Born Michael Iyanuoluwa Akingboye, the Nigerian-American rapper has his name and destiny already written on his surname: ‘A-king-boy-e’. “So basically a boy who is a king is a Prince, right? So I took the terminology for myself”, tells Prince Slime to The Dank Project.

“Slime” on the other hand is a street slang for bro/homie. “Finding an artistic name is building your alter ego. I had Prince, what else to add? Slime. I’m the Prince of all the Slimes.”

That is the origin of the 26 year old musician's artistic name. Focusing on his musical career since 2019, Slime can’t actually remember when he wasn’t rapping.

“Music is an universal language and it’s art. I knew it was something I wanted to do since I was 8 years old. I wanted to be a rapper, I wanted to be an artist.”

Raised in Houston since when born, Slime lived surrounded by hip hop culture. “Back then is where the base of hip hop happened. When you think about rap, you would think about Huston”, explained Michael. “You become a product of your own environment. I grew surrounded by gangs and hard situations. It is not easy being black in America. The only thing that would bring everyone together, no matter what, is music.”

Completing 12 years old, the American rap scene was what he called home. However at that age, his family was relocated to Nigeria - and that is where a big culture shock happened. Used to making friends easily and starting to rap with them, Slime saw himself surrounded by an environment's traditional music that centers more around rhythm and dance rather than lyrics.

Reaching High School was when he finally found his crew in the mother-land and started to freestyle rap and create his music again. “You know what? I have been doing music since forever, that is the truth!”

Finishing High School and facing the necessity of finding a career path, Slime was conflicted with what to choose as a career. At the time, playing soccer was his main goal. The plan was to go professional and study with a good athlete scholarship somewhere out of Nigeria.

“I thought about London, France, Italy or so. There were too many obstacles. Language barrier, adding a year on High School in some places, and etc. My mom brought the idea of Turkey. At that point, I never even considered Turkey! I knew some soccer teams here though, so my main thought was: why not?”

That is how the musician, model, stylist, athlete and newly dad switched lanes again and ended up in Istanbul. Arriving here was another big cultural shock, and as any Istanbuler would agree, Michael saw himself experiencing all the random but spontaneous opportunities such a big city has to offer and ended up considering applying to his masters for another career path that grew naturally on him: Fashion Business.

Being a different face in town, he booked gigs as a model and stylist and wanted to focus on that. Two years ago however, all his passions became one when he was featured on MDT’s song, Clouds, along with TrillassFranky.

“I saw so much positive reaction from people after this feature, for me it was just normal rapping with friends. People came at me telling me I was looking cool and they liked the vibe, so I was like: ok, cool. Why don’t I just actually start making music here? I have a lot to tell.”

That is when the trial and error to produce his own music started. As any good artist, the engine start is what matters the most - but it takes some time for the flow to stabilize. “I was dropping music and deleting. I was still very caught up with the fashion scene and I felt a little unsure about the whole thing.”

“So I was like: you know what? I’m gonna mix both. I rap about my fashion style as well. I style myself and others in my videos. I want to be known for my whole identity.”

His first official single release is called “Young Boy” and opened the doors to many other singles and videos to happen after that.

One of his latest releases is also his favorite song, where he also features the Nigerian rapper Rmsxchxp0 - All the Smoke. “What I’m trying to do in Turkey is to be that one guy that will feature with Turkish artists as well. I want to put Turkey on the map of music, you know? Not just locally, I’m talking about the world. That can be done with collaborations, with features and so on. I want to match different cultures and vibes, express that in a song, in a video, and produce real art.” For the foreseeable future we can expect 2 new features with Turkish Artists.

As for many creators, the uncertainty of the world brought a lot of doubts between how good or how bad you can spend your time nowadays. Prince Slime focuses on creating his identity and making sure it is a strong one to fight for a good producing deal.

“I know what I can do is gold. Now I need someone to see that. We rise by uplifting each other.”

The plan is to never stop producing. Just last week, Prince Slime released his latest single “No Kizzy”. He won’t stop on singles - the plan is to release two albums within 2021: “They Kall Me Slime” & “Heartbreak Slime”.

You can find Prince Slime on Youtube, Spotify, SoundCloud and Apple Music. To follow up with his agenda and extremely good sense of fashion, you can also find him on Instagram.