Why is your album titled Breakthrough?
It is without a doubt a breakthrough for me. That album is my grass to grace story. The story of how I struggled to earn a living back in the days. The story of how I used to be paid N2000 to perform at comedy clubs and now, I collect big money. In totality, this is a breakthrough from stress and suffering.
Now, how much do you charge to perform at shows?
It depends because you cannot charge a student the same way you will charge a politician. Presently, I accept N3.5m from corporate organisations.
You had a rough start…
I never expected that I would be where I am today. I used to dance and do comedy in those days; music is a recent development. I am only a year and five months old in music. When I used to dance and do comedy, I got paid N1000 weekly and there were times I was not given a dime.
How did you get into comedy?
I began comedy when I was a student at the University of Uyo. We had one of those departmental nights and there was nobody to compère the programme. My friend and I decided to entertain the guests. We went on stage and cracked some jokes. Even though the jokes were not original, people still laughed. We were paid N3000 for that effort and I was surprised.
On another occasion, I was invited to participate in a dance competition and I won. Thereafter, I began to rehearse with a group. We performed at departmental nights and sometimes I got called upon to act as a compère.
How much dancing do you still do?
I don’t dance much these days because I have been busy with my album. Now that I’m finished with producing the album, I hope to resume dancing because I want to do more of live band performances henceforth.
Most artistes shy away from performing with the full complement of a band. Why have you chosen this route?
I want to stand out because even at my album launch which held in Uyo, I performed with a band. I have my own studio and I will procure band sets soon.
Why did you choose to launch your album in Akwa Ibom State instead of Lagos State which is considered the home of entertainment?
Apart from it being my home state, I began my career in Akwa Ibom where they have not been enjoying what people in Lagos are enjoying. They have been supportive of my career and having my album launch there is a way of showing appreciation for all they have done to assist with my career. To encourage my craft, the former governor of my state, Goodswill Akpabio, gave me a brand new 2015 Toyota Prado worth N20m.
Did you plan to embrace music?
I never knew I was going to become a musician. I went to Davido’s studio with a friend and that was where I met Shizzy. He came up with the idea of doing a song to eulogise Akpabio. I told him I did not have money to record a song and he still went ahead to compose a beat for me. Davido fell in love with the beat and wanted it for himself. At the end of the day, we all came together, came up with lyrics and recorded the song. The song went viral and a man called Mr. Tony came from nowhere and said because I mentioned Akpabio’s name in the song, he was going to give me money to shoot a video for the song. He gave me N2m which was used for the purpose it was designated. The video had more than 10 million views on YouTube.
Read it all on Punch
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