Now that Kaliber was over, the rest of us had to put the past behind us. It was now or never, and we all knew it. We needed one another, and we completed one another. DBKing was perhaps the best rapper and Livid was the best songwriter, while I was the best at melodies, catchphrases, and themes. The three of us needed one another in different ways to achieve our goals, so we had to work together. Livid and I needed DBKing as a producer, while he needed us as artists and songwriters, so we all continued to collaborate as solo artists while we each worked on our own albums.
We started again from scratch. We had no studio, so DB King converted his garbage shed into one, and we began working on new material. We were determined to build our solo careers together, but we had a kind of competition among us that could be both healthy and unhealthy given that it could possibly lead to resentment, jealousy and hurt feelings in the event I began to surpass him.
Livid and I created the first four songs with my traditional rap delivery for my EP in hopes of getting me signed to a major label. The first was called “Fundament” (“Foundation”), featuring Gilli and Young, who were upcoming artists at the same time we were. Gilli was from Copenhagen, while Young was from Århus, and both were popular artists in Denmark. The second song was called “Brorman” (“Bro”) and featured Livid, as well as MellemFingaMuzik and Sivas, who were also popular acts. The third song was called “Drømme” (“Dreams”), featuring Stepz, who was one half of MellemFingaMuzik. Other songs included “Nabolag” (“Neighborhood”), “Kometer” (“Comets”) with Livid and DBKing, and “Bomaye.”
“Bomaye” was much more melodic than anything I had ever made before. It was a whole new style for me, but I was afraid it was too flimsy and sweet. We sent the EP to Ali Sufi, who was the owner of Grounded, a Sony Music sublabel, where we chose “Brorman” as the lead single. Grounded/Sony offered me a contract with a non recoupable 30,000 DKK ($4600) signing fee and a 300,000 ($46,000) DKK marketing budget.
However, Sony did not think that “Brorman” should be the lead single. They all gravitated to “Bomaye” and thought “Fundament” should be the preview track before the EP was released in March 2016. “Fundament” created a strong expectation of what would be in store for my EP. Sony had high expectations, especially Ali, who signed me there. Just like Livid, he believed in me, my story, and my mission as a true artist.
It scared me because I didn’t see myself breaking through. I had tried for so many years and never succeeded. I was afraid to disappoint all those who had high expectations of me. I was afraid of being a flop and being dropped as abruptly as I had been signed. I would disappoint Ali, who had taken a chance on me; Livid, who had spent years of his life building up Sleiman as an artist; and my family, who were hoping and waiting for me to have just a little success for a change. I dreaded ending my career after only managing to release a solo single.
Everything I had done before hadn’t resonated on the streets yet. I dreaded the results when Sony chose to release “Bomaye” as the lead single. I got the same feeling in my body as I had during the show back in 2007 and when I had to release the song for my mother. I was afraid people would laugh at me and say, “Now he wants to not only rap but also sing and make melodies.”
At the same time, DB King began to make unreasonable and costly demands concerning my budget at Sony. He wanted an advance on royalties and 30,000 ($4600) for the beat, while the best producer at the time only charged somewhere in the region of 12,500 DKK ($1900). The original idea was to shoot the music video in Zanzibar, but he didn’t want to travel because he had a street shop, which he wouldn’t leave.
At the request of Sony, we included MellemFingaMuzik on the song instead of DB King and shot the music video in Marbella, Spain. Sony also suggested removing Livid from the song and inserting Gilli instead, but I couldn’t let that happen. We had created that song together before I was even signed. I considered giving it to DB King for fear of being ridiculed, but my family stood up and said no, even though they didn’t know anything about music. They thought it was my song and that I should stand by it. We released it as a single and the entire EP on March 12, while the video for “Bomaye” came out on March 18.
The first week after the EP was released went pretty well. I entered the top fifty in Denmark on Spotify and other music streaming services. It was the first time I had ever been on a hit list, let alone in the top fifty. I climbed up to the top twenty in a week. On the way to a radio spot on The Voice, Ali heard children in a schoolyard playing “Bomaye,” and he heard it blasting from other cars on the road as well. He was sure it was already a hit by then.
In just under a week, “Bomaye” was number one in Denmark with one hundred and eighty thousand streams a day. I held that position for six straight weeks. Before the month had passed, the song had gone gold after 4.5 million streams and was on its way to platinum, which is achieved after nine million streams.
I started being contacted by booking agencies, one of which was The Night, which was owned by Danish singer/songwriter and businessman Jon Nørgaard.
After I signed with The Night, Jon offered to take over my management for a payment of 20 percent of everything I earned from that day on. I signed with him, and he ended up getting me a better deal at Sony of about 2 million Krone ($305,000), plus an advance of 500,000 DKK ($76,000) from bookings.
Before long, my EP went gold after ten thousand albums were sold. Shortly afterward, it went platinum in Denmark with twenty thousand sold. “Bomaye” now has over 11 million views on YouTube. After years of false starts, disappointments, and doubting myself, I was finally seeing real progress.