Ghanaian musician Odeneho, known professionally as OD4EVA, has officially launched his music career with his debut professional single, Iconic, while introducing what he describes as an “Afro Life” creative world.

Speaking on Asaase Café on Friday (21 Friday), the artiste explained that the name OD4EVA was derived from his traditional title, Odeneho, a name he said people in his neighbourhood gave him because of his resourcefulness.

“People didn’t want to see the whole thing no more. So, it just became OD,” he said.

He added the “forever” to the name to signify his long-term commitment to music.

“I put the forever attached to it because this is what I’m doing for life,” he said.

Although music has always been part of his life, OD4EVA said he initially treated it as a hobby, choosing banking as his main profession and source of income.

“I have always had music, and I never really took it seriously because it was like a fun thing. I love to do music. So, anything I go through in life, I put it in a melody or in a song,” he said.

“Banking, my bread and butter. I did that for a while because that was like my national service. So, I did that for a while and I’m done and now it’s music.”

OD4EVA said his decision to pursue music professionally was influenced partly by his experiences performing live and learning more about the business side of the industry.

He recalled an encounter with someone who, after watching him perform, encouraged him to consider music as a business and gave him a book that introduced him to areas such as copyright and sync licensing.

He subsequently began testing the commercial potential of his music through earlier releases.

Those songs, he explained, were intended to “test out the waters”, while Iconic, released on August 7, 2026, represents his professional debut.

“My first song, I was like, you know what? If this song can even bring a dollar, I would try and consider this as a business,” he said.

“It did. It brought me some couple of dollars and I was like, okay, if I focus and try and make it work, it will work.”

According to OD4EVA, Iconic was inspired partly by his experiences with friends shopping for clothes at Accra’s Kantamanto market.

He said they often visit the market early in the morning to source clothing and were struck by the creativity of young people who transformed rejected or discarded garments into stylish outfits.

The experience inspired him to create what he described as an anthem celebrating that creativity and resourcefulness.

“Anytime we’re finding clothes, we notice the boys at Kantamanto, they are the flyest people,” he said.

He said the song subsequently evolved beyond fashion into a broader reflection on Ghanaian ingenuity and pride.

Through Iconic, he said, he wanted to celebrate Ghanaians’ ability to make something out of very little, while also drawing on the symbolism of Ghana’s Black Star.

“I wanted to create sorta like an anthem for that. But through my lyrics, I ended up writing things about how Ghanaians are resourceful,” he said.

Rather than describing Afro Life strictly as a music genre, OD4EVA sees it as a broader creative world built around collaboration.

Sonically, he describes his music as a fusion of hiplife, highlife and Afrobeats, with individual songs leaning more heavily towards one influence than another.

“Afro Life is more of a world than a genre,” he explained.

He said the concept also reflects his belief in bringing together creatives from different disciplines and allowing each person to contribute through their own craft.

His creative director, Jerry, contributes through visual direction, while fashion designer Sharp Threads expresses the concept through clothing.

“Sometimes we would take stories from each and everybody and then I am the musician. I just put it in the middle,” OD4EVA said.

“Sometimes it’s not my story. Sometimes it’s my story.”

That collaborative philosophy extends to the production of Iconic. The instrumental was produced by Chilling on the Beat, while Liquid Beats handled the recording and mastering.

OD4EVA said he does not follow a fixed songwriting formula.

While he previously wrote lyrics whenever he was travelling and not driving, he said many of the songs he has released have instead emerged spontaneously after hearing an instrumental.

“I don’t have a formula for how I write,” he said. “I’ll hear the instrumental and I’ll write something.”

He described himself as currently being in an experimental phase, using different types of content to determine what resonates with his audience.

For now, he said listeners can expect a steady stream of content around Iconic, followed by a concert planned for October, although he has not yet disclosed the date.

“This is the Iconic season we are in,” he said. “I am in experimental mood. I don’t know what works. So I’m just feeding people with crazy content to see what sticks.”

For OD4EVA, however, the experiment extends beyond music. His broader ambition is to build Afro Life into a lifestyle and creative community that brings music, fashion, visual art and other forms of expression together.

“Afro Life is a lifestyle,” he said. “Afro Life is forever.”