BRACKET WAS MY INVENTION (Bistop, Third and abandoned member of the group) - Also claims ownership of “Yori Yori” and most other songs on the album.

Every music loving Nigerian and even some non-music loving ones have heard the song “Yori Yori” and appreciated the group, Bracket, who gave us the song. The young men, Obumneme Ali, aka Smash and Ozioko Nwachukwu, alias Vast, have become pop stars and have performed at some of the biggest shows in the land and even outside. The song itself is one of the biggest songs of year 2009 and the young men have smiled to the bank.

It is also common knowledge that Bracket used to be three in number and their third member, Amobi Igwebuike, aka Bistop (Business Top), left the group after their first album, HAPPY DAYS, proved to be a commercial failure. In an interview Bracket granted to NOTES AND TONES back in April after the release of their album, LEAST EXPECTED, they stated that Bistop left the group in order to go back to school and concentrate on his education. They also stated their openness to welcome him back to the group if he ever wished to rejoin them.

All those statements have now been discredited by Bistop. He appeared a couple of weeks back with his own side of the story. Starting from the beginning, he told NOTES AND TONES about his meeting with the other members of the group and how he formed the group.

He met Vast at a barbing salon in the university town of Nsukka back in 1998. They were introduced to each other by the barber who noticed that they both had a flair for music. They then started out musically as a group with the name, Furious B.V.

In 2002, they auditioned for STAR QUEST, but did not make any headway.

Smash joined in 2003 and they first changed their name to SOUTH BRACKET before finally settling on BRACKET.

In 2004, they concluded the recording of their debut album, HAPPY DAYS, and he took it to Nwachukwu Mamah, aka Big Nis, who had the resources to finance it. Mama is the son of transportation giant, Igwe James Ogbonnaya Mamah , owner of IFESINACHI TRANSPORT LIMITED. Mama, who was a novice in the music business, was very interested in what they had. He backed them up and went on to form APE PLANET RECORDS, on whose imprint they released their album.

In 2005, they released HAPPY DAYS, but never made any money from it.

In 2008, they started working on their second album, which came out as LEAST EXPECTED. According to Bistop, he wrote most of the songs in the album, including “Yori Yori.” “Infact, we were about 90% into the production of the album when I was betrayed by my colleagues,” he says emotionally. “I had gone back to school to write my exams and we continued communicating. But after a while, they stopped picking my calls or replying my text messages. When I finished my exams, I went to Enugu to meet Big Nis, but he snubbed me and asked me to go back to wherever I was coming from. I was shocked.”

But there was nothing he could do about it. He went back to where he was coming form and in no time started hearing “Yori Yori” on radio. “I was heartbroken,” he says. “I bought the album and except for “No Time” which they did with P. Square and “Ada Owerri” with J. Martins, all the other songs on the album were mine. I was totally confused and didn’t know how to go about it, so I just went back to school to continue with my studies and also work on my music.” He is still a student of Electronic Engineering at the University.

Sometime later when Vast, who lived in Nsukka with his family, returned, he visited them but Vast dodged him. When he was finally able to corner him, Vast told him that it was never the intention of him and Smash to leave him out but that it was Mama that forced them to do so.

Bistop admitted to having had some problems with Mama. “I am a very outspoken person and as the leader of the group, whenever we were not comfortable with his decisions, I was always the one to speak to him about it,” he said. They had also accused him of embezzling their money at some point. All this he felt could have led to the decision to drop him. “I also sent some people to help me beg Mama to let me rejoin the group, but he refused. So I was left stranded.”

“But why did it take you this long to come out? I asked him”

“I took a while to dawn that there was a way I could come out and tell my story. I was finding things very hard. I had sold off my laptop and so many of my valuables in order to pay for my studio sessions while Smash and Vast had gone on to become stars with my sweat. I also wanted to have something to show to the world. I didn’t want to be just a bitter person who wanted to latch on to another people’s success. I wanted to be coming out on my own.”

“So what do you want done; what do you want Bracket to do for you?”

“I want full credit for my contributions to the album and to the group. Everything about the album came from me. Starting with the name, LEAST EXPECTED to even their own monikers. When I met Vast, he was bearing “Sheri Koko”, but I saw that the name would never fit into my ideas of a contemporary and progressive music group, so I suggested Vast. Smash was known as “Ali Okpa,” before I changed it for him.”

“Was any part of your deal with Nwachukwu Mamah and APE PLANET RECORDS documented?

“No, but we had a gentleman’s agreement that we would share any profit 40-60. 60% would go to him and APE PLANET RECORDS, while 40% would be for Bracket.”

That was Bistop’s story and since there are always more than one side to any story, NOTES AND TONES contacted the other parties involved to get their own sides of the story. Bracket acknowledged that Bistop was a member of their group but refused to go further than that. “It would be unwise for us to join issues with him in public,” Smash said. If he has any issues with us, let him contact us personally and not on the pages of newspapers and magazines.” Big Nis also refused to comment on Bistop’s story. But Dekumzy, the producer of the hit track “Yori Yori” was more forthcoming. He admitted that Bistop was deliberately removed from the scheme of things when they found out that his association with the group was drawing them back.

“Bistop was misusing most of the money of the group that came to him. He was doing a lot of bad things behind their back,” he said but refused to elaborate. “We simply had to cut him off from the songs so that the group could make progress,” he concluded.

‘Why I am coming back home’-KUNLE AYO

Kunle Ayo, the jazz guitarist and TV presenter, is coming back home. He has been in South Africa for the past seven years and has also released four albums, entirely for the South African market. He is now ready to explore the Nigerian music market and has almost completed his homecoming album. He recently had a very successful outing with his show “An Evening of Jazz with Kunle Ayo” at the Lagos Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos. It was a gathering of the 'who is who' in the society and music loving Nigerians. In this interview, he talks about his stay in South Africa and his reason for finally making up his mind to enter the Nigerian market...

Tell us some things about Kunle Ayo.

I lived in Nigeria all my life till 2002 when I relocated to South Africa. I have been there for seven years now. I have a KORA Award and a Channel O Award. I am an accomplished guitarist and I am a known TV presenter. My TV programme is called Africa Awakes.

How busy have you been musically?

I have been recording for some years now, but unfortunately, my records have been released in South Africa. Unfortunate in the sense that I have got four albums and all of them were released in South Africa and none in Nigeria because of contractual issues. We have not been able to agree on a way to go about it in Nigeria. There is no industry in Nigeria and the challenge of not having a system here in Nigeria affected me and my partners. We have a problem with coming down to Nigeria. What happens in South Africa is that when you release an album and you want to go to another region, you go through an industry. The album would be registered and distributed through a channel. The airplay is monitored and royalties are paid accordingly. But in Nigeria, there's nothing like that; the reverse is the case as artists pay to have their songs played on radio. That's the system in South Africa and that's why we have found it hard to enter the Nigerian market.

But you are coming back now…

Yes. We are working on a new album now for Nigeria because we can't keep staying away and saying that we can't come until it gets better. Music is getting better in Nigeria and we are almost ready to get into the Nigerian groove. I have just dropped a video entitled, “I Want You” in Nigeria and the album would be released, hopefully, next year.

What are the peculiarities of the album?

