He is one musician who understands his trade and prides himself as one of the masters of the game who stands out from the rest. The rapper shares his story in this interview with SEGUN ADEBAYO.
You have been around for sometime, won awards and dropped songs that proved you are in the game for real. What is your perception about the music industry today?
With the little time that I have spent in the industry, I have discovered that music is not about what I feel alone, It is also about what people feel about you. You have to be able to combine people’s ideas with yours; I mean the logical content has to be meaningful. This may not matter to some musicians, but the fact is that Nigerians are beginning to know and accept core professional musicians. Nigeria is a land of meaning, there are reasons why we do our things, especially our cultural values. As long as you can master all these things, I can assure you that you will remain on top of your game in the industry.
Three years down the line, what has been the experience so far?
I have experienced disappointment; people have promised to do some stuffs, but failed. I now know why certain things cannot be achieved because you don’t have enough money to fight some forces. I have also experienced love and true spirit of Nigerians, who have continued to show me love, not minding whether I am rich or poor. That is the angle where I draw my strength from. I make intelligent music. The modern day Nigerian music doesn’t really have much intelligent content, sense and reasoning. The good ones we have are almost varnishing, with the likes of Adewale Ayuba, King Wasiu Ayinde, Ebenezer Obey, the late Orlando Owoh, the late Sikiru Ayinde Barrister and the rest, they have been able to redefine music the way they believe it should be done; I give kudos to them. Music nowadays is very shallow, so I have learnt these things in a space of three years. I have also learnt that If you want to beat 2face, Sound Sultan, you have to work harder than them, they have been there for over ten years and they are still relevant today, I have learnt that consistency and handwork pay.
You did a duet with Adewale Ayuba, what informed that?
It was a producer in Lagos who had worked with me when I did a duet with Sound Sultan. He called me after Chief Adewale Ayuba had gone through the list of young hip hop artistes who could add value to the remix of his popular track, “Happy people”. I met with Ayuba, he enlightened me and I discovered that no matter how electrified a music might be, you can’t rule out the importance of our traditional talking drum. So we worked together and it was a sweet experience.
Your dad is a soldier, how did he react to your decision to take up music as a career. Did he support you like Davido’s dad did?
Haaaa! My parents are definitely not in average of Omo Baba Olowo, Davido. My dad supported me mentally enough; home discipline, how to comport yourself, express yourself, respect people and also entertain people. He always says the highest he would do is to make me graduate from the university.
What’s your connection with the white garment church, I learnt you started music from there?
Hmm.... one day, there was power outage and my elder sister called me and said Lanre come and teach me some music notes. I sounded some notes and it was nice to hear. After that day, I started following her to their choir rehearsals. It was a white garment church at Olowu parish. In that church, if you want to learn about music, you have to start from the beginning. You have to start from the least instrument, which is agogo then graduate to cliff to build your sense of metronome, then konga, drum set, keyboard and the guitar. All these stages really helped me a great deal.
How did that experience help you?
I will say I am not just a musician, I know more about musical instruments and its arrangement. I am a complete musician in the real sense of it. If you want to be a serious hip-hop artist, you must be intelligent, you must be able to understand the world play, leave references, read a lot and be able to wrap your music around great tunes that people would fall in love with. For example, in my single, Angeli, where I featured 9ice, the theme was nice and if you listen to the one I did with 2face,- Get-Down, It was different from others.
Thank you. You are the mega-phone, car, nose and eyes of the people, I mean the media. The problem was with the marketer. I ensured that I did all necessary things before it was released. I had expected the marketer to do his job too, not to come up with the usual piracy thing. You guys in the media are the power of the people; voice of the voiceless. You could do great things for us with your pen. Some of the things we go through are beyond us. The album recorded success and still does. I think the problem came from the marketer. I couldn’t blame him much because I am privy to the problem of piracy in the country. But then, I expected him to have tackled the problem properly. Having said that, the album is selling, we are getting feedback from the people and I am happy about it.
Will this stop you from producing an album again?
The truth is I cannot fight pirates. How many do I even know? If we continue picking them one after the other across the country, the jail cell would soon fill up. However, if our government is really serious about its campaign against it, I am sure the menace would have long been forgotten. There are laws that forbid these people from swindling us, but the Nigerian government is not ready to step up the fight. Most Nigerian artistes cannot record high sales. If I tell you now that I sold 200 million copies, you can’t prove me wrong. I have had the opportunity to visit some places around the world and I discovered that the reason why things are not in a good shape in the country is because our government doesn’t take cognizance of certain things that should be treated seriously. In America, people don’t misbehave because government is watching; they are not special, they just do the right thing. I think government needs to realize that it could generate huge revenue from the music industry should it handle the music industry the right way. We don’t mind paying taxes if we are assured that we would get its dividends. Artistes are hardworking people, it is the responsibility of the government to protect our intellectual property and ours is to continue to do our job. I will produce again. I can’t stop. I just have to be wise about it and channel it through the right medium.
