On rage, friendships and personal identity: Fortune Igiebor opens up to Karma! Magazine in an exclusive interview ahead of his release “Love Chaser”
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Sadhbh: You have been naming yourself a vigilante maestro for a while ahead of this drop, where did that come from?
Fortune: It’s the direction I decided to take as an alter ego. Words other people have used to describe me is like something of a beacon of truth, a light of hope or something along those lines. I went with vigilante because there was something of a Robinhood ‑esque type of approach to my career. A vigilante is isn’t a hero nor a villain and Dublin is Gotham right now. At least that’s what we tried to paint it as when you listen to this new sound.
Sadhbh: Mr rage is also a name Dublin has given you the past year, your followers have become ragers and your gigs have had continuous mosh pits, is this something that will stick in this new era?
Fortune: Yeah its always something that has very rarely been a conscious effort. The songs moshpits happen to were never even made to be moshpits songs, it’s just something they’ve become and mr rage is something that I want to hold on to. Since I started making lRVM its been a question I get if I’ll keep it going and its not something I’m able to cut short after just a year, it has too much potential I think a new rage and Mr rage is something that can be classed worldwide and I’ll hold onto that title as long as I can.
Sadhbh: As the music industry is changing and growing into a high demand place for short form content has this affected you in the making of lRVM?
Fortune: I think for me it affects the paranoia process in songwriting especially. I like when a project can get to its point but building an atmosphere and a world around my project it takes more depth. More than the songs we see blow up on TikTok, a way we have combat that is changing the way we are telling the story. I try break things down and shorten them and give out Easter eggs. I had to accept things needed to be simplified these days for them to be taken in online so I’ll keep building depth and telling the same story but I had to simplify the way I was saying it . Now that we are giving lRVM and a new rage to the world and not just Ireland we had to give up being all sophisticated all the time but we will never pull back on creativity. Not a chance.
Sadhbh: You essentially painted the town red last year for a new rage. Now that you’re changing into a new sound are you progressing into a new colour ?
Fortune: That’s a really good question because as of right now its a morage of colours. Even the cover art has ten different things going on at once because that’s what I feel like and there’s so many different things and isssues going on in Dublin right now. Plus many different perspectives to look at but if I had to give it one colour it would be colours surrounding fire. LRVM conceptually came to life around the period of the Dublin riots. Two weeks prior we actually had a script written where a news reporter was saying ragers had rampaged the city and painted it red rioting for the sake of art and creativity. Just those colours of red and orange, fire all over the city was the constant reference of colour for LRVM for that reason. We’re still on the focus of painting the town red but there is a lot less anger and a lot more triumph now.
Sadhbh: You have hit number 1 a few times on the Irish charts, but can you tell me how it felt the first time?
Fortune: Yeah the first time was just last year when i dropped ‘walk without my old cain’. I had it written on my goals of 2023, I didn’t believe I could do it, it just seemed far fetched and I didn’t see anybody else do it. I didn’t know how but once I did my research and got a breakdown I saw it through steps . When it happened I woke up in Galway after playing a show, I was surrounded by my homies and it really felt like I was getting a trial run of what my future was holding and everybody was going crazy. We were saying it to everybody, even the workers in the hotel it was cool.
Sadhbh: Continuing on the topic of friendships, you have a strong community behind you built off a lot of relationships in the music and creative industry. Did you make them all through music or did you go into this with strong connections already?
Fortune: I have made them all through music. Every friend I have has come through music including my two right hand men: Dani and Five. Everything, every friend, everybody I’ve ever seen, or dated is all because I adamant on music and that’s why I’m so grateful I ever gave it a go. They all have completely influenced the art I have made and I realised the jump in quality in my work when I started taking their help rather than doing this alone and everything started to make sense.
Sadhbh: Do you have an example of music still out from the past that you did alone that comes to mind? Where can see the difference in quality compared to your work now?
Fortune:Yeah definitely, ‘Diva Darlins’ that was the first Spotify editorial playlist I ever got on but you can hear it in the way it sounds and the way I’m rapping there was no real expertise or passion there.
Sadhbh: Is there songs you have had on repeat while being in the process of making lRVM that we should add to our karma artist picks playlist?
Fortune: I have to give the love chaser sample which is ‘Working For The Man’ by PJ Harvey, ‘Vitamin C’ by cain and ‘Mercy‘ by Kanye West, Big Sean and all of those guys.
But if I ever had to introduce myself to the world by song it would be ‘Love Chaser’ my next single off LRVM.
‘We are reaching for the stars and aiming for the moon with this‘.
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