I am a jazz guitarist, but the current musical situation in Nigeria involves a lot of dance. There's hip hop or the afro hip hop and I have tried to infuse jazz into it. One cannot be an island and it is necessary to infuse certain influences garnered over the years into our music to make it more interesting. That's what I am doing with the album.

What makes being a jazz guitarist different from being an ordinary one?

If you are an ordinary guitarist, it is likely that you only play particular music genres, like highlife. Highlife music is limited to some particular kind of chord and musical notes, but jazz incorporates all the 12 notes of music, which means that I can do any and everything with my music. Even in the context of highlife songs, when I improvise or when I take a solo, I can use all the 12 notes of music in the way that I want. Sometimes it makes sense to people and sometimes it doesn't. Because the vocabulary of a jazz guitarist is very large, he can function successfully in an environment. When I am on a foreign stage, I can do certain things that people will appreciate and when I am home, I can also adapt to the system here.

What kind of music have you noticed that Nigerians appreciate?

Nigerians like fast music, Nigerians like to dance. But the slower songs, when you add pidgin English, people are happier. People also like it when the music is strictly English, but you find out that in mainstream music, it is either you put in some pidgin or you make it a bit fast so that people can dance. In South Africa, it is the opposite. People prefer more of the slow songs, while in Nigeria, when you make more than four songs slow in an album, people get bored.

So, which is more aesthetic?

You can't say that one is better than the other. As a musician, you just try to understand the dynamics of both markets and cater for them accordingly. When I play for South Africans, I try to add more melody to my music and I also introduce them to Nigerian rhythm so that they will know where I am coming from. And when I play for the Nigerian audience, I try to give them more rhythm and I also try to introduce what I have learnt there.

Can you say that the South Africans have a more developed sense of music than Nigerians?

Yes, I can say that. From the content of their harmonic structure, yes, I can say that. We are more choral in our harmony while they are more western. We can't really score our songs, we can't score for a big band, but in South Africa, they do. Our people are more conscious of what they are saying than taking time to do the job.

Are you now ready for this Nigerian system?

Yes, I am a Nigerian and I have got rhythm in my body. I am born to love what I hear. I am just saying that I will add a little bit of what I have learnt there. My sojourn in South Africa for the past seven years has taught me a lot of things which I am going to bring into my music.

Why did it take you as long as four albums before deciding to try out the Nigerian market?

No. I don't do anything if I don't feel it. It was just a matter of time. I never planned going to South Africa, it just happened that I needed to be there and I decided to start living there. My coming back is because things have started falling into place for me. My life has always been dictated by God and I believe my coming back now is still part of his plans for me.

Are you fully back in Nigeria now?

I am not going to live in Nigeria everyday. I am going to be coming in regularly to promote my music.

Since you are bringing out an entirely new work for the Nigerian market, how are we going to access the four which you had already released in South Africa?

Unfortunately, because of my contracts, I can't release them in Nigeria. However, I am going to re-do and re-record most of those materials. In South Africa, unlike any part of the western world, when you release an album through a company, you don't hold the master of that album. The company owns it because they paid for it. You own the song or album, but not the recording. So if you leave the contract, then you have to re-record the song if you like it a lot.

Can't you buy if from that company?

You could, but what they might be asking for might be ridiculous. So, why go buying it when you can re-record it? It's your song. It doesn't really make commercial sense for you to go and pay people for your own song. So, you can re-record the song and then own the master.

So, would you do that for your previous albums?

I could if I want to, but because everyday there's a new song, there is no need to go back to the old ones.

Let's go back to the guitar. Where can one learn how to play jazz guitar in Nigeria?

There is no particular place where you could go to learn it. I have been playing the guitar for a while. I started working with Chief Ebenezer Obey. Then, I worked with the Compassion Band in Ilupeju, before I went over to Daniel Wilson and so many other people before I worked with Lagbaja. In all those times, I felt a need to grow and jazz provided that platform for me. Jazz is a form of music that provides one the opportunity to express himself. Lagbaja gave me room to be myself. It was a fantastic experience. It was while I was with him that the opportunity came for me to move to South Africa and I took it. I learnt through this period, I didn't learn it in any particular school. I was virtually self taught.

One grows according to the surrounding environment, how did you learn jazz guitaring when it is not very prominent in the society?

When you start thinking about something, you will start noticing it all around you. What you think about expands. If you want something, you will definitely find it. I went out of my way to discover where it is. One of the reasons I left in the first place was because I felt it wasn't viable for me in Nigeria to practice the art, but I have found out that I can do a whole lot of things with what I have and I am going to explore that option.

What actually made you leave Nigeria?

I was traveling with Lagbaja to Brazil and we went through South Africa. I love it there, so when we got back from Brazil, I visited South Africa again and my music was played there. The people at Universal Music loved it and they signed me on.

How did hosting the TV programme come in?

It was a fluke, just like my music. I never knew I was going to be a TV presenter. I have a studio in South Africa and two of my friends borrowed it to audition some girls for a TV programme. At a point, they needed a guy and I suggested myself to them because I had been on TV in Nigeria. I used to present a TV programme on Studio 10. They tried me out, when they took it to Africa Magic, they loved it there. That was it.

Tell us a bit about your family.

I have a wife, kids are on the way and she is back there in South Africa.

Tell us more about your album.

I featured Paul Play and a few upcoming artists. I am producing it myself, but I still work with some other people. There are about eight songs in the album.

I'M NOT COMING BACK TO NIGERIA TO SELL - Alexander Amosu

It’s a rather curious move for one to be opening shop and not be intending to sell. But that is basically what Mr. Alexander Amosu, erudite businessman and designer of some of the world’s most expensive luxury products is about doing. He is launching the Alexander Amosu line of luxury products in Nigeria without the primary intention of selling them or making profit.

What type of profit could he really make in Nigeria after designing the world’s most expensive suit and blackberry which are worth 70, 000 pounds and 140, 000 pounds respectively and getting listed in the GUINNESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS? Yes, what kind of profit could he really make in a country where the Naira equivalents of the mentioned products (approximately N36, 500 000 for the suit and N60, 000 000, respectively)? What is the rationale behind such a move when he can boast of clients among the richest and most glamorous people in the world?

Alexander is coming home. In case you haven’t noticed, his last name is Amosu and that is a Nigerian name. He is a Yoruba from Abeokuta. “My father is from Abeokuta,” he tells me in a thick British accent, “and my mother is from Ikorodu.” He was born in London and has never been to those places before. His last visit to Nigeria was in 2008 during the TV Reality Show, DRAGON’S DEN, which he had a stake in. This was after a 16-year absence.

“I am coming home to establish. I need to connect with Nigerians,” he says excitedly, but his tone almost immediately falls. “There are a lot of successful Nigerians in the UK that can’t come to Nigeria,” he states matter-of-factly. “They say that there are a lot of bad things happening in Nigeria; that there are armed robbers, kidnappers and that there’s no safety here. They hear all the negative things people are telling us for us not to home back but I believe that the more we come back home with the exposure, experience and wealth, we have garnered from around the world, the more we’ll be able to make Nigeria better.” Picking up enthusiasm again, he continues: “I am coming because I want to celebrate the fact that I am successful all over the world and I am selling to international stars and I want Nigerians to be able to say that this is one of their own.”

