12th September, 2014
Music star Kingsley Okonkwo, popularly called Kcee, has stayed relevant on the music scene since his days as a half of KCPresh. MOTUNRAYO IDRIS met the hitmaker recently and he shared his experience as a musician and why many singers pay little attention to good lyrical content
Your first song with Presh, as KCPresh, was a gospel music, why did you veer into secular music?
We didn’t change our style of music and we are not gospel singers. If you listen to our album, it is more of an inspirational message. But after a while, we changed the whole concept and went more commercial as we grew in the business
If Star Quest hadn’t presented you both the opportunity, did you have an alternative then?
Of course as a young man growing up, I had the dream of being where I am today. Before the journey to Star Quest, I was already looking for opportunities to take me to where I am going and then the Star Quest came. It was a stepping stone, a very important tool.
God definitely has a plan for us and I always say that Star Quest was designed for us to move forward and showcase what we have. However, if there wasn’t Star Quest, probably something else would have come up to get us to the top.
What led to Presh and you parting ways?
We needed to do a separate album and not because we quarrelled over anything. We wanted to make more money and create new ideas as individuals. So we felt it was okay doing different albums which will eventually give us the attention we needed from people.
And you have Limpopo that brought you to limelight.
Honestly, Limpopo was the biggest breakthrough. Before then, I had been doing shows and recording music. I only had 60 per cent relevance before Limpopo. But I never went below. There was always something big each time there was a show. In fact our first album was a good one because we were travelling to different parts of the country after which we did Sengemenge and Shokori Bobo. We have had big songs really and we were busy making our money from music. There was never a time we were quiet, but Limpopo was like the biggest song that took me to the A list cadre of artistes in Africa, Nigeria and beyond. The song has taken me to so many places across the globe. I really believed in God’s plan. He used that to take my career to another level.
What inspired the lyrics of the song Ogadinma?
If you listen to most of my songs, it is either I am singing about my love for women or money. But I realised there should be a song in my album that will inspire and encourage people. Looking at my life as an example, I grew up in the ghetto of Ajegunle, and here i am today. So, Ogadinma is all about what happens everywhere and everyday in our lives. You see people going through a lot of hustle. Young people dreaming of a better future but because their parents are poor, they are faced with different challenges. The song was passing a message across that they shouldn’t be discouraged. It tells them they should be confident that everything will be okay. And the video explains it better. It shows that life is a process. The story line teaches and makes the younger ones learn that no matter how difficult life is, there is always hope. It was a deep message that I felt I should let out.
What is your take on the lyrical content of you contemporary singers?
The fact is that Nigerian music is different from the way it used to be. Looking at most songs of 20 years ago, there are a lot of content and messages. However, the society we are in today has changed, and the kind of songs we sing is not an exception. We are in the era of commercial music and that pressure is really affecting the content of music in Nigeria. Because everybody wants to make money, they have messed up everything. People out there also are not ready to listen to stories. We are being pushed to sing the kind of songs that will make them happy. They just want to dance and ease themselves. They are not ready to take time to listen to the message. Once it is ‘danceable,’ every other thing is inconsequential. The creative ones among us that write songs have tried severally to write songs with good messages, but it doesn’t sell like the street-hop, dance songs. So, what do we do? Sing about boobs, bum and booze, they are always happy. It is not like we can’t write good content but the society should also understand that music is business too. We want to feed from it. We have to do what will put food on our table. We are not more on 80 tempo but 130. This is not applicable to Nigeria alone, it is affecting other parts of Africa. Music is simply business. However, like the meaning of Ogadinma, everything will come back to normal.
Aside music, what other things do you do?
I am into other businesses. It is just that I don’t want them to overshadow my music career. That is why I do them underground. I don’t want people to see me from the prism of a businessman. I want to remain the musician they know me as. We have to secure our tomorrow because music might not always pay off and if one stops music, you can continue to live your life. If you don’t build a very good, solid foundation for yourself, there will be problem later. Because the kind of life entertainers live is very expensive and loud.
When you stop making hits, if not lucky, one may be back to square one. You won’t be able to maintain the kind of lifestyle you are known for and with time, that person may begin to beg.
Tell us about your record label.
Our record label is called Five Star Music. It is owned by my brother E Money and I am the vice president. We have four musicians under the label: myself, Mr Songz, Skibbes and Ernest. Ernest is yet to release any song as he is still going through music classes. For Skibees, he will be releasing his song by next month.