though and something like that. So…just new music coming out soon because we can’t really go on tour and we don’t know when shows are going to resume so it’s basically just music for the fans. Yeah, new music, new visuals. Yeah.

All right, we’re gonna wrap up soon but for anyone that is sat indoors and is feeling super lonely or super bored in quarantine, do you have any encouraging words for them?

Yeah, it’s hard but I just feel this time is also like a blessing for me to actually sit down and reflect on myself and my life. Because I just started the movement so fast from like November when I dropped the project, so we just been moving. Now it’s time to like settle down. I can actually think and re-structure and be like, “Yo, this is the plan for the rest of the year and next year. This is what I need to do.” This is time for self-healing. So, I feel this time while we’re at home, I think this is time for everybody to settle down, actually reflect and check yourselves and be like, “Yo, what am I doing right? What am I doing wrong?” I just need to get everything in motion because when everything resumes again, I can’t go back to the life I was living. So you have to be better, you have to upgrade. So, this is the time where I think we should just stay home, meditate, figure out who we actually are and work on ourselves as human beings. Just use the time to be productive basically, because there’s a lot of time and it’s moving really, really fast. But if you take it like very seriously and you’re productive in this time, it will really help. So that’s what I can say for those people who are home.

I love that. I think that’s it! Where can we find you online?

My Instagram and Twitter is @whoisalphap. Follow me! There’s lots of really cool things to come!

Thank you Alpha P!

Be sure to check out his EP, King of the Wolves, available on all streaming platforms now!