“So when I meet people in the UK and they tell me that Nigerians are fraudsters, I will tell them No! We don’t do fraud; we are doing successful things. Go and check for my name in the GUINNESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS. Do you see any fraud there? Nigerians are doing successful things all over the world and we have to start coming back home. I am hoping that if I am here, people would say that if Alexander Amosu can be there, then I too can be there. Why would Nigeria not be like or even better than London?” he asks. We need to come back and build our own country and the way to start is by each of us coming back and saying that this is what I have done.” Then picking up the thread of the suit again, he adds: “I don’t need to sell my suit here. People are buying my stuff all over the world and I don’t need to sell it here. Moreover there are just four of them in the world and I just want to bring it to Nigeria and show my people that this is what I have done.”

But there are so many other things in his line of luxury products. The bespoke world’s most expensive suit is just one of them. The suits start from 3, 500 pounds and there are a range of other luxury products including belts, ties, shirts, cufflinks and so on. But what makes this one suit so special that it has to sell for that price? “The suit is made with gold and platinum thread. It is made from rare materials such as Vicuna wool, which can only be shorn once every three years from the South American camelid, and Qiviut wool, gathered from the Arctic muskoxen,” he explains. “It takes a minimum of 80 hours to complete each suit and this will include over 5000 individual stitches. Our professional tailors, each with no less than a 21-year experience visit the client wherever he is in the world to take his measurement after which work would commence. An Alexander Amosu suit is not just a suit, but a lifestyle: the purchase of the suit includes a 1-hour flight by private jet to anywhere in the world by Cloud9, 1-year free wealth management from Cheviot Asset Management and a 24 hr Global Concierge service.”

Being just 34 years old and placing a demanding a minimum requirement of 21 years experience from the tailors of his suits, I asked him why and he replied thus: “Because you are dealing with the world’s most expensive suit, you cannot afford to make any mistakes. And who says there are no spaces for the young and talented?” he asked. They are the ones that provide most of the ideas and vision which the tailors work on. But I’m not gonna risk having a rookie tailor ruin such a job. There are spaces for the youth but first, I have to build my brand, then develop the younger generation through different projects and ideas and when they are ready take over from the older ones, they move in. But on this particular job, there are no spaces for mistakes and we don’t take unnecessary risks.”

Then I again asked the reason for only making materials for the rich and not producing cheaper ones to sell to a larger number of the masses. To explain his reason, Alexander asked for my phone, a NOKIA 1202, which he placed beside one of his diamond encrusted blackberries. “For argument sake, let’s say your phone is worth ten pounds and mine 5000 pounds,” he tells me. “How long do you think it would take me to sell your phone at its price to get to 5000 pounds?” he amusingly asks me. “How many of your phone do I have to sell to get to 5000 pounds?”

“500,” I answer.

“So you mean I should be bursting my head to sell 500 units of a phone when I can sell one phone to one person and make the same amount without losing any sweat; do you want to work 500 times harder to make the same amount of money?” But I insisted that there was still the need to necessary products like phones to the average person but Alexander refused to budge.

“That’s their choice,” he states. “If they decide to spend a whole year to sell their products, it’s their own call. Why would I do that to myself? You have to be an entrepreneur; you have to think like a visioner. People work for money, but I make my money work for me. There’s the big difference. You could spend working really hard or you could work smart. It’s your own decision. I made my decision long ago and I’m happy making my money the easy way. The person trying to sell to everybody would be running around the whole day like a headless chicken while I would sit in the comfort of my office and make my own sales.”

“It’s so much easier selling things to rich people. They don’t haggle; they just want the best and they are prepared to pay for it. Trying to sell to poor people is so much hard work because they haggle. If you are selling to them for ten pounds, they’ll still ask for a discount. If they do, I will slap their ears with the phone. You have to understand the psyche of the rich people, they want the best things and they are prepared to pay for it.” I was going to continue the argument, but the mention of slaps made me switch to this question. “If you are making so much money, you should be playing hard.”

“Why would I do that?” he asks me incredulously. “I am a responsible person; I have a family. (He is married to a Nigerian lady, Tayo and they have two children). I can easily blow a million pounds in a day but what would I gain from that? I haven’t arrived yet. Bill Gates and Richard Branson didn’t get to where they are today by playing. I haven’t got to that level yet. When I start rubbing shoulders with the likes of Richard Branson, then I would go and play. Before then, all I do is work.”

Coming from a very humble beginning, Alexander was brought up by his grandmother who couldn’t afford the luxuries that a youth needed to “belong” with. So he got his first job at 12 as a paper delivery boy in his neighbourhood and earned 10pounds a week. By the time he got enough money to buy himself a NIKE trainers and wear it to school, he was overwhelmed by the kind of attention he received and thus started a quest to make more money. He ventured into event organizing in school and diversify into various jobs. He had a cleaning company by 19 years which he sold at age 24 when he accidentally stumbled on ringtone creation. By 25, he made his first million. And from then on there’s no stopping him.

Alexander was awarded Young Entrepreneur of The Year at the Institute of Directors by Black Enterprise Awards 2002, Africa’s Best Award at the GAB Awards 2003, also receiving London African Caribbean Entrepreneurs Award 2004. For a second year in a row, Mr. Alexander Amosu is on the top Britain’s 100 most influential black Britons. He is now in Guinness World Records books for creating the world most expensive suit. He was also awarded with the honorary degree of Doctor of Business Administration by his old university London Metropolitan University. He is also interested in Charities and is the first person to create a Free Ringtones Day and donated the proceeds from over 75, 000 orders in one day to the Teenage Cancer Trust.

He is back home to launch his line of luxury products with the support of MTN who say they are identifying with him because his success story is similar to theirs. According to Mr. Kolawole Oyeyemi, General Manager Consumer Marketing, MTN, “MTN believes in achieving the dreams of its customers and this same desire is also what drives Mr. Amosu. He is an example of a true Nigerian and we are proud to be associated with him.”

Alexander Amosu Collections and the world’s most expensive suit would be unveiled at a secret location in Lagos on December 5, 2009 and even though he has already stated that he is not here to sell, Nigerians have always risen to any challenge and nobody, least of all a son of the soil, has ever brought in quality products into the country without making a sale.

23 year-old Nigerian Singer Weds 62 year-old American Grandmother

SK MODE AND AMELIA ADIMIKE

YOU might have heard or read about men and women who marry across age, culture and distance but this particular story may sound a bit intriguing. Mrs. Amelia Felix Adimike, as she happily introduced herself to me, is a 62 year-old Columbian-American widow, who came all the way from the US to marry her new heartthrob, Mr. Victor Somkenechukwu Adimike, a.k.a SK Mode, a 23 year-old upcoming Nigerian musician. She was married to an American Air Force officer for 39 years and that is exactly the same number of years with which she is older than Victor.

Her first child is 40 and her youngest is 33. Throughout this interview, she never for once called her new love by his name. It was always: ‘My husband.’ For a match made on the internet and quickly formalized in an Ondo, Ondo State registry, you may scream, ‘Yahoo Yahoo,’ but think what you may, talking with the young man and his wife might change your perception of the concept of love and marriage. Just read their story and find out.

Excerpts…

Tell us, how did this start?

