Emerging artistes in Nigeria seem to have a common dream; to make the best quality of music that available resources can afford them, display their art on social media, and hope to either get a TikTok viral moment, or get signed by a leading Nigerian music label. This explains why they would vehemently tag music industry captains like Don Jazzy, Bizzle Osikoya or Sunday Are; hoping to somehow win the attention of these individuals they believe are the guardians of their breakthrough into fame and mainstream attention. You could say Cupid Szn had a similar dream, but typical to his dogged nature, he went the extra mile.
“My Mavin story is a bit different because I had been releasing songs in the past,” he said, still in awe of how much his life has turned around in a year since he got signed to Mavin Records.
Cupid is one of the two new Mavin musicians unveiled in the concluding months of 2025. Real name Stevenson Njoku Anyinachiso, the Port Harcourt-bred songster brings hope to Nigeria’s music scene as another potential international superstar to be churned out by the label, following the order of his predecessors like Ayra Starr, Tiwa Savage, Rema et al.
“Before I started releasing those songs, I would tag Mavin and Don Jazzy. When I started dropping my songs, I thought that I won’t be able to get signed to a label anymore – that they only signed people who were starting from scratch,” he continued.
Yet, his talent seemed undeniable to the label scouts. Today, he has a debut EP to his name called Myth-Era, and this conversation dives deeper into the things that inspire him, his plans for the new year and his Mavin story.
This piece has been edited for length and clarity.
RIP to Juice WRLD. Tell us how he influenced you and your music.
He’s my GOAT, I keep saying it. He’s the reason I still do music. When I heard Lucid Dreams and watched the video as well, I just connected to him from that day. I just wanted to do what he was doing. Also, as a trap head, back then, we didn’t really have a lot of people that infused melodies into trap. That was the first time I heard music that did that. I just wanted to do it.
Is he the inspiration behind your hair?
Yes! Before I went full blonde, it was pink and blank. My locs are two years and three months old.
That means you can give me advice on patience?
Yes. There’s something called the ugly phase in the loc journey. I would always wear a durag everyday because I couldn’t let the whole world see like that.
At what point did you realise that music is what you want to do full-time?
I think it was when I saw the Juice Wrld video and I started recording on BandLab because I didn’t have access to a studio at the time. People would tell me that they liked the songs and that was motivation to me.
At what point did Don Jazzy and Mavin Records come into the picture?
2024. When Vaedar reached out to me, I never thought it would be to sign me as an artist, I thought it would be to sign me as a songwriter. I thought the invitation he sent was to write for Ayra Starr, Crayon or Rema but then when I got there, the conversation was to sign me as an artist. I’m just so grateful to be setting a new template.
What is your relationship with Ozedikus like and how did that start?
It was social media. I did a cover to Victony’s Jaga Jaga and it did some numbers on Tiktok and Ozedikus saw it and texted me on Tiktok saying my music was fire, he would want us to work together. I sent him my mail and he started sending me beats. He sent me sixteen beats and I recorded on all of them. A few months later, I released my first song in January 2025, on my twentieth birthday.
Around this time, Ozedikus dropped a beat on his Tiktok and I decided to hop on it. But a roadblock was that I just made my debut two weeks before and I didn’t want to dive into promoting another cover while promoting my song and so, I decided to send my cover to Ozedikus directly. This was also another avenue to get his attention, but I still didn’t get any response from him.
So I had to ask a friend to leak the video on WhatsApp. The friend posted the video with the caption “Ozedikus x Cupid incoming”, even without us knowing that the song would eventually get released.
Exactly a month later, I decided to make a video promoting the freestyle and posted it and then the video went viral. Ozedikus saw it and we decided to make it an actual record.
How did Ozedikus react to Mavins signing you?
Funny enough, he was the one that asked me to go check my messages that someone had reached out to me. I didn’t see the message from Vaedar early enough and so he (Vaedar) decided to reach out to Ozedikus to follow up with me.
All of these happened within one year?
I released my first song in 2024 and that was when everything started.
What would you say changed most significantly in your life last year, 2025?
Patience. I was in the Mavin academy for about a year. I’ve been building myself, allowing the best version of myself to unfold, and also being able to coexist with people in a working environment; all of it takes a lot of patience.
Some people spend two or more years at the academy before getting activated, but yours took just a year. What would you say prompted the label to push you out as early as they did?
I would say I just fell in that one-year category. But I think it has to do with preparation. You have to be prepared. There, it’s like a village square. You are allowed to make all the mistakes there without getting criticized. You will only get the feedback you need to become better. But once you come out to the market square to the audience, you have almost no room for mistakes.
How would you describe your aesthetics?
I’m a cool kid. I love to be very comfortable with what I wear. I’m a trap head. My melody has been influenced by a lot of trap – Juice WRLD, XXX Tentacion, Lil Uzi Vert; basically songs from the SoundCloud era. My sound is very relatable, I like to describe it as “fluid”. The reason is, water can blend with anything. Even where I come from – Port Harcourt, the type of music we make is “water music”, because water can take the shape of anything it is poured into and that is how I like to describe my music. I can tap into any emotion that we feel as human beings but it’s rooted in afrobeats. The base, the foundation is afrobeats. It’s how I vibe on it that makes it fluid.
How does songwriting happen for you?
Writing is a combination of my experience, stories I’ve heard and my imaginations. It doesn’t have to always be my stories. I also want to create experiences for people beyond what I feel. I want to create stories based on what other people can relate to too.
Are there other art forms you express through or would want to utilize in future?
I would love to act.
What would you say was the most challenging part of making Myth Era?
The songs on the project were part of the songs I recorded in the academy. I had recorded a bunch of songs in the academy and we had to select a few, based on the theme of the project. The selection of the final songs was the hardest part.
What is an Otula?
The backside of a woman’s figure. It’s an Igbo word. Everyone has their own lingua. Rema has used the word “Ikebe”, for Victony, it’s “Bumbum”. I just wanted something different and new.
This is the start of a new journey for you. At the end of this journey, what would give you that sense of fulfilment?
It’ll be after I have emptied myself. My goal is to leave this world empty. I don’t want to leave this world with a bunch of gifts inside me. I want a situation where the game wouldn’t be complete until you mention Cupid.
Itty can be caught studying African pop culture, writing about it or hosting a relationship podcast. When he's not doing any of these, then he's definitely at a bar, getting mocktail.
