29th November, 2013
Within three years on the Lagos music scene, Afro-pop singer, Obinna Kelvin Anyanwu popularly known as Waconzy, has built a huge fan base that is heterogeneous. He spoke to FUNSHO AROGUNDADE on why he relocated to Lagos from Port Harcourt, his style of music and how he makes his millions
Q You relocated to Lagos three years ago and here you are gradually climbing onto the top of the city music scene. How will you describe the progression?
It is simply God and hard work. But I always remind people that the fact that things are moving up with me doesn’t mean I have not been through challenges. I have been through mad challenges, trying to establish myself on the music scene here but I later understand that what works for me is that anything you give away freely must always come back to you in good form. I am a giver. I sow and give anything I can give. Even before I moved to Lagos, I gave away my car. I came to Lagos without a car. I give too much and I think that is part of the reason I could get things back some way, somehow. But I thank God for supporting me so far.
Why did you leave Port Harcourt in the first place?
Nothing special but basically I left Port Harcourt for Lagos to conquer new ground. I started in Port Harcourt and conquered the city peaceful. I later extended my territory across the Niger Delta. It got to a point, I was being called a Niger Delta artiste. Somehow, my music found its way to Lagos and every other part of Nigeria, and made an impact. Then, I moved abroad. But my interest now is to conquer the world and I chose Lagos to connect myself to the world because Lagos has everything I need. It has the tools I need for my business.
But the story we heard was that you don’t get along with the other stars in the city like Timaya, Duncan Mighty and Burna Boy?
That is a lie but I am going to tell you the truth. We stay in a small Port Harcourt and we try our best to make good music. But the truth it is that Port Harcourt is not a music place. It is an oil and gas place. After oil and gas, the next thing is civil service. It is not even a business place, so you have little space for music business to thrive. To a reasonable extent, everybody competes to be the first or the second or the third. So the competition is really mad in Port Harcourt.
Tell us about your new album?
My new album is titled Money Back Guarantee. It is a 20-track album featuring a couple of great songs. All the songs in Money Back Guarantee will keep music lovers satisfied for a very long time because it is a three-year project. I am not going to release any album until three years after now. We are going to make 10 hit songs out of the album, and we will promote one after the other. The album has already yielded three hit songs right now: Jangolova, a massive hit duet with Banky W, Club on Fire and Amosu. They are all big hits now and later we are going to push a couple of other songs. We plan to shoot 10 videos out of the album. We already shot five and going to shoot another five during the second phase of the project. There will also be a lot of international remix. We already made one with Truth Hurts in the United States. We have also made the Ghana remix of Amosu and I will also have another remix with Fat Joe. In our plan, Money Back Guarantee album is projected to sell five million copies because we have put everything together. The album also has collaborations with other great artistes like Faze, Chidinma, Rhymzo, Naeto C and Slow Dogg.
What is your take on the belief that many Nigeria artistes now pay their foreign counterparts for collaboration?
I don’t know about that but for me, I didn’t pay a dime for all the collaborations. It all pulls through by the grace of God.
What message are you preaching in your song Amosu?
The single Amosu is a moral sort of song. Like most of my song, they are always expression of reality. It is mostly about what I have been through or a real life experience of some people that I know. They constitute 90 per cent of my songs. The moral behind Amosu is to let people know that the spiritual controls the physical. Of course, the meaning of Amosu is an enemy of progress. But if you want to go to the deeper context, you can say it means spiritual enemy of progress. What I am saying in that song is to let people know that there are so many powers that we cannot see and that it is only God that protects us. I am advising people to always keep themselves spiritually clean. And once they do that, no matter how evil people try, they can never win over good.
Why are you delving into a spiritual theme when your contemporaries in the hip-hop genre are concentrating on commercial and fun music?
The truth is that I have never really been a fan of fun music. But my last song Club On Fire has some flavour of fun in it. And even if you listen to the song, you will notice that I was just expressing what happens in the club. But what I set out to do with my music is to create an impact and use my music to teach my fans about the good values in our society. I feel through my music, I should be a voice for so many people so that when I am gone people will remember me for my story and things I sing about. I am concerned about songs that touch different aspects of life, that is why I recorded songs like Celebrate, which talks about what I have been through and things I hope to see. Too Much Money on why I believe, and Wedding Day which talks about when I get married, how it is going to be and possible advice I have for people too at the end of the day. In that song, I let people know that marriage is a very big institution and people that are not ready should not go into it for the sake of their unborn children. That also applies to Amosu, which is a realty song.
How rich is Waconzy?
How rich I am? Well, what I can say is that Waconzy is comfortable and doesn’t have any financial challenge. There is nothing Waconzy wants to get that he cannot. Waconzy is rich enough to help other people and he is so rich to do anything he wants to do.
How true is it that you bought over your company DV8 Media for $100,000?
Yes and that was a long time ago when DV8 was still worth about $100,000. To buy over that company, it wasn’t only about the cash that exchanged hands, there were other dealings. But right now DV8 Media equity and its monetary value is very high.
So, how much is it worth now?
I can’t tell you what it’s worth now. I am keeping quiet about it. DV8 Media is worth more. It is worth more than a million dollars now considering our investment, returns, set target and investment rate too. It worth about a million dollars and it would be worth more than that by the end of this year because we have been able to reach a milestone. DV8 has grown to have subsidiaries that are into entertainment, media, aviation services, solution provider and other ancillary business.
Why did you shave off your dreadlock?
Waconzy brand is not just about music. Waconzy is a musician and businessman. Just like Akon and JayZ, I am a business executive. So I shaved it off for a look that will befit my new status as a company CEO. Most of the time, we do board meetings with other directors and at times, meet with other big company executives.