I became a widow on July 3, 2007. I was married to a United States Air Force man. I never thought I would remarry, it wasn’t my intention but after a year, I started to feel very lonely in a big house without my husband. A friend of mine, Caroline, kept telling me: “Amelia, go online, list your profile you might be lucky to get somebody through the internet. She got a husband from Haiti through the internet. I had my misgivings about the internet because I’m a Christian, I had never been an outgoing person. Within two days of getting online, I had a storm of men that wanted to meet me. I didn’t know what to do with so many people.

Did you limit your search to a particular geographical area?

No. I just said that I did not want to deal with any scammer and anybody that was under 56 years old, because I thought the age bracket that would suit me would be somebody that is closer to my age. But all the men that got in touch with me were in their 20s.

How many matchmaking sites did you register on?

US Search, Yahoo and eHarmony. My husband found me through US Search.

Why didn’t you try Facebook? That’s one of the most popular sites in the world at the moment?

I never heard of it.

How many people came through US Search?

From US Search, there were seven men that tried to get in touch with me. Three of them had children and I screened everyone of them by asking them questions. Some of them didn’t answer the questions so I totally eliminated them. The only one that answered all the questions was him (pointing at her husband).

What were some of the questions on your questionnaire?

I was looking for a man that is caring, a man who has a sense of humour, a man who is not lazy; I didn’t want a man who would be a couch-potato in my house while I work for him. I wanted a man that is hard working, that has talent, that has ambition. I was looking for a man close to what my first husband was. But then Caroline said to me: “Amelia, you can’t expect to find a man who is exactly the way your first husband was because when God made your husband, he broke the mould. So you better look for a man that fits other criteria that your previous husband didn’t have.” So, I built up my questionnaire based on some of the things that my previous husband was and some of the things that he didn’t have. I also wanted somebody who didn’t have some of the abilities that my first husband had which I had, I wanted someone that is musical, loves to dance and loves the theatre, because those were the things that I liked and he (pointing at her husband) was the one that fit the bill. He was the only one that did not try to take advantage of me. One of the questions I asked him was: “If I came home from work and I was tired, would you demand that I cook you a dinner right away or would you demand that I pay your needs before I take care of my needs. And he was the only one that gave the answer…(Victor interjects here smiling, what answer did I give) that he would massage me (both laugh heartily), treat me to a dinner and allow me to rest before taking care of his demands.

Has he been doing that?

Yes and more. Another question that I asked him was if he would take me to the theatre. I told him that I was looking for somebody that would be my companion whenever I wanted to go to any place; he wouldn’t be ashamed of going with a woman of my age. I did not know his age at that time because we spoke about so many things and we found out that we had so many things in common. One of the things we have in common is his birthday which was the first thing I asked him because I wanted to find somebody that was astrologically compatible with me.

Do you believe in astrology?

Yeah, I believe in astrology because I was astrologically compatible with my first husband and our marriage lasted 39 years. I happen to be a Leo, Leo women have a very powerful character. They need to have a man that is sensitive, caring, not over-powerful so that they can be happy. My husband is a Virgo which is astrologically compatible with Leo. We are opposites and opposites attract. He happens to be born in the year of the tiger in Chinese astrology and I was born in the year of the boar, Chinese astrology. We are opposites in Chinese astrology. People that are too close in character are always fighting each other; people that are opposites in character have better communication and we have very good communication. Whenever he has a problem, I tell him: “Discuss it with me.” Because how am I going to know that he has a problem except he tells me? I don’t read the mind. So, we have made an agreement that whenever we had a concern, we would discuss it and so far we never had a bad argument. We know what to talk about, we know what to say to each other, we know what to do to settle ourselves and we got married. We talked to each other only for six months. The first time we started talking was on June 26, 2008. From that day, he interested me so much that I used to run straight from work to the computer and he was already waiting for me. And he would say something like, “Welcome home my wife” (laughs out loud). He started calling me his wife even before we met and I would tell him, but ‘I’m not your wife, I’m just your friend.’ We talked for a long time and he was aware of my age all along because it was on my profile. His wasn’t on his profile and I never knew that he was a recording artiste. I did not know who he was before we decided that we wanted to look at each other on the web. Each one of us got a webcam and we saw each other. The first time that I saw him, I started to cry. I cried because when I saw how young he was, I had second thoughts because I never believed that the person I had been talking with all this while could be that young. But I felt an attraction for him that I could not understand and I said: ‘Why do I feel so attracted to this man.’ That was when I knew that I had to meet him in person so I could confirm if the same attraction I had for him online was the same with what I had for him in person. For eight days, we didn’t talk to each other because I told him that I had a difficulty dealing with the difference in our ages –because I have children that were older than him.

How many children do you have?

I have four children and they are all older than him. My oldest daughter is 40 but she looks like she is still 20. She is a divorcee with one child. The second child is a son. He is an artiste in New York and he is also a nurse. He clocked 38 on August 26, he has three children. The third child is another son, he is also an artiste. He has two children and would be 36 in December. My youngest child is a daughter. She is a nurse and she is 33 years old. She would be 34 on September 16, the same day that he (pointing at Victor) has his birthday. She is also married and has a stepdaughter. I have six grandchildren.

Did you do this with their consent?

No, but they had knowledge of it but only one of them, my youngest child agreed with my decision. She is the one that has been communicating with us, she is the only one that seems pathetic to our cause.

Were your children aware of your intention to remarry?

Yes, but my eldest daughter gave me a hell of a time when she found out that I was coming to Nigeria in September. I had made plans to meet him in September, 2009 and I didn’t tell my children anything because I know they would not support me. So, I bought a ticket for Delta Airlines, I had everything planned to just tell them I was going on vacation because all my life I have always travelled alone. But there was a show that Oprah Winfrey had where she was depicting Nigeria as a country of scammers and my children became apprehensive. It was a show of how a young woman was ripped off by somebody and she came all the way from the US to Lagos and the person never showed up at the airport to claim her. My children were afraid that the same thing would happen to me. And I think that’s the reason why the American embassy is always reluctant to issue visas to Americans that were marrying Nigerians.

Please, tell us more about the problems you faced with your children?

When my oldest son also found out about it, he showed up in front of my house and between him and my oldest daughter, they plotted to lock me in my bedroom to stop me from picking a flight that would take me to Nigeria. They had me sequestered in my own home and I gave them such a hard time that I almost had a stroke. He (pointing at Victor) was worried because he was expecting me. So, I tried to let him know that I would not be coming because I did not want him to come all the way from Ondo State to Lagos to pick me and not find me at the airport. So, my daughters agreed to communicate with him. They had an argument online, they exchanged words and my daughter called him all sorts of names, she even called him a terrorist-claiming that he wanted to kidnap me. My daughter was so upset that she called the police and tried to get the police to arrest me so I wouldn’t come to Nigeria. But the police told her that she did not have any proof that Victor was a terrorist. So, they couldn’t do anything about it. When I was able to communicate with him I told him that I had gotten Bell’s Palsy because of all the problems and I couldn’t go to work. I couldn’t even type very well and my daughter tried to blame him for all the problems I was having, while in reality, she was the one causing all the problem. She got hold of my personal email ID and password, got into my box and emailed all my intimate conversations with him to all my other children. So, all of them were aware of what was happening between me and him. My daughter tried to book me on a flight to Columbia instead because I’m originally from Columbia and she said that if I ever wanted to meet anybody I didn’t know, that it would be in Columbia. I had to sneak to talk to him because my oldest daughter took charge of all my things. She made my life miserable and even threatened to put me in a nursing home. She even took me to an attorney and tried to get him to sign over all my assets to her so that she could control them and I said over my dead body. Behind her back, I rebooked my flight for November 22, 2008 with Delta Airlines. I arrived Nigeria on November 23 and he was there at the airport waiting for me. We drove the same day to Ondo State in the evening because the car broke down on the way and we had to wait for somebody to come and fix it up before we could continue our journey. When we got to Ondo State, the reservation he had made for me had expired and we had to find another hotel. We made love the very first night that we met and we got married two days later at the registry in Akure South Local Government Area. I returned to the States on the 29th.