Some people believe that with your level of education and good command of English language, should music be your calling?
The truth is that I am a realist. I graduated with B.A in Philosophy from the University of Lagos. However, I know in Nigeria, we like to do what we love. Music is what I love doing. Statistics have shown over the years that an average American youth is full of confidence. He does not see anything stopping him and he wants to make use of every opportunity that comes his way. This is what I am trying to do. So I will use music, backed by the power of the media, to enforce the change.
You are always saying you are married to your music, but how do you explain your relationship with a female model recently?
I still don’t know where the news emanated from. I will always repeat this, I am married to music for now. I appreciate my fans, especially whenever the opposite sex approaches me. I will be stupid if I attribute it to sex. I probably don’t give out my number or house address but I appreciate people a lot. I am not just cut out for what some of my colleagues do. Those who know me would tell you that I hardly talk about women let alone hang out with them.
Are you scared they could break your heart?
It goes beyond that. Right now, I want to focus on my work and give it the best shot. I am not scared of women. I just don’t have time for them now.
We have a number of rappers that are currently making wave in the industry, how do you rate yourself among your colleagues and what is it about you that makes you stand out?
If you notice my style, you will notice that I am different. I don’t share the same feelings, reason or fraternise with what they do. I believe in a school of thought that the best thing to compete with is yourself. Husain Bolt is a perfect example, at a particular time, he ran and won as the fastest runner.
The following year, he ran faster and beat his own record and he remains world number one today. We are different people, I am Yoruba boy who studied Philosophy and grew up in the barracks, that to me is unique, I have traveled to many places, I don’t see myself competing with anybody.
Don’t you think the likes of Davido, Wizkid, Olamide are stealing the show from you and others?
I have never seen it like that. I will never see it that way.
Why?
These guys are successful and I bless God for their lives. If you care to know, our audiences are different, so they are not stealing the show.
What makes you stand out?
I don’t mean to disrespect anybody, I have high moral; the guy that doesn’t do tattoo or plait his hair. Moreover, I am a guy that believes in education before anything.
Are you saying this because some of these guys have tattoo on their bodies and that a handful of them dropped out of school?
No! I’m saying what makes me stand out is what I have been doing and what makes them stand out is what they have been doing. You see, we are not contemporaries, so no threat. I have my fans around the world and I am comfortable with the love they show me. Nigeria is developing, not because we are comparing it with other developing countries. If we do that, we are not developing.
Why did you have 9ice, Sound Sultan, Kl, Ayuba without any of the young guys in your album?
Let me correct this impression, I may be young but I have an adult mind. Sound Sultan, 9ice and others that you mentioned have grown up. They don’t have any reason to raise their shoulders against yours. They have seen it all. I went to feature 9ice in his house, he offered me Champagne and we ate amala together, unlike the younger generation, we like to raise shoulders for ourselves, creating a competition that does not exist.
How do you know they would raise shoulders if you don’t extend the invitation to them?
Hey! You talk like because you don’t know these people. How can you even prove it that I did not invite them? Yes, we have tried to work with people but they didn’t want to work with us. I did a song with an artiste in South Africa, E-hunter. He had invited some people in Nigeria but they refused to work with him. When South Africans heard the song, they accepted it and wanted to hold me down to be a motivational speaker at a University College over there. Can I get this offer in my country? The answer is no. When I approached 2face, he exuded a high level of maturity. The experience was awesome. The same thing happened with Sound Sultan. King Wasiu Ayinde Marshal really took time to do the duet, despite his tight schedule. So, if you tried that with the younger generation and it didn’t work, you let it be.
It is not as if one’s success is tied to them. I believe in your game and not your name.
What does Victor stand for?
I came about that at our Physics laboratory when I was in the secondary school. There was this teacher, Dr Eniola who called me to the laboratory and said, we are studying VECTOR today. Everybody in the lab that day shouted. Eventually, it turned to be a good name. It was defined as a body that has both magnitude and its direction and I immediately keyed into that behavior. So, I decided to add Viper; carrying the music poison that bites people.
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