Cerebral Slake

Cerebral Slake, also known as C-Slake or Slake, is a Nigerian recording artiste and songwriter. He finished 8th in the Radio Palmwine Rap Mixtape competition in 2011 and followed it up with the release of his first single titled Move Over. Since then, Slake has gone on to feature on many songs while also releasing three EPs. He took part in Don Jazzy's Enigma Rap Competition.
Early life
Cerebral Slake was born in Lagos, Nigeria. His mother had him enrolled to take Piano classes when he was in elementary school and he fell in love with music. During his formative years, he was heavily influenced by Westlife, Backstreet Boys, 50 Cent, Linkin Park, 2pac, Nas, Eminem, Six Pence None the Richer and more.
Career
Cerebral Slake began his music career in 2011.
On July 23, 2011, Slake submitted an entry for Don Jazzy's Enigma competition. He released it to the public and got mixed reviews. He re-recorded his entry and released it to the public once again. The comments were largely positive.
In November 2011, he entered the Radio Palmwine Rap Mixtape Competition where he was named into the Top 10. He finished 8th after two weeks of fan voting. This meant that his entry was included in the mixtape released by the organisers of the competition.
On November 29, 2011, he released a freestyle over Drake's Lord Knows instrumental. The track went on to get over 1,500 digital downloads, in total, on various music sites and blogs.
On January 20, 2012, Slake released his first single titled Move Over. It got over 3,000 digital downloads, in total, on various music sites and blogs.
On March 25, 2012, he collaborated with fellow finalists of the Radio Palmwine competition, Juzt Courage and Jorge D Best. They rapped over Lil Wayne's 'She Will' instrumental and the track was called Killing 'Em. Slake's verse earned him praise from well-known music writer and critic, Ehiscombs.
On July 14, 2012, Slake was featured on the second single off rapper DamZ Carter's Carter'Lyst mixtape, a track called High Power, which also featured another rapper, Dope Ferrari. They rapped over Kendrick Lamar's 'HiiiPoWer' instrumental. Again, Slake received acclaim for his verse. Days later, he was on a Jorge D Best's posse cut titled Eruku Wole which featured seven rappers altogether. He later appeared on another track on DamZ Carter's mixtape which was released in September 2012.
2012-2013: The RIDD.I.CC Double EP
In 2012, Slake began writing and creating music for an unnamed project. He hinted at a possible EP to be released that year. On June 15, 2012, he mentioned the name of the project for the first time, via his Twitter account. Due to some difficulties recording the EP, he postponed the release till 2013. He announced that he would release a double EP rather than just one.
In early 2013, the project started to take shape. On February 9, 2013, Slake released the first single off the EP titled CKN II. The single earned him rave reviews upon release and garnered over 5,000 digital downloads. On March 10, 2013, he released the next single titled Tres Renegatus featuring rappers Ray-Ray and Zuki of Pro-Inc. The third single from the project was released on April 15, 2013, titled Friends With Benefits. It was produced by TmE. Another single was released on May 11, 2013 titled Slave, which featured frequent collaborator Juzt Courage and Benin-based producer Charms.
On June 29, 2013, Slake released the final single from the coming project. The song, Trippy, was produced by Oji. It was his best received single and he received a lot of praise for it on Twitter.
On November 26, 2013, Slake released the two EPs via his blog. The RIDD.I.CC Double EP was split into two EPs; The Recluse in Drowsy Doldrums EP and Cerebro Cyborg EP, both of which could be downloaded separately but still made sense as a single project linked together by an Interlude "I". The project was generally well-received but there were many complaints about the mixing and mastering of the project. Slake apologised for this and explained via his Twitter account that he faced a lot of problems with the sound engineers for the project, as they repeatedly ruined or lost his work. He further added that he had to improvise and go ahead with the release as scheduled, as he had already announced a release date and did not want to push the project further. He later deleted the tweets.
Despite the relative success of all the released singles, the two EP projects flopped badly. Slake struggled to come to terms with the reality and went on a hiatus.
2015-2017: EliXir EP
In January 2015, after more than a year without releasing music, Slake released a single titled Aspanu off his soon-to-be-released EP titled EliXir: The Randoms. The name of the single was inspired by from Mario Puzo's The Sicilian. The track earned him a lot of praise from Nigerian hip hop fans, with many describing the track as Slake's best effort. Hip Hop Writer, Fazillion of Nigerian Sounds, described Slake as an "exciting underground rapper" with a "rich bevy of concepts". He pointed out that "there is room for improvement, on his flow, and sometimes choice of beats" and that "he needs to be a bit calmer on the mic". He added, "all in all, he is one promising MC that real (hip hop) heads should keep an eye on".
On March 2, 2013, Slake released another single titled State Of Emergency (S.O.E). It was a cover of Immortal Technique's Harlem Streets. Once again, Fazillion praised Slake for releasing a "solid rap song" and "showing a lot of improvement".
On October 29, 2015, Slake released a third single titled GTFOH featuring Benin-based rapper, J.O.
After postponing release of the project indefinitely, Slake finally released the 8-track EP without notice in February 2017 via his SoundCloud account.
Discography
Extended Plays
* The Recluse in Drowsy Doldrums (2013)
* Cerebro Cyborg (2013)
* EliXir: The Randoms (2017)

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See Also

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