Perliks, real name Abdulrasaq Adebayo Babalola, is Nigeria’s boldest Afrobeats music video director aged 28. Explore his father, Headies nomination, career, and net worth.

Perliks is one of the most exciting and original visual storytellers in Nigeria’s Afrobeats industry — a Lagos-born music video director and creative photographer whose work has helped define the look and feel of contemporary Afrobeats for a global audience. His real name is Abdulrasaq Adebayo Babalola, and behind that name is a story of deliberate independence, creative courage, and the quiet confidence of someone who chose to earn his place on merit rather than on the strength of a famous family name.

Now 28 years old and based in Lagos, Perliks has directed music videos for some of the biggest names in Afrobeats — Rema, Fireboy DML, Adekunle Gold, Blaqbonez, Shallipopi, Burna Boy, BNXN, and Kizz Daniel among them. His 2025 Headies Award nomination for Music Video of the Year was the formal industry recognition that confirmed what Afrobeats fans and artists had already known for years: that Perliks belongs in the conversation about Africa’s finest visual directors.

His creative partnership with producer Femi Dapson and their shared home at Nouvelle Films has become one of the most productive director-producer relationships in the Nigerian entertainment industry.

Quick Facts About Perliks

Early Life and Family

Abdulrasaq Adebayo Babalola — Perliks — was born in 1998 in Lagos State, Nigeria, into a family already deeply embedded in the Nigerian entertainment industry. His father, Tajudeen Babalola Ojora, is widely known in the industry by his professional name Telemoon — a respected and pioneering music video director who built his reputation in the Fuji music scene and is regarded as one of its visual architects.

Growing up in a household where cameras, productions, and the rhythms of Nigerian popular music were everyday realities gave Perliks an early and intimate education in the craft.

What distinguishes his story from the predictable arc of industry-connected nepotism is the decision he made early in his career: he deliberately concealed his family connection when entering the industry, refusing to allow his father’s name to be the reason anyone worked with him.

He wanted collaborators and artists to choose him because of what his own eye could see and his own hands could produce. According to multiple industry accounts, even when colleagues suggested his father could easily open doors, he resisted — insisting on earning those doors himself. That choice, more than any single video, defines the character behind the work.

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Education

Perliks’ formal educational background has not been extensively documented in the public domain. He grew up in Lagos — a city that functions as its own creative university, particularly for visual artists, musicians, and filmmakers — and began learning videography at approximately 17 years old, at a point in life when many of his peers were still deciding what to study.

The specifics of his schooling are private, consistent with the broader reticence about personal details that characterises his public persona. What is clear from every account of his development is that his real education came from watching, doing, experimenting, and failing until the work became what he wanted it to be.

Career Journey: Building a Name Without the Family Name

Perliks began his creative journey in the mid-2010s, teaching himself videography and photography while absorbing the visual culture of Lagos — a city of explosive colour, informal architecture, musical energy, and human intensity that provides an endlessly rich source of visual material.

His early work was characterised by experimentation: using everyday objects, environmental waste, and unexpected materials to build visual concepts that stood apart from the slicker but more conventional production values of mainstream Afrobeats videos at the time.

A pivotal early relationship was with Femi Dapson — then a producer who was himself climbing from obscurity. The two would build a creative partnership that would eventually operate formally under Nouvelle Films, the production company co-founded by Femi Dapson in 2020.

Perliks focuses on artistic direction, visual concept development, and bold, striking imagery; Dapson handles the technical precision, production logistics, and budget management. The partnership is widely described as a textbook example of complementary strengths: one mind focused on the dream, the other on making the dream physically happen on a real budget on a real timeline.

By the early 2020s, Perliks had directed videos for a series of Afrobeats artists with growing profiles. The work attracted the attention of managers and labels connected to the genre’s biggest names. His reputation in the industry grew not through aggressive self-promotion but through the simple, undeniable quality of what appeared on screen when his name was attached to a project.

Artistic Philosophy: The Director as Servant

One of the most striking things about Perliks as a creative figure is his stated philosophy about the director’s role. In an industry where directors increasingly position themselves as auteurs seeking personal recognition, Perliks has repeatedly articulated the opposite view: that a music video is “95% about the artist and only 5% about the director.”

He believes the director’s job is to serve the artist’s vision and story — to create a visual world that amplifies the song rather than one that competes with it or diverts attention from it.

This philosophy has made him exceptionally attractive to artists. Working with Perliks means the artist will be the subject of the visual narrative, not a prop in the director’s artistic statement. The resulting videos feel immediate, personal, and genuine — qualities that translate directly into engagement and memorability.

His use of waste materials and everyday objects as artistic tools further reflects his belief that imagination, not expensive equipment or elaborate set construction, is the irreplaceable ingredient in memorable visual work.

Notable Music Videos and Collaborators

Perliks has directed videos for a roster of artists that reads as a who’s who of contemporary Afrobeats. His collaborations include music videos for Rema, Fireboy DML, Adekunle Gold, Blaqbonez — whose video “Back in Uni” was nominated for a Headies Award for Best Music Video in 2023 under producer Femi Dapson — BNXN, Shallipopi, Kizz Daniel, and Burna Boy.

