Most people know the feeling Timothee speaks of, where things are moving and life looks fine from the outside, but somewhere underneath, something does not sit quite right. You have probably always known what it is, but knowing something and facing it are two different things, and it is easier to keep going than to stop and deal with what you already understand to be true.
Timothee Ideh stopped.
For years, he built as OT Vibez, making music, growing a following, committing to the grind. From the outside, it looked like momentum. From the inside, it was something else, a growing awareness that the person and the music were not yet in the same place. “It’s more like underground work,” he says. “Like when there’s a construction and nobody sees what’s going on until they show you the finished building.”
What was being built was a version of himself he had been running from. He knew what he believed. He knew what he wanted his life to represent. But knowing something and doing it are also two different things, and for a long time, the gap between them stayed open. Then, one day, it closed. He gave his life fully to Jesus, not as a pivot or a rebrand, but as the final arrival of something he had been quietly moving toward for longer than he could fully explain.
Born Again, a four-track EP rooted in Afrosoul and Afrogospel, came from that place. It is more a documentation than a declaration, an honest account of what happens when you stop running from what you already know, and what you find when you finally turn around.
Timothee told us the story behind that story.
Before we get into the EP, who are you right now, and how would you describe where you are?
I’m at the reverse of myself, and it’s more like I’ve come to realise myself more right now. I’m the me I’ve been running away from.
If you walked into a room and were asked to introduce yourself without using your name, what would you say?
I’m a kind person. I’m an affectionate person. I’m a very positive person. I’m a happy person. I just love staying happy.
You were already building and establishing yourself as OT Vibez. What was going on during that time that people on the outside couldn’t see?
I think what was going on was just a change. Internal change. I would still call this current phase a process because we never really get to the end point, we just keep evolving. From being OT Vibez, it was just underground work. More like when there’s a construction, and nobody sees the construction going on until they show you the finished building. The work has been going on. Change in every area of my life, in my personality.
There are questions most of us keep avoiding because the answers would require us to change something. What were yours?
The question for me was: Do you feel fulfilled? If I’d been asked that at that time, I would not have been able to answer it. Because inside of me, I just knew something was going on. I was always in my quiet time, praying about it, monitoring myself, checking to be sure that I was at the place where I really wanted to be.
And how about now?
Now? I don’t think there’s any question I run away from now.
Many people feel that tension between what their life looks like and what it feels like on the inside, but they just keep moving anyway. What made you stop?
Music is a part of me. It’s something that I don’t feel alive if I don’t do. So I always wanted to make sure something was making me so attached to the music. Something that makes me feel like yes, I’m really here, I really want to do this, and I’m feeling good doing it. I kept praying that this is how I want to feel when I’m making music, I really want to feel fulfilled when I’m making music. That desire kept pressing on me until I had to stop and actually face it.
How did you and music find each other in the first place?
Music found me in my house. I can say my house is a house of music. My sister does music, from church, the choir. My brother is also in the choir. I just met music growing up. I was born into it. Everybody just likes to sing. I grew up just loving to sing, so I joined the choir. Sometimes we would just be at home, and my brother would start playing the keyboard and before you know it, all of us are singing. We just kept having fun with it. So music has been part of me from the beginning.
Giving your life to Jesus is your private life. But aligning your music with that decision is your career on the line. Was there ever a moment of hesitation, or was it always clear?
It was always clear. I’ve always known this is something I would love to do. But I just found myself not doing it. Each time I wanted to put out an Afrogospel project, I just couldn’t, and I didn’t know why at the time. I realised later that it was because my personality was not balanced with what I was trying to do. I have to align with what I am putting out. So it just had to happen. I kept telling God I really want to do this, but it’s not just about the music now, it’s about myself. I really want to be close to you. And I realised that if I had that closeness with God, it would definitely affect everything about me. I wasn’t even thinking about music at the time. I was just pursuing to feel fulfilled, to feel that yes, this is how close I want to really be with God. And then along the way, it just happened, and when it did, I had already written a particular song. I listened back to it and I was like, okay, there’s something working already. There’s a work in progress. And it just aligned.
The idea driving this EP is to stop running from what you already know. From everything you’ve shared, the thing you already knew that you had been running from is the fact that this is where you’re supposed to be.
Yes.
Walk us through what each track on the EP means to you personally: Confidence, God Is Real, El-Roi, and finally Holy Father.
Confidence is just me being in a session, wanting to make a record, and the next thing I want to do is tell God “yes, I have confidence.” Because the confidence I have in God is what has brought me here. It’s what made me able to bring out this project. I don’t need to run anywhere. I believe I am God’s own. So regardless of anything, you still see me show up. That’s the confidence. That’s where it comes from.
God Is Real is so practical. My life right now is a testament that God is real. I prayed deeply for this. But how I was going to arrive at the day it happened, I did not know. For people who don’t know my private life, when you just see somebody here today and the next thing you’re seeing them in a completely different dimension, you might ask are you really serious? So it’s me using my life to tell people, “God is real.” This imperfect me is like this. This imperfect me wants to do right by God and still live a fulfilling life.
El-Roi is also personal. I always told God when I was working on this project, “I want you to be ahead of it. I want you to stay with me.” El-Roi means the God who sees me, and I believe he does see me. I’ve had a lot of reasons to expect things not to work out, and because he sees me, he just makes it work the way. So it’s me reverencing him. It’s an intimate session: “you’re my lover, my king, you’re my everything.” That’s what El-Roi is about.
Holy Father is also intimate. It’s me worshipping God. “When my heart sings praises to you, I bow down at your altar.” It’s that song you want to play when you wake up in the morning before you say your prayers. Before you say the Lord is my shepherd. It’s me giving God all of my existence. That’s what Holy Father is about.
It’s obvious that every track is very meaningful and personal to you. For practically each one, you started by saying “this one is personal”, or “this one is intimate.’ You’re really bringing us into what matters most to you.
Yes. That’s what this project is. It has to come from deep within. Before I put anything out, it has to come from a place of divine leading. Every session, when I was working on this project, I prayed first. Because the reason I’m doing this project is that I feel fulfilled being here, and I want people to know this is what I represent. This is who I am.
Last question: who is this EP for? When you imagine the listener sitting with it, who do you see?
This EP is for everybody. It’s for people who know within themselves that there is somewhere they’re supposed to be, but because of where they find themselves, the situation, the environment, whatever it is, they just keep going, keep pushing. It’s me telling you that you don’t have to wait. Be sincere. Pour your whole heart to Him. Tell yourself the truth. Do you feel fulfilled? Do you feel like this is the real you? Because you know the truth already. You know it. You’re just staying away from it. So tell yourself the truth. Stop saying later. Start now. Get to yourself now. It’s very important that you do it now. And this is not just about religion, it’s about everything about us as humans. So, it’s for everybody.
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