Are you happy with your decision?

I am, even though we have spent practically eight months trying to get a visa appointment at the embassy, I am happy.

What happened when you went back to the States?

I went straight to my lawyer the following Monday and submitted all the paper work to him. He told me it was going to be a bit difficult because of the 39-year difference in our ages but that it was possible. He told me all the documents we needed to make a successful visa application and I got them.

What’s your lawyer’s name?

His name is Robert Sheldon. This was the first time he would be taking on a case from Nigeria. He told me that he had heard that dealing with Nigerian spouses was not an easy task. He asked me if I was sure this was what I wanted and I told him I was. I am a teacher and I can tell from the way a person writes what type of personality the person has. A teacher always knows the personality of all her students because of the way they write and express themselves. I knew the kind of personality he has. The very first day I heard his voice on the phone, I asked him, ‘Do you sing?’ And he said, ‘How do you know that?’ And I told him that I see that from his voice. I sing too and I could tell if a person could sing or not. I also deal with astrology. I have a very sharp sixth sense. When I am in front of a thief or a bad person, I get a bad vibe, when I’m in front of a person who is honest, I get a good vibe (at this point I asked her: ‘What kind of vibe are you getting now?’ When she replied that she was very comfortable with me, we continued).

How did you learn these vibes?

I had a very sensitive grandmother who always told me, ‘If you are in the middle of making a decision and your left hand gets hot, don’t sign! If your right hand gets hot go ahead and sign’ and I have always followed my intuitions. That’s why I signed that marriage certificate. I am not going to tell you that our love was instantaneous because that’s impossible, but our love grew through the conversations that we’ve had over time. I realized I loved him before I even came to Nigeria, but I wanted to confirm it, that’s why I came to Nigeria. I don’t believe in everything people say about Nigeria, I believe in finding out things for myself, I didn’t even find out everything about him myself. It was my daughter-in-law that went into his website and called me to tell me that he’s a singer. It has been an ongoing process that we have had. I wasn’t back in Nigeria before now because my lawyer kept asking me to wait for the visa appointment before coming.

When did you apply for his visa?

It was in the first week of December 2008, after I went back. I decided to go through a lawyer because I figured that a lawyer would know exactly what I would need. My lawyer told me I needed $85,000 in order to get him here. I asked him why? And he said it was because I wanted to bring in somebody from Nigeria and Nigeria had more stringent rules than other places. I had to have that kind of money in the bank and I felt that was horrible because I knew another woman that had claimed her husband from Nigeria and she never needed that much. According to my lawyer, I was supposed to be in the visa interview room with him, but they refused. They told me he was going to be in there alone and that my lawyer didn’t know Nigeria. The first date was August 20 and they wouldn’t let me in into Nigeria on July 29, 2009. I think he should take over from here now.

(Here, the focus of the interview shifts to her husband) Let us start from the beginning, tell us your story.

I am from Oru West LGA in Imo State but I live in Ondo State with my family. I have three sisters and I am the only boy. My parents have been living there before I was born and I have lived all my life in Ondo State.

Where are your parents now?

They are in Ondo State. My dad is a pharmacist and my mum owns a boutique.

What are your educational qualifications?

I had my secondary education at St. Thomas Aquinas College, Ondo State. After that, I went on a training for video directing and editing. I can shoot a good video and I am a musician. I own a record label called Modebeats Entertainment. I am popular in Ondo and the neighbouring Yoruba towns. I do hip-hop and R n B. I released my album immediately I finished secondary school in 2008. I released it in June before I met my wife. The album even got me a contract in New York, someone is waiting for me in New York now to do some collabos with me.

You didn’t get to the university?

No, I was helping to train my sisters through my music but I intend going to a more professional school of art very soon. One of my sisters have graduated from the university now and we are both helping to train my other sisters.

How many matchmaking websites are you on?

I was on Singlesnet, US Search, MySpace and Facebook.

Amelia says her objective for getting online was to find a husband, what was yours?

It wasn’t about marriage at first. I was just looking for someone that could help me to promote my music outside the country but I met my wife and fell in love with her. She included in her profile that she needed an artistic person as a husband.

How did you find her?

I was designing my website and surfing through the net when I saw her profile. I never though it would be possible for me to meet her because of the enormous age difference but something kept pushing me towards her. Some Nigerian guys were also on to her at that time; some scammers were on to her by then, but I saved her from them (Amelia laughs heartily). I gave her some questions to ask, I asked her if their number shows when they call her and she said no. they didn’t give her their numbers but they kept calling her, claiming they were in the States.

What really attracted you to her?

The way we chatted was very interesting and we were always laughing. She usually said things about me which nobody knew. I was intrigued with the fact that she could tell so much about me even without seeing me.

Didn’t you consider that your parents and society might be opposed to the relationship?

My parents don’t have a right over me. I had to work for myself to get to where I am today. My CD cost me close to N1 million and I funded it myself. I became a man myself, my parents cannot stop me from making my choice because I have my rights. In the first place, they never even supported my music and I have succeeded so far with it. Now they are fully behind me.

(Amelia interjects) They told me that I was the best thing to ever happen to him because he was on the way getting mixed up with the wrong crowd. He even had people that were after him. But I have saved him from them and he is very happy now.

(Victor continues) I didn’t need to marry in order to get a visa. I already have an invitation from a musician in New York who wants to collaborate with me in my music and I believe that her invitation letter and the fact that I can sustain myself would have got me a visa. My passport has been ready since and I have been saving for a trip to the States. My wife has been very worried about me because she really wants me to be with her. Ever since she left we exchanged calls daily. There are phone bills to prove this and I really care about her. People at the embassy really acted funny because they really think we are not honest but we love each other very much. We have a second visa appointment this month and I believe this would be the final because since she cannot stay permanently here, I need to go with her to be with her.

Don’t you think this marriage would affect your relationship with your family in future permanently with the level of opposition you have so far received from them?

I am their mother and I know them better than they think they know themselves. I know they love me and they are more concerned about what the media says. They are afraid that I might give away all their inheritance to him but their father was a very smart man. He left a trust before he died for each of them. He also said that should anything happen to him, everything he had should go to my kids. He left a Will. The Will left everything to me and they will only get it when I die. He gave them their own inheritance while he was still alive. He gave each of them enough money to buy their own homes.

What do you think about the fact that you are marrying outside your culture and somebody that is young enough to be your grandson?

I understand the implications. I know he would need to continue his family name in the future and I am already 62 years old. I had my 62nd birthday here in Nigeria and we celebrated it together at the Soundcity Urban Music Blast. I am okay with the facts on ground.

So, what do you think about Nigerians?

I think Nigerians are very friendly people. Nobody has tried to scam me here except the police (laughs). They have always stopped us to collect money whenever they saw us together. There are still good Nigerians.