Each of these collaborations has added a layer to his growing profile, demonstrating range across Afropop, Afro-fusion, trap, and alternative sounds without his visual approach becoming formulaic.

His creative partnership with producer Femi Dapson is the professional relationship that has most shaped his career. Femi Dapson’s Nouvelle Films has been behind some of the most significant Afrobeats visual productions of the past five years — including Rema’s “Calm Down,” the most-viewed Afrobeats music video in YouTube history, which won Best Music Video at the 2023 Headies Awards.

Perliks operates within and alongside this ecosystem, bringing his distinct directorial sensibility to projects that benefit from Nouvelle Films’ production infrastructure.

Headies 2025: Formal Industry Recognition

In 2025, Perliks received a nomination for Music Video of the Year at the Headies Awards — Nigeria’s most prestigious music industry awards ceremony, equivalent in stature to the Grammys within the West African context. The nomination marked a significant inflection point in his public profile.

Where before he had been well-known within the industry and among Afrobeats enthusiasts, the Headies nomination brought his name to a substantially broader audience across Africa and internationally. For a director who had spent years quietly building credibility through the work rather than through media attention, it was the kind of recognition that validates without requiring the director to compromise the priorities that produced it in the first place.

Personal Life

Perliks is notably private about his personal life. His marital status is not publicly confirmed, and he has maintained a consistent focus on his creative work rather than personal visibility in the public domain. He is based in Lagos — the city that formed him and continues to feed his visual imagination.

His religion is not publicly confirmed in available sources. His Yoruba heritage is a core part of his identity, as reflected in his full name Abdulrasaq Adebayo Babalola. He is described by those who know him professionally as focused, principled, and committed to the integrity of his creative process above all else.

Net Worth and Earnings

As of 2026, Perliks’ estimated net worth is between $98,000 and $158,000 — approximately ₹147 million to ₹230 million in Naira. His income is generated primarily through music video direction fees, photography commissions, and creative collaborations within and beyond the Afrobeats ecosystem.

As his profile continues to rise following the Headies 2025 nomination and increased international exposure through Nouvelle Films’ globally distributed projects, his earnings are expected to grow significantly. Directors of his calibre in the Nigerian market command fees that reflect both the scale of the productions and the value their name brings to a project.

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Nouvelle Films and the Future of Afrobeats Visuals

Nouvelle Films — co-founded by Femi Dapson in 2020 — has become one of the most important production houses in the Afrobeats visual economy. Its work sits at the intersection of music, cinema, commercial production, and documentary, and its output has helped elevate the production standard of Nigerian music videos to a level that can compete with the biggest global productions.

Perliks operates within this ecosystem as a key creative voice, with his directorial sensibility contributing to the “Glossy Era” of Afrobeats (2020–2026) in which Nigerian music videos began to look and feel like high-budget cinema rather than conventional promotional content.

As Afrobeats continues its trajectory toward full mainstream global integration — streaming records, stadium tours, international collaborations, and mainstream Western media coverage all accelerating in 2025 and 2026 — the directors and producers shaping the visual dimension of this expansion become increasingly central figures. Perliks is one of them.

Wrapping Up

Perliks’ biography is ultimately a story about the power of choice — specifically, the choice to earn rather than inherit, to serve rather than self-promote, and to let the work speak louder than the name. Growing up the son of a music video pioneer, he had every structural advantage to simply trade on family connection. He chose not to. He built instead — video by video, collaboration by collaboration, concept by concept — until the name Perliks meant something entirely its own.

At 28, with a Headies nomination behind him and the full force of Afrobeats’ global rise still accelerating ahead of him, he is precisely the kind of creative figure whose most significant work is still to come. The story is only getting started.

People Also Ask

What is Perliks’ real name?

Perliks’ real name is Abdulrasaq Adebayo Babalola. He was born in 1998 in Lagos State, Nigeria, and belongs to the Yoruba ethnic group. The name Perliks began as a creative brand identity and has grown into one of the most recognised names in Nigerian music video direction and photography.

Who is Perliks’ father?

Perliks’ father is Tajudeen Babalola Ojora, widely known in the Nigerian entertainment industry as Telemoon — a veteran music video director celebrated for his work in the Fuji music scene. Despite growing up with a father established in the same industry, Perliks chose to build his own career independently, deliberately concealing his family connection in his early years so that he would be hired on the merit of his own creative work.

What artists has Perliks directed music videos for?

Perliks has directed music videos for some of the biggest names in Afrobeats, including Rema, Fireboy DML, Adekunle Gold, Blaqbonez, BNXN, Shallipopi, Kizz Daniel, and Burna Boy. His work spans multiple Afrobeats sub-genres and has contributed to the global visual identity of the genre. He operates in close creative partnership with producer Femi Dapson and the Nouvelle Films production company.

What is Perliks’ net worth in 2026?

Perliks’ estimated net worth as of 2026 is between $98,000 and $158,000 (approximately ₹147 million to ₹230 million in Naira). His income comes primarily from music video direction fees, photography commissions, and creative collaborations within the Afrobeats industry. His net worth is expected to grow as his profile continues to rise following his 2025 Headies Award nomination for Music Video of the Year.