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First about I did not come to Germany to study, at a certain point I had to flee Nigeria, I didn’t really make up my mind; the political situation wasn’t so great at the time added to the religious violence. Music has always been part of my life I was doing it even before my university studies, It was part of my hobbies, and at certain point I wanted to explore more on that, I wanted to keep it a secret too, but it simply evolved naturally, when I was studying, added to music I had to juggle between 2 or 3 jobs at the same time, and of course the music was also a part time job that was helping me pay my schools bills because I didn’t had any support, I didn’t want to borrow money from the bank or the state either, because when you chose to borrow you will have to pay back all your life. I used music to finance my studies.
At what time in your life you thought music was your vocation and how was the reaction of your close acquaintances and family about this choice of yours?
I never made that decision I finished my study first, and I’m still practicing as an anthropologist, archeologist, I’m not just a musician. I do scientific research, I cannot do just music alone.
So music somehow helps you to carry on with other things in your life?
Definitely.
By the time you became somebody noticed in the music scene what was the reaction of your family?
My family has never really been part of my higher education, my university life, I was really independent after spending over 3 year in Germany that is when I decided to go back to Nigeria and see my father I was still a student and even after when I finished my studies I still went back home doing the music connected me more to my father and my family better because at a certain point there was a break from being away for almost 4 years, I think this kind of brought us back together. I think he’s also proud of what I have done using music so far, as not just a way to entertain but to raise awareness on some crucial issues. I think you as an African as well, I’m sure you can relate to that.
You started to work in the early 2000 with the hip hop beat maker DJ Farhot, how the hip hop culture as affected the artist you are today?
It helped me a lot because when I came to Europe I barely had any knowledge of what was really the hip hop music all I knew was Nas, the Fugees and so for. I didn’t know too many big names so Farhot kind of introduced me to the genre, he in the other hand he did not know much about African music, all he knew, is that African people like reggae music, and I had to tell him _ we don’t do only reggae, in fact reggae come from Jamaica and not everybody smoke weed in Africa, we do have several rhythms in Africa, High life, Afrobeat and so forth, we have so many tribes and folks genre… in fact it was an exchange of culture and very educational at the same; also he’s from Afghanistan and he has that Afghani influence mixed with German influence and me coming from Africa, I guess made the music so colorful.
At your beginning, what did you feel while hitting the stage next to renowned artist such as Sean Paul, Bilal, Nas, and Femi Kuti, the Marley brothers or Lenny Kravitz? What lessons, did you learned from these musical encounters?
I have learned a lot from these encounters, one has to be humble, regardless of where you go in life humility is very important, and how you carry yourself how you have to communicate with your Band members. I also learned a lot about patience, have patience in yourself, patience with the way you play, practicing your skills when you learn to play an instrument. And consciously it helped me to understand the responsibility we have as musician. You know today music is almost bigger than politics. We have a lot of responsibilities, ...