Now that you are probably not going to have children together, what is your plan?

I realize that because of my age, I cannot give him physical children so we are going to adopt Nigerian children.

What do you think about your husband?

He is very caring and romantic. When I came, I was sick because I ate something and I was vomiting and he was there for me throughout. I have conditioned myself not to eat anything after six o’clock and I forgot that when it is six o’clock here, it is actually 12 midnight, so I got very sick and he took good care of me.

What is the sweetest thing that he has ever told you?

One of the major things that made me to come was that he told me that he would take care of me till I was old. Not even my own kids take care of me. That mattered much because I told him I am going to live to be 106 years. I am planning to beat one of my grand aunts who lived for 103 years and she was not even as fit as I am. She was fat, she had diabetes. The only good thing about her was that she never got angry with anybody, she would just sit outside her house and greet everybody that passes by. She was very sweet. I am very fit, I exercise and my doctor told me that my cholesterol level was ok. He gave me a clean bill of health before I came.

Are you still working?

I work part-time. I am a substitute teacher in Florida. I take virtually all courses ranging from physical education to music and even working with special children because I have a Masters in Human Service Administration from the Metropolitan College of New York and a degree in Business Administration from there also. I used to work as a realtor before this part time job.

What kind of music do you do?

I sing in a church, I sing in mostly Spanish. I belong to a Latin-American church in Florida and I am the music director.

How many languages do you speak?

I can speak Spanish, English and a bit of French. My dad taught me a bit of French when I was a child and a few words of the Igbo language like Dim.

What is your beauty secret because you really look much younger than 62?

My name is Amelia which means ‘loyal’ and ‘to make better.’ I always try to live by my name. I do not prostitute myself, I was married to one man for 39 years and I never prostituted myself even though he was a military man and was away most of the time. I didn’t miss him as I would have if I didn’t have my four children. I took care of my children and still went to work everyday. I try not to have evil thoughts. People that have evil thoughts age very fast. If you try to maintain a positive attitude, stay away from gossips and keep your marriage together, you would be fine. I only get angry when I have a real reason to do so.

What would you love to change about Amelia?

She is perfect so far but she talks a lot. She can talk from morning till night. (Amelia speaks) I have such an attraction for him that he has to constantly remind me not to touch or kiss him in public.

Have you ever had a plastic surgery?

I have, but not a beauty surgery.. I had a corrective surgery after my last baby. I had a surgery to prevent me from having another baby after my last baby and the doctor left an imperfection on my navel and I didn’t like it. I had a corrective surgery for that.

What are your final words?

I do not believe that immigration or the embassy has the right to decide peoples’ lives based on the difference of age. Because men from all the generations have always married women young enough to be their children and women have the right to do the same.

KELLY HANSOME DRAGS D’BANJ BEFORE IGBO COUNCIL OF ELDERS - DEPARTS FROM KENNIS MUSIC

KELLY HANSOME & D'BANJ

Kelly Hansome’s real name is Odikaechi Obinna and he is from Eziobodo autonomous community, Owerri-West, Imo State. (Ego Ogbaro and Emmanuel Amunike are also from there). He grew up in Owerri and attended Government College Owerri and Madonna University. He was studying Computer Science in the university before leaving to concentrate on music. He is not a dropout, he says, as he has gone back to school to complete his degree. “Call Father Ede (the owner of the school) and ask him,” he challenges.

All these are contained in a 12-minute, 52-seconds documentary entitled, THE TRUTH IS BITTER BUT NO BEEF PEOPLE, WE ARE ONE! he made of himself and posted on the internet last week. In it he also addressed the issue of his “beef” with the MO’ HITS CREW, Don Jazzy, Wande Coal and Terry G. For starters, “I am a friend of MO’ HITS. I am a fan of D’banj. I love his music. We don’t have a problem; it’s just entertainment.”

Some weeks back, he had seemingly stirred the hornet’s nest when he released a track entitled “Igwe Kom Kom” – a snide echo of D’banj’s song, “Igwe”. Kom Kom is simply an onomatopoeic description of an empty can or container, especially of beverages, and this is basically what he calls D’banj. The song starts with and extended display on the “Oja”, a small wooden, wind instruments, uniquely used to usher in royalties in Igbo land. He also employs a series of rhyming couplets to buttress his points. He rhymes “Igwe” with “Iwe” (anger in Igbo). The line goes /Ha n’ akpasu m iwe/ (They are provoking me). And after antithetically juxtaposing Man U with Arsenal, he went on to rhyme it with Malu, a ram in Yoruba. This comes from Wande Coal’s song, “Who Born the Magga?” “Magga” is rhymed with “Bagger” and there is also the analogy with his last year hit track, “Magga Don Pay.”

With these and so many other references to the works of D’banj, including the emphatic and repeated shouts of “Nwafo” (Son of the Soil), he explains that one cannot be an Igwe if he is not a “Nwafo”. The tide shifts then shifts over to Terry G in the last verse of the song. There was confusion last year when both of them released singles with identical messages and wordings. Kelly Hansome sang “Magga Don Pay” while Terry G came out with “Alleluya” and people didn’t know who copied the other. So in the present song, Kelly claims superiority when he sings that he “runs the microphone and not testing it” and repeats sounds similar to the gibberish in the latter’s song “Free Madness” which is currently the toast of clubs.

So in this video documentary of himself, Kelly Hansome explains to Don Jazzy, who obviously tutored D’banj on the “Igwe” track, hat it is not right to play with tradition- even if in entertainment. “You cannot be an Igwe if you are not a “Nwafo”. “Oji eru eru, (It is hereditary), he adds in the Owerri dialect of Igbo language. A nationwide vox pop is also carried out in the video amongst people of diverse ages and they all agreed on the fact that, “Igwe is not a title.” The case is further taken to the Council of Elders of the Eziobodo autonomous community. The redcap chiefs take pains to describe the dynamics of the “Igwe”. It is the highest rank that can be attained by a member of a community and it is hereditary. A foreigner cannot be an Igwe because it is the highest level of authority in the land and can never be given to a foreigner. They sum it up with a proverb, “Obiara abia ejila eri anya ehi”, which translates, “A foreigner cannot eat the eye of a cow.”

When asked if the song would not lead to some kind of tribal friction in the music industry, Kelly Hansome answered, “I am not causing a tribal war. If I should sing that I am an Oba, e no make sense. Oba is the same as Igwe and we should respect tradition.”

All this while, Mo’ Hits have not officially made any statements about the song. Terry G, on his part, responded that he understood that Kelly Hansome was just courting controversy and actually meant no ill. “I am Mr. Controversy myself and anybody can say anything in order to gain attention. I think that’s what Kelly is trying to do.” Notes and Tones also made efforts to contact Mo’ Hits but all efforts proved abortive as their manager, Mr. Sunday Are, was very uncooperative when contacted. But we have it on good authority that Wande Coal has already composed a retaliatory song for Kelly Hansome, what we don’t know yet is if they would release it. In the song, he took pop shots at Kelly Hansome, telling him that it is allowed for an artiste to prey on another one in order to gain recognition and that he had nothing again him since he (Wande) was making progress in his career and trivialities like the controversy Kelly is courting.

