TORONTO – A Toronto hip-hop artist is creating TikTok hits by channeling his mental health struggles, spawning hundreds of thousands of videos set to his anthem about being “sad with pizzazz.”
Akintoye Asalu, who goes by his first name as a musician and @yeahitsak on TikTok, has amassed 2.5 million followers on the video-sharing platform for his candid songs about dealing with anxiety and depression.
His latest hit, “Pizzazz,” has taken the 22-year-old to new heights as TikTok users have put their own spin on the upbeat sound in more than 300,000 short-form videos.
Many of these videos riff on the lyric, “If I’mma be sad, I’mma do it with pizzazz,” sometimes with wry captions that sub in the last word for “garlic bread,” “his other girlfriends” or “without my dad.”
Asalu says the song, which has been streamed roughly two million times on Spotify, speaks to a strain of pandemic-era ennui that has conditioned people to make the best of bad situations.
He says social media has levelled the relationship between artist and audience in a way that allows him to draw inspiration from his fans as he shows them his true self.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 5, 2022.
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