“It’s been a few years coming,” reflects Offica – aged 23, yet speaking with the sage-like wisdom and focus of an artist twice his age. “But we’re nearly there.”

The Drogheda rapper’s personal philosophy has been shaped by his own lived experience, as a Nigerian-born immigrant in Ireland, but also by external forces – including the stories told, and the lessons learned, from anime series Naruto. Like the RZA of Wu-Tang Clan before him, who found similar meaning in the kung-fu films that defined his younger years, Offica’s entire artistic world has been shaped by the Japanese series and its lore.

“I watched a lot of Naruto, and I just had to put it in there,” he tells me. “Naruto’s more than an animation. It tells a story, and relates to certain areas of my life as well. With God’s grace, I’m trying to go to Japan, and see what’s going on there. I really connect with that culture.”

Offica, currently sitting in the Hot Press office fresh from a photoshoot, is, in many respects, a unique force in Irish music. He found almost instant stardom four years ago, with the video for his breakthrough single ‘Naruto Drillings’ clocking up millions of views. His streaming success continued across subsequent tracks, including releases as part of his Drogheda-based collective, A92. Their freestyle for Fumez the Engineer’s Plugged In series, for instance, boasts over 112 million Spotify streams, and a further 53 million views on YouTube.

But, as Offica states on more than one occasion throughout his debut mixtape, Hokage, he didn’t necessarily ask for any of this.

“I wasn’t meant to be doing this, but I’m here,” he states. “That’s what makes me, me. I just do it. I wanted to be a footballer, but things didn’t work out. Back then, to me, music was just about singing – I never thought I’d be a rapper.”

But he’s not the only musical one in his family. His sister, Victoria Adeyinka – one of the country’s most popular online personalities – has also released a string of singles as a recording artist.

“I used to tell my sister, ‘Ugh, stop singing!’” Offica laughs. “Back then I was doing so well in football, and she was doing music, and I remember us having this argument. I was like, ‘You’re always singing, but you haven’t gotten anywhere with it! I’m playing football, I’ve gone to England, I’m doing this and this…’ And she’d be so angry. And now I’m doing music. It’s weird.”

Family means a lot to Offica, he says. It was the central focus of his graduation celebrations last month, having completed his degree programme at Maynooth University.

“We knew it was coming, so we’d kind of celebrated already,” he tells me. “Getting the certificate was just a bonus. But as a Nigerian boy coming from Lagos, getting a degree is massive. That’s the main goal, when your parents bring you to Europe.”

Did other students on the course clock who was sitting next to them in lectures?

“Certain people did,” he acknowledges. “Obviously I’d be in classes with 80 or 90 students, so most people didn’t know. But it was when I had to do group work that people would clock it – because we had to use WhatsApp to communicate with each other in groups, and they’d see my profile picture. They’d be like, ‘Oh, are you…?’ And I’d be like, ‘Yeah…’

“They were really good to me, but don’t get it wrong – I didn’t get a pass in the group projects, just because they knew who I was!” he adds. “I actually had to do my work.”

This is a time of serious change for Offica, with both his graduation and the release of his mixtape landing within a few weeks of each other. He tells me that Hokage was the result of a sudden rush of creativity – which came unexpectedly, after a period of uncertainty.

“Towards the end of last year,” he recalls, “my team spoke to me, and were like, ‘Okay, we need to make a tape – what’s the idea?’ We were brainstorming, and I literally told them: ‘I haven’t a clue. I don’t know.’ And I’m not sure what happened, but January came, and I found myself making music, making music, making music… It all just came together.

“It’s crazy,” he continues. “I literally only made the song ‘Living Proof’ a month or so ago, and it’s already out.”

That single finds the rapper embracing a compellingly new introspective approach.

“That’s the thing – on this tape I feel people will see that side of me,” he nods. “‘Living Proof’ meant a lot to me. It’s probably my favourite song that I’ve made so far.

“And that was probably the most direct messages I’ve got about a single,” he says of the track. “Someone texted me the other day, saying, ‘This song made me go back to college.’ I got a lot of messages from my close mates as well. Because you’d be surprised – my mates don’t really text me about music. So when people actually say, ‘Bro, that one felt different’, you know you’ve hit something.”

The mixtape also finds him reflecting on his sense of identity, as a Nigerian-born Irishman.

“I haven’t been there in ages, so I can’t wait to go back,” he says of Lagos. “But it’s crazy – in Ireland I’m a foreigner, and when I go back there, I’m a foreigner. So it’s like, where do I really belong?

“If you move to Europe, they automatically think you’re doing very well for yourself,” he continues. “Because that’s the main goal. If you ask anyone in Nigeria – they want to go to Europe, and they want to have a better life. So me doing what I’m doing is crazy to them.

“But the mixtape is split into two parts, so we’re going to do a launch party over in Nigeria for the second half of the tape, because that’s more Afrobeats,” he adds.

Though Offica first gained prominence as a drill rapper, he’s been steadily making efforts to break out of that box, and further embrace elements of Afrobeat.

“In general, I don’t really listen to drill,” he reveals. “I feel like people can tell that. Even the way I pick beats… It’s very musical. There’ll be violins and stuff like that. I’m just trying to see what works for me, and I’m trying a lot of new things. I’m down to experiment, so that’s what I’m doing now.”

Having featured on Clondalkin rapper Selló’s acclaimed mixtape, Sellótape, last year, Offica feels that there’s a strong community in Irish rap. He’s also a fan of Dublin-based duo TraviS X Elzzz and their Gliders crew. His main competition in Ireland though?

“A92!” he laughs.

But his career hasn’t been without its “bad stuff too”, Offica tells me – like “the beef, the fighting…”

He and A92 have made no secret of their rivalries with a few other acts on the Irish drill scene in the past.

“Everybody has people they don’t like in this life,” Offica shrugs. “But it’s not too serious.”

It was serious enough for his mother to chime in though. He reveals that she’s a supportive fan, but she also lets him know where he “could tweak certain stuff” in his lyrics.

“She knows about our problems with people from Dublin and stuff like that,” he says. “She’s fully aware. She just doesn’t want me calling out people.”

Of course, there’s been plenty of “good stuff” too, he acknowledges, like playing the Main Stage at Longitude, and hitting the charts with A92’s Plugged In freestyle.

Offica at Longitude 2022. Copyright Miguel Ruiz.

Hokage also offers an insight into just how far Offica’s come in such a short period of time – mentioning on ‘I Know’ that in 2018, just before his viral success, he was working for fruit distributor Keelings.

“I was in the warehouse,” he recalls. “You’re not meant to do this, but I had my AirPods in, my cap on, and this little hoody they give you, up. I’d be packing fruit, but while I was doing that, I was mumbling to beats.”

With his profile constantly growing, Offica recognises that his responsibilities have shifted considerably since those days.

“Obviously I can’t do things the way I used to,” he nods. “But I feel like I’m still myself.”

But like other leading figures in the Irish rap and drill scene, the scope of Officia’s vision is impressively expansive – and it isn’t just limited to music.

“There’s different avenues to make money, but the main thing is building the brand,” he states. “We already have the foundation. We just have to keep growing – and see what happens…”

• Hokage: Pt. 1 is out now.