D’banj’s song, which Kelly Hansome is making so much fuss about, is more of hilarious than insulting. Igwe can be used in two contexts- as a title and a praise name. In the sense which D’banj used it, it was more of a praise name than a title as he even specified the title which was given to him, OSI NA NWATA BURU OGARANYA (Young Millionaire). It served to the utmost the musical duties to which it was deployed rather than anything else in the song.

Igbos, like Achebe said, are a people who respect and revere achievements. A great achiever and respectable member of the society can earn the sobriquet, IGWE, and he would in no way rival the King of the land. IGWE, EZE and OBI are all variations of the highest office of the land, which can be loosely translated to mean king. There is also the denotation of IGWE as “sky” or “heaven.” And even in the song, Kelly Hansome claims that he is the real IGWE, which by the definitions proffered in his documentary, he too has no claim to that rank.

Finally, on his relationship with KENNIS MUSIC, which he didn’t fully address in the documentary, a phone call to Kelly Hansome was redirected to one Nosa who claimed to be from ROLLOUT REPUBLIC, the new managers of Kelly Hansome. He told NOTES AND TONES that Kelly signed an initial two-year-one-album contract with KENNIS MUSIC which has now expired and that he is now with the management outfit based in the US and owned by Sola Adeogun. He has also formed his own record label called MAGA MEDIA and his album entitled NAMES OF NOISE MAKERS would be released on the imprint early next year.

We also reached across to KENNIS MUSIC and their spokesperson, Mr. Ndidi Godwin, told us that “What Kelly Hansome had with the label was a six-year-three album contract and so far only one album has been released. KENNIS MUSIC spent close to N20 million to bring Kelly Hansome back from Dallas, USA, to Nigeria, release an album for him, house and maintain him since then and also shoot three videos for him. So anybody that wants to sign any contract with him must first talk with KENNIS MUSIC and settle with them otherwise Kelly Hansome will never release any other album anywhere in the world.”

THERE’S NOTHING LIKE A NIGERIAN MUSIC INDUSTRY!- CLARENCE PETERS

Clarence Peters is one of the defining points of the current musical revolution in Nigeria. His videos are top class and positive tales about his kindness and talent have kept both the young, new and the old at his heels. He is about the youngest video producer in the country, but just check out any of his videos (we don’t need to mention any names, but you will definitely see Capital Records before you watch any three Nigerian musical videos in succession).

Notes and tones was able to get an audience with the very busy young man who did his film studies in South Africa. He is so busy, he tells us, that he doesn’t even have to comb his own hair so all the visible hairs on his body have gone shaggy. We talked about his work, the Nigerian music industry which he refuses to acknowledge, his relationship, with his father – Afrojuju exponent, Sir Shina Peters and his mother, the movie queen, Clarion Chukwura and a lot of very interesting issues…

Q:Were you at any time going to take after your dad in his line of work?

A: When I was growing up, I stayed with my grandmother in Ibadan. From our place then, I had a very good view of premier Hotel and that was the area where my father’s music was making waves. So I used to have my own children’s band with our bottles, cans and beverage tins. We used to stay in a corner to play our own music and that was the closest I got to following my father’s art. I respect his music but I doing it was never an option.

Q: Your parents are well known public figures, how has being their child affected you?

A: Positively, I learnt a lot from them as a kid. But I never strayed with my father, I stayed with my mother. I had the opportunity of having contracts with a lot of writers, producers, editors and directors. By the time I was nine years old, if you woke me up from sleep to define what characterization was, I could do that of hand. I got a lot of exposure from it and was away of the politics and history of the Nigerian entertainment industry.

Q: What is your relationship with your dad now?

A: I haven’t spoken to my father in three months because he deep changing his SIM Cards. Please tell him to stop changing his SIM cards so that we can talk.

Q: How does he feel about what you are doing?

A: We haven’t got around to talking about it, but I guess he is okay with what I am doing.

Q: When did you really start learning to do this?

A: I started doing play jobs since I was ten years old, by the time I was 15, I was already working as a co-director /assistant director/script supervisor for documentaries. By the time I was 17, I left to finish school and then went to work with Tajudeen Adepetu. I tried to pay attention to everything I was seeing except (which is strange) I never handled the camera. I used to be scared of the camera because I used to see it as very complicated. I knew all the rules; I knew everything about working with it but the camera was a very scary thing. So when I got into film school, I decided to face camera head on. I wanted to major in directing but then I realised that no one could really teach you how to direct. It’s a skill that you have to have inherent in yourself. They teach the basics which I learnt in the first year because I was already familiar with them having worked with them for a long time. So I just decided to face the camera because I don’t want to come back to Nigeria and find a D.P telling me that I can’t achieve this or that when I know I can achieve it.

Q: What are your views about the Nigerian music industry?

A: There is no music industry in Nigeria. We have all been lying to the people because everyone believes that there’s this organisation or concrete structure called the Nigerian music industry. Everything is all false. There is no structure. People are just getting shows and getting paid but it’s temporal. We all know that. Everybody is getting paid by the corporate and they are always looking for the next best thing. As soon as they find it, they carry their money and move there. So we don’t have structures. Our market doesn’t exist and you cannot really find a recording artiste – an artiste that will simply say, “I record. I don’t do shows and I have my small Jetta and my three-bedroom apartment and I am comfortable. I can make real music and as long as I can sell to my fan base, I am okay.” As long as the industry does not have that, then there is no industry. Don’t even get me started on whether we have guilds or not, that’s a completely different story. Until we can find recording artistes that are true to what they are doing no matter the kind of music it is and there is a market that will pay you for your work; a market that will respect your intellectual property, then we cannot lay any claims to a music industry. If you are basically talking about the music industry, what we have right now that you are seeing is just a couple of that are getting paid; another couple that knows how it should be done and are talking about it but when it gets to action, they are not there; another couple who try but get frustrated, so I have no choice but to give in and agree with everybody that there is a music industry in Nigeria.

Q: What then do you think are the solutions?

A: True everybody keeps talking about problems and no one ever proffers any solutions. I don’t think I have the answers. I don’t think any single person has the answers but I think we need to get people to respect other people’s intellectual property for one. Another, which is above everything else, is that we need a structure for marketing. We need to be able to estimate how much an artiste can make from the sales of a good album and how much he would make from an average album. There has to be some guarantees; some channel that one should follow and when those are done, I think we can start talking about having a music industry.

Q: Why do you wear this look?

A:

I just don’t have time to comb my hair. I didn’t keep dreadlocks or something. What happened was that I

left my hair for some time. It first of all became Afro and whenever I combed it, I cried because it was very painful. So I decided to leave it like that and it got to this state.

Q: What’s your typical day like?

A: Very busy. In a month, I could work for three weeks on videos and for the remaining week, I will be with my artistes in the recording studio or I am just watching videos. You know while watching these things, you can-never stop thinking. A lot of times, the work is here. I don’t stop working.

Q: What about your musical career; you do sing too?

A: A couple of years ago, I used to produce suspect. We used to be in a group called Praise Brothers. They are an acapella group but I never used to sing, I used to rap. I used to the intros and outros for the group, that was how I met I.D Cabassa. I have known Cabassa for about ten years now. After a while, I put all those aside; I put production aside beside when I was in film school, I majored in sound engineering. So that was my singing career but I still do some stuff these days.

Q: You worked with the guys on project fame, what was it like working with new acts that have never actually sung professionally before?

