Brian Toritseju Edwards, who records under the mononym INK, is a Nigerian recording artist, rapper, singer and songwriter. He was born in Lagos (Nigeria), and first garnered recognition for his rap verse in Essence’s 2012 single “Orin”. He later rose to prominence as a singer, releasing several songs late 2012 like “Feeling Your P” and “You’re The Best”, soon after officially signing to Ain’t Nothin’ Illa (A.N.I.) entertainment (owned by Mr. Harry Ojuyah and Mr. Robert “Da Robstar” Edwards) in December 2012, with label-mate Halle.

Early 2013 saw INK’s first hit release "My Medley", which was a smooth mash up rendition of some popular songs (“M.I - Number one”, “Iyanya - Kukere”, “Ice Prince - Aboki”, “D’prince - Goody Bag”, Drake – Take Care) over Drake’s “Marvin’s Room” instrumental remade by Austin Celeya and edited by Ink’s producer and long time friend Galactic Beatz, a song which would later in the year become very popular. Ink first perfomed "My Medley" on March 2nd at Iyanya’s album launch concert at the Expo center, Eko hotel, Lagos. "My Medley" enjoyed massive radio airplay towards the end of the year and was The Beat 99.9fm’s celebrity OAP, Toolz’s song of the week (week starting 11th November). As that happened in Lagos "My Medley" was being played on radio stations in other parts of the country, cities like Benin, Port-Harcourt, Abuja, Kano and Enugu. It even crossed shores and was recognized on The African Radio Show on US Radio (IntlVybz on #wcdb) 90.9fm, what wasn’t tagged as a single clearly had become INK’s break out song.

 
Before all this came midway through the year Ink dropped a single “Show Me” which featured Tu-Face’s Hypertek signed artist Dammy Krane and was produced by Deevee. The up-tempo club record enjoyed moderate success but was left in the shadows by "My Medley". On the original promotional cd "My Medley" was listed as track two, with “Show Me” being the lead song but this didn’t stop the radio and fans from drawing even more to Ink’s medley. On august 5th, Ink released “Show Me (Piano)” which was a piano cover of the chorus on “Show Me”. The song was released exclusively on INK’s webpage (www.reverbnation.com/inkedwards) where it all started for him years ago, as many complained about the length (49seconds) saying it was delightful but too short. Ink himself once spoke about the length while replying a fan on social media and hinted an extended version being in the works, although it hasn’t been released till date.

 
Moving on and at this time basking in the unrelenting success of his first medley, Ink on his birthday November 17th released two songs, “M.I2 Medley” and “Niggas I Know”. The second medley which was a beautiful rendition of select songs on Mr Incredible’s M.I2 album over well laid piano chords, this time originally produced by Galactic Beatz. “Niggas I Know” also produced by Galactic Beatz was a hiphop arrangement which Ink showed his diversity on, attacking it with reggae inspired verses.

At this point Ink had gotten the attention of his mentor M.I abaga who had heard his music from Toolz and on November 22nd tweeted “Big shout out to the most talented artist I have heard in a while!!! inkedwards.. #bless.. Also.. toolzo thanks for playing me his stuff!”. Few weeks later, Ink was in the studio with M.I, what he took to twitter to describe as an “idol moment”. As the year drew to a close, Ink had more buzz than ever before and was nominated amongst the finalists for the 2013 Headies Rookie of the Year Award (alongside Kola Soul, Axterix, Lil miss miss and Pucado).

On the 25th of December 2013, Ink was announced the winner of the award, dwarfing his opposition by amassing over half of the total votes. The 2013 Rookie of the Year was slated to perform at the event as this privileged came with winning the coveted award but due to what Ink described as “a really huge mix-up and communication issues”, he didn’t perform on the night to the disappointment of many. He and his management team (led by his manager Adedayo Showemimo) granted just one interview on the subject to “This Day newspaper” and it was published on the 11th of January. All in all, the now 20years old singer took to his twitter on the 31st of December 2013 to describe the year that was as “Amazing”.

Did you know Ink went to Dansol High School at Agidingbi, Ikeja?