Yung L is a Nigerian rap star who released his critically acclaimed debut album - Better Late Than Never in 2017. We caught up with him during the Kenyan leg of his first East African Media Tour.KenyaBuzz: Why Yung L?Yung L: They started calling me Don Elton, then L, then Yung, then Yung LKenyaBuzz: It always has a ring to it when it's Young somethingYung L: YeahKenyaBuzz: Tell us the story behind your transition from medicine to music. What made you change your mind?Yung L: I was in med school for four years then I dropped out because I was trying to juggle music and medicine, trying to find a balance but then they are both very demanding careers. So one had to go, and music has always been my first love. But I still went back to school after a year and studied accounting. I just graduated last year.KenyaBuzz: Four years is a long time to be committed to somethingYung L: Yeah, I did it for my mom because my mom wanted me to be a doctor so I tried for four years and now she knows I tried.KenyaBuzz: Major Lazer. How did that remix happen? Was that a milestone?Yung L: It is. It changed a lot of things for me. The song with Major Lazer...first of all shout out to Major Lazer. They came to Lagos for a tour and I wasn't around. When I came back, I hit up their manager, whom I'd known for a while but unfortunately it was the last day of their tour and were leaving. Nontheless they wanted to do an Afro mash-up of their song Run Up. Skales had the data so i had to link up with him and make it happen. We weren't expecting them to take us seriously because a lot of artists come to Africa excite us about collaborations but never  fully get involved, so that was the mindset we had when I sent them a song for the Afro mash-up. The next day they sent me the instrumental video and when we did the record, they got back to me the day after that telling me they liked the record and they wanted to add a Niki Minaj verse at the end. And on the fourth day I was told that Niki was asking for my handle and wanted to follow me and she sent a message thanking us and saying she liked the record and the African vibe we gave to it. And that opened doors for me because other artists that follow Niki wanted to see what I was about. Her and I go back and forth and we are working on new stuff.KenyaBuzz: Let's go along those lines, who is your dream collabo?Yung L: Damien Marley. After that, I am just going to take a break for two years and just listen to that song for two years.KenyaBuzz: So who has inspired your style? Who have you grown up listening to that has motivated you to do what you do?Yung L: Every artist. But first of all rappers. Because I feel that is the first influence if you are in Africa. You grow up listening to DMX, Ja Rule, 50 Cent, I started as a rapper and those guys, they influenced me.KenyaBuzz: What would you say is the worst experience you've had as an artist?Yung L: When you're an artist, people expect you to live in a flashy way and have all this stuff. But where are you going to get money to buy a Benz when you are just starting out? So as an artist, you find yourself having to fake it till you make it kind of thing. And it's worse when you are upcoming because nobody cares about you. When I was just starting out, I used to beg people to let me perform and I was doing a genre that wasn't popular in Nigeria then. It was afro dance-hall. We were just getting started and people were very skeptical and it got to a point where we were actually paying people to let me perform just to listen to my music. And you end up going home having lost money that you thought you would make. So to every upcoming artist, I always tell them to keep their head up. It's not easy because we have all gone through it.KenyaBuzz: It seems like a very tough space to be in. What keeps your mind motivated because you are literally invested in yourself by paying a promoter to let you perform. Where does the confidence come from to know that it will all be worth it in the end?Yung L: It's a deep conviction you have inside. It's what you love. If you love boxing, even if you loose a match, you might quit for a minute, but if that is where you find your peace, you'll find your way back with or without money.KenyaBuzz: What is your creative process like? What do you need to create?Yung L: When I am in the studio, I like it to just be me and the producer. If there is someone else there, they have to be there for a reason, they need to have a creative input. So they could be hyping me about the song or correcting me, giving me suggestions on what to change or giving me an idea so they are not just in the studio doing nothing. If they are giving me bad vibes then they definitely can't be there.KenyaBuzz: What is your opinion on the whole African movement? I feel the world is starting to pay attention to us. It's a good time to be making music, because you have had the opportunity to make songs with Niki minaj. so why do think that's the case?Yung L: First of all, I think they have gotten to the point where they can't stand it any more. They have tried to block it, kill it and hide it under but African music is so infectious such that when you play it anywhere people will always ask the name of the artist and the type of music they are singing. This is the same with reggae or dance-hall music.That is why when Beyonce does a record, she will try to get Sean Paul to add a little spice to it and give him a small feature. She will not try to make him pop out. They will just have one song with a dance-hall artist on an entire album. It's like One Dance. They just put WizKid a little towards the ending because they don't want you to be too loud. Like Controlla with Popcaan. They just put him a little at the end but when you look at the version that made it on the album, he was not there. But they can't hold us back. And the foreign people, they follow the money and when they see a lot of people are listening to African records, they'll invest there because the numbers don't lie. And on social media, we are one of the top three influencers, when Africa talks about something, it blows up. It might be they are allowing us because they want to make money from us but the point is they are allowing us.KenyaBuzz: If you had one super power what would it be?Yung L: I want to be invisible when I want to beKenyaBuzz: That's interesting because half the people we ask always say they want that. Especially when they are becoming a bit big. Can I ask why you'd want that?Yung L: I want to be able to enjoy the little things like going to the bank and taking some money and pulling out without people knowing me.KenyaBuzz: Yeah, because sometimes I think you're just not in the mood, because people can catch you in a bad mood.Yung L: Yeah sometimes I just want to be in the club. But I don't want to be in the club and people have their phones out. So I would just want to go to the club, be invisible, rock and then go home.