Laycon is one of the most popular celebrities in Nigeria. His fame began to spread like wildfire after winning the Big Brother Naija season 5 (also known as lockdown edition) in October 2020. Olamilekan Agbeleshebioba, is not only recognized as a reality show winner, but he is also a rapper, singer, songwriter, and media personality. As an entertainer Laycon is generally eulogized by many people because of his versatility and his display of intellectualism.
In this piece, we give you all you need to know about Laycon’s background, career, lifestyle, and net worth.
Background and education
Born as Olamilekan Massoud Al-Khalifah Agbeleshebioba on November 8, 1993, in Lagos, Laycon is originally a native of Baluwen, Odeda, Ogun state, in the southwestern part of Nigeria. He had his primary and secondary education in Lagos, although the identity of his primary and secondary schools is unknown. He later applied to study philosophy at the University of Lagos in 2012, where he graduated with a second-class upper in 2016.
Laycon has always been recognised for his ability to coin words and blend them among his peers while growing up. Due to this, he started singing at a tender age, rapping and writing songs. He was one of ten artists that performed at the 2014 Coke studio at the University of Lagos.
Life and music career
Before graduating from university, Laycon had already started his career as an intern, serving as the personal assistant to the Managing Director of Latjum Global Nigeria Limited. Following his graduation in 2016, he later went on to work as a business and sales personnel at Bestman Games, Ikoyi, Lagos. After working for two months as a sales developer, he became a personal assistant to the assistant director of welfare in information and human resources at Lagos state ministry of information and strategy.
In 2017, Laycon began his professional music journey by coming up as one of the top ten finalists of the MTV Base LSB challenge. This achievement took him to the limelight of the Nigerian music industry as a promising and potential superstar. Now more easily recognisable, Laycon was signed to the Fierce Nation record label in 2019. He released his debut track ‘Fierce’, featuring Chinko Ekun and Reminisce in his EP Who is Laycon? to seal his record deal with the label and introduce himself to the music world. “I put out an EP last year titled Who is Laycon? Just for the sole purpose of people discovering who I am” he said in his interview with Okay Africa in 2020.
Just a few months after the release of his EP, he dropped another single titled ‘senseless’. On January 30, 2021, Layconwas featured by Mr. Real in the remix of a song titled ‘Baba Fela’- a song that later became one the street jam. Two additional singles — Wagwan and Fall For Me (ft YKB) were added to his collection in March 2021.
Laycon eventually released his debut album Shall We Begin on April 30, 2021. The album went to charts in over 30 countries. He collaboratively worked with big Nigerian artists like Teni, Mayorkun, and Joeboy among others. Since the release of the album, Laycon has earned more accolades in the music world as a master of Afrobeat.
As an expression of his stardom, Laycon admitted that his debut album was a discovery for him. “The process of creating the album was a wonderful moment for me. I have discovered a whole lot about my musical abilities” he said in one of his interviews.
Big Brother Naija season 5
Laycon joined Big Brother Naija, a popular annual reality show, as the nineteenth contestant on July 19, 2020. He positioned himself as the most popular and the fans’ favorite of the show. As a piece of evidence to his likeable character as a contestant in the show, Laycon became the first housemate to have 1 million followers on Instagram while he was still contesting. Likewise, as a crown to his kingship, he was the first housemate to get verified on the same Instagram. Not only that. As a massive boost, a lot of celebrities spearheaded different kinds of campaigns to make him emerge as the winner of the reality show.
Meanwhile, Laycon was declared the winner of the big brother reality show on September 27, 2020. He emerged as the record winner of the show by garnering 60% of the votes cast. In addition to winning the 85 million Naira cash prize, he won more money from the various tasks he and his fellow BBN participants were asked to carry out while he was on the show.
Laycon’s awards and achievements
Just a month after winning the big brother reality show, Laycon was appointed as the youth ambassador by Dapo Abiodun, the Ogun state governor. He also went ahead to become a brand ambassador to many products like GoTV, Oppo Nigeria, Orijin, and Mento Fresh among others.
Laycon has also won some awards to grace his music career. In 2020, the City People musician was honored with a special recognition award. He also won the best artiste at the 2020 African Entertainment Award USA. His EP ‘who is laycon’ was awarded the Naijatraffic Awards EP/ album of the year, while he won the best artiste of the year. In 2021, Laycon was picked as the most popular BBNaija star.
Laycon’s net worth
Although no official declaration of Laycon’s net worth has been made, the media has reported that he is worth $500,000. As one of the richest and most influential media personalities and artists in Nigeria, his worth does not come as a surprise.
Laycon’s songs
As stated earlier, Laycon has showcased his musical proficiency, and he deserves some appraisal for that. Some of the songs released by Laycon are listed below.
- Fall for me ft KYB
- Fierce ft Chinko Ekun & Reminisce
- Verified ft Mayorkun
- Nobody
- Hip-hop
- Wagwan
- Underrated
- Drunk in love
- Kele ft Joeboy
- Come with me
- Rise up
- Senseless
- Motivation ft Tinu
- Want you back ft Teni
- God body
- Accolades ft Yusuf Kan Bai
- All over me
- Selfish
- Narcos
- No know
- Ride
- Angry birds
- Monrovia
- My lane
- Jeje
- The question
- Dues
- B.B.W
- Filthy intro
- And so they spoke
- Bam Bam
- Hip hop
Laycon’s controversy
While he was on the BBNaija reality show, Laycon made a shocking revelation about his health status, revealing that he suffers from a mild form of sickle cell anemia. This revelation generated lots of controversy on social media with some fans supporting him and others believing it was a ploy to get ‘sympathy votes’ on the show. Speaking to Vee, another housemate, he also revealed that if he doesn’t take care of himself, his health could deteriorate.
Laycon and Nengi
Just immediately after the BBNaija reality show, Laycon confirmed a long term rumour about his attraction to Nengi, another contestant in the house. Laycon made this knowni on an Instagram live chat, adding that his fondness of Nengi was not because of her body but for her smartness and her wonderful personality. “First of all you people should not think that it’s just because of yanshi that Nengi exists. You see that girl Nengi, she is a wonderful person and has a lot of sense. She is a beauty with brains so I would really like it if you guys would stop referring to her just by her body.” Laycon said.
As for Nengi, she did not deny her fondness of Laycon. She however clarified that she was only interested in Laycon’s personality. “I just like Laycon kind of person, I just like the fact that when we go to the party he can dance with me.” Nengi said.
Conclusion
From his childhood, Laycon dreamt of stardom in the music industry. To achieve his dream, he left no stones unturned in his chosen career. Thanks to providence, having gone through a lot to reach this stage of his career, he keeps on aiming and shooting higher.