A: It was good. They were nice and it was wonderful working with them. They are a very talented lot and I enjoyed working with them.

Q: What is your philosophy of life?

A: I don’t really have a permanent philosophy because man is very dynamic. Man is always evolving and changing. My philosophy changes with the times. Three weeks ago, my philosophy was different and it will change again in the next three weeks.

"TRYBESMEN ARE NEVER COMING BACK TOGETHER" - ELDEE THE DON

Eldee Da Don is a household name In the Nigerian music scene. He and his Trybesmen used to rule the airwaves until they went their separate ways. Eldee travelled abroad, upgraded himself and came back last year. The Big boy, going by the title of his latest album and a track in which he specifically mentioned Encomium, took time out to give an honest appraisal of the Nigerian society and music.

Excerpts…

How has married life been?

Married life is good. It is really good.

How are you combining it with your music and other engagements?

My wife has been with me from the beginning, so she understands me perfectly and is fine. She had been with me for ten years before the marriage, so she knows everything about me and it wasn't hard when the relationship transcended to marriage.

What were the things that kept your relationship going for that long?
When you are dating someone who is your friend, it is different from just having some random girl from the road. We are simply made for each other, because it is difficult to find someone you agree with all the time and she is the one person I agree with all the time. We hardly ever fight and when we do, it is like a two-minute fight. I believe some people are actually made for each other because we met randomly at UNILAG and here we are today.

You spent so much studying Architecture without ever practicing it. Don't you feel those years were wasted?

I practice architecture in everything I do. The course improved my ability to do all that you see me do today. I don't necessarily design houses, but I create something everyday. Moreover, architecture features in virtually everything we do everyday.

Why did you go as far as a Master's degree in Architecture?

I think why anyone goes very far with education is to get properly enlightened so that anything that you do, you talk authoritatively about it.

It is the level of education that you acquire that positions you properly in the world. Getting a Master's degree was one of the things I figured I needed to do at that time.

And you still went overseas for more education?

The reason I left Nigeria was because I needed to grow. I needed the exposure. I needed to see where people do music at a very professional level. I needed to learn so I could bring back the knowledge to Nigeria. There are a lot of artistes in Nigeria right now who came with that level of exposure and you can always point them out.

That's on the music side. I also wanted to learn a lot of things about shooting music videos, music broadcasting, web development and design and all kinds of technical programmes and software. There's nowhere for one to learn those in Nigeria, even at this moment. Most of the people we call directors today are mere cameramen. Getting a good knowledge of how things are done was the only way I felt we could progress in Nigeria. That was why I left in the first place.

At the moment, how do you rate the Nigerian music industry?

The music industry has done very well, but we could do a lot better. In the time that it has been able to get to this level, I have to definitely give it a lot of props and give a lot of people who have been there in the long run credit. People like the Trybesmen, Plantashun Boiz, Paul Play Dairo, OJB Jezreel, Ruggedman, Sound Sultan and so many other people who have been doing this thing for so long and have continued to do it to this point when it has become profitable and is feeding hundreds of thousands of people.

Music has made the Nigerian entertainment scene more interesting and even the media has better and more interesting stories to tell. There's also a lot of appreciation coming the way of the musicians.

What particular areas do you think need improvement?

Some of the areas that could do with a lot of improvement are the publishing and rights. If a musician does not get money from his album, except from doing shows, then it is not a fair bargain. Songs are being played on radio without the radio stations paying any royalties. Songs are played in various public places without the musician who sweated night and day to produce that work getting anything from it. These people make so much money from the sweat of others and blatantly refuse to pay a dime for it. They use music to keep their patronage, but refuse to pay anything. People just grab our songs and use them for movies and adverts without paying anything. All these have to stop for the industry to grow.

What do you have to say about the proliferation of music studios in the country, at the moment?

That's what happens as a result of the fact that people have noticed the profitability in music and that's how the industry grows.

Being an experienced musician, what do you think are the standards that should govern such things and also in the establishment of record labels?

A record label is essentially a company that grows an artiste, puts the artiste out there, sells the artiste and gets a cut from whatever the artiste makes. It is like any industry. This then includes a lot of things on the part of the label. The label should have a good P.R machinery and enough clout to be able to open doors for the artiste.

In the Nigerian situation, the record label cannot function ideally. The only way to make money in this music business in Nigeria now, apart from endorsements, is from shows. Therefore, if you are a record label and your artiste is only making money from shows, what percentage of that money would make sense to you and how many shows does your artiste need to do to make good money? This is why record labels don't last.

If they invest as much money as they should on an artiste, how do they make their money back? Most of what we have at the moment are management companies and people who run around for artistes.

Who are the artistes on Trybe Records at the moment?

Myself and Oladele. We trimmed ourselves to just two so that we can concentrate on what we are doing and move forward. A lot of people have passed through my studio. Artistes like Sasha, 2Shortz, Sid and so many others and if I had operated as a business man, they wouldn't have come here.

Why do you always go abroad to shoot your videos?

It goes back to what I was saying about adding value to what you are doing. People complain about us going outside the country to shoot our videos, but what they have refused to understand is that nobody in Nigeria can shoot it that well with ease. What we usually have in Nigeria is one guy that has taken money out of his pocket to go learn the art and when he comes back to Nigeria, he is working by himself. He doesn't have professionals working with him. He is the cameraman, lighting man, gaffer, line producer, director and producer at the same time. When you have one person doing the work of about ten people, what you have is something of substandard quality, because they never get it right. Sometimes people have tried, but I still haven't seen people who can do it at that professional level.

We don't have schools that teach these things in Nigeria and if we do, they are so old and archaic that it is as if they don't exist. If there is any such school in Nigeria, then that school is a failure because they are not producing anything. I have been in an environment where real professionals work.

When I shot my video, I had a 14-man crew and every section of the shoot had a professional assigned to it. When only one person does these things, there's chaos. When you go abroad to do this, people are angry, but the fact is that the same amount of money they charge you abroad is what local directors would charge you at home. But when you are shooting your video abroad, you would at least have rest of mind. When you work with professionals abroad, you won't want to come home to work with quacks. Until we have professionals here, I won't shoot any video in Nigeria.

In your estimation, what makes a good producer?

A good ear for musical sounds; he should also be able to create sounds. A sound producer is one that understands music and can manipulate sound.

What makes a good singer?

That's more difficult. Some people are born with beautiful voices, while some people learn to sing. A good singer is either somebody who has a natural voice and can control it or somebody who has the technical know how of how to make the voice sound great.

Let's talk more about your family. How many children are you planning to have?

I don't know yet. I don't think I need to plan for that, but I know I don't want an overpopulated house. Maybe three or four and I'm done.

What led to the decision to settle down with your wife (Dolapo) this soon?

It was never a decision. I still do all the things I used to do before. I have been dating the same person for more than ten years, so nothing really changed. The only thing that changed was that I don't have to drop her at home again. She is here with me. I met her when I was in my third year and since then we have been together.

Are Trybesmen ever going to come back again?

I don't know if it will work. We perform together sometimes and do a lot of other things together, but when it comes to recording an album, I don't know. It involves a lot of hard work and we all are busy with our different projects. Everybody is now independent, but I don't see how Trybesmen can work. Everybody is so busy and it would mean us leaving everything we are doing.