JZyNO: Liberian singer on Butta My Bread success

He credits his friends for giving him the courage to pursue music

JZyNO has done it. His song Butta My Bread is a huge hit - it has been downloaded more than 160 million streams across all platforms and becoming the biggest Afrobeats tune out of Liberia to date.

The song features Ghanaian artist Lasmid, and it was recorded in Ghana, where JZyNO spends much of his time.

"The process of Butta My Bread was crazy. We didn't see it coming, that was not the song we had in mind to record when we were about to go to the studio, but Lasmid and I just came up with that song," he tells me.

"I was in a hurry to travel to Liberia so I'm like: 'Bro, this is it - the song is great, that's it.'

"I knew the song was a big song in myself, but not that it was going to blow the world, I didn't see that coming."

JZyNO has worked hard for this success.

He moved to Ghana first as a student, paying his way through football.

But when that didn't work out as a career, he found himself spending time with friends on the street who were into rap and hung out around music studios.

"I started having interest because they all used to hail me, like: 'Bro you're dope, you're special.'

"So I was like: 'Since they're giving me the courage, let me pay attention to this music thing and start learning about it'."

He started recording songs using small headphones and a computer. By 2018 he started getting noticed, and returned to Liberia where he had his first hit song Kpan Kpan Me in 2019.

"During coronavirus time there were not many artists that dropped projects, so I think there was space - some holes - that made my song blow in Liberia," he says modestly.

JZyNO later moved back to Ghana, deciding that the music industry in Liberia did not have the structure he needed to support the next phase of his career.

"It's been tough out here in Ghana," he says.

"They have received me as their own - but definitely as a Liberian I have to put in more work. Nobody's gonna wake up and push you!"

But JZyNO does feel he has someone very big on his side, confessing: "I got inspired by Kendrick Lamar to do music."

"I've had dreams about him five different times already. He gave me the microphone to freestyle at his concert - imagine he was in my city when he did that in my dream!

"So God uses him through dreams to make me what I am right now. That's funny, but it's real for me, Kendrick Lamar is a prophet to me."

Hear the full interview with JZyNO on BBC World Service radio and partner stations across Africa, and online here.