Meet Ife Awosika, DICE’s Head of Music with an eye for the best events

One of Ife Awosika’s goals for this year is to cultivate a bit more balance in his day-to-day life – he says that he often struggles with switching off – and it’s not hard to understand why once you look into his schedule. The northwest Londoner has worked in sales across industries before taking a role as Music Lead at DICE two years ago, and now as Head of Music (New Gen and Community). In his spare time, he’s also one of the people running the event series Days Like This Brunch (DLT), which has grown from an intimate day party in London organised via WhatsApp into a global brand. Read our interview with Ife to learn more about what keeps him busy.

On his day-to-day at DICE

I like my job title because it’s inconspicuous. But essentially, what I do is hunt for the best events across lots of different genres and styles. When I first started at DICE, I made it my mission to go after partnerships that aligned with music I love: Afrobeats, hip-hop and R&B. But since then, I’ve been more varied in terms of what I look out for, just trying to go after partners doing great things that have an impact across cultures, communities and genres. Sometimes, the best isn’t always the biggest – one partner might have an event just five or six times a year, but you know when they do it, it’s 100% going to sell out and create memorable moments within that community. That’s what’s important to me.

On his side hustle

I also have a successful event brand called DLT, which stands for Days Like This. We’ve been doing day parties and brunches for almost six years now. It grew out of my time in New York; my business partners lived there for a year and I would visit a lot, and that’s where we discovered day parties. It was a completely different scene to the UK – seven or eight years ago, brunch wasn’t popular in London like it is now. At first, we’d just send messages to our friends on WhatsApp – and it just grew and grew. Now, it’s no exaggeration to say we can sell 1,000 tickets in a matter of minutes, and we sold about 17,000 tickets via DICE in 2022. Last winter, we put on two parties in two countries at the same time: one in London and another in Ghana – that was a very memorable moment. And we also had a four-day festival in Malta where Kaytranada and Wizkid performed.

On understanding fans

From a brand perspective, selling DLT tickets on DICE has helped us understand our audience. For example, over Christmas, we identified who‘d purchased the most tickets to our parties, and gave them gifts and free tickets to upcoming events. That was information we’d never had before. We know fans’ top artists and favourite venues, and the Waiting List has been really helpful. Over 2,000 people joined the Waiting List for our April 2022 party, so we were like, ‘Wow, we have to add more days.’

On his trainer collection

I’m an absolutely ridiculous shopaholic, especially with trainers. I’m lucky enough to have a few connections, some of which are born out of DLT. Some of my most sought-after pieces are my Travis Scott Nikes and other rapper-related releases. At the moment, I have maybe close to 100 pairs. Last year, I created a display for my most coveted pieces – they’re in plastic boxes that drop down so I can take them out. I’m constantly sweeping through them, sometimes selling them on Depop or Vinted. I buy my three-year-old son trainers, too, which is a stupid habit because he’s constantly growing. For the last pair of Travis Scott Jordan 1s – they’re all black with grey stitching – I got us matching pairs. We matched a lot more when he was younger, because it was easier to get baby trainers; at the moment, we’ve got about three or four matching sets.

On making deals

I pride myself on being able to build relationships with anyone. When I go into a room where nobody knows me, I challenge myself to make sure I’m remembered after I’ve left. It’s not necessarily about being the loudest person in the room or about making jokes for the sake of it: when you have a conversation with me, I want you to feel that there’s some value for your time. I’m outgoing and personable, but I also always have my sales hat on. I operate from the ideology that if someone says no, I haven’t lost anything, and they haven’t lost anything. So from a sales perspective, I’m always going to be forward and dive in.

On breaking the mould

I like a wide range of music – I would probably listen to just about anything. I like to see myself as a bit of a chameleon, diving in and out of different genres based on who’s in front of me or who I’m trying to connect with. I have love for genres that I know really well, but I also really love learning about new genres and figuring out why other people love them. I’m into amapiano, hip-hop, R&B and rap, but over the last year, I’ve done a lot of research into electronic music. I want to understand the big players and the parties that dominate globally. I found a genre on Spotify not long ago called Afrotronic, which is a blend of Afrobeats and electronic music, but in a different way from amapiano. It’s got a couple different tones and a faster BPM.

On making time to refresh

This year, I want to figure out how to find more balance in my life. I’m going 100mph all the time and I’m always tired because I’m doing so much. I struggle to switch off and actually relax. Sometimes, I feel like I’m not fully present in the room with people – I’m checking my phone or looking at my emails – so I’m missing out on pure quality time. But equally, I feel like I could probably be a bit more busy and challenge myself even more. I’ve realised it’s better to be 100% present rather than hover around 90% all the time. When I do have the opportunity to relax, I can reach that true place of concentration and presence.