Orezi
is one of the emerging star artistes in the Nigerian music industry.
The young artiste has been doing music professionally for four years and
his effort is being recognised notable his nomination for the Channel
O’ Ragga/Dancehall song of 2012. Recently, the graduate of Urban and
Regional Planning known as the ghen ghen guy released a new video,
Rihanna and it has been the toast of music lovers even among his
colleagues including being favourite on the twitter social media. In
this chat with SAMUEL ABULUDE, amiable Orezi Allen Esioghene speaks
about why he did a song on the pop diva Rihanna, his upcoming album and
his most embarrassing moment
What have you been up to?
Always
working, I’m working on making my music publicly known in Nigeria and
across the shores of Nigeria. Basically, I’m just trying to expand my
brand. I have a new video, Rihanna which is on airplay right now. I’m
also working on my new songs which are coming out pretty soon. Also, my
album is in the works. I’ve got two singles coming out,I don’t know yet
whether it’s going to be together or separately. One is titled, ‘You’ve
Got it’. It’s a word for everybody that is doing well in whatever
endeavour. You’re a musician, you’re a fine girl, you’re a banker, you
got it. As long as you’re doing well, you’ve got it.
Simply
put in our own language, ‘Baba you get am’. My second song is a love
song. It’s going to be the best wedding song for the year. I’m still
working on the perfect title for it. It’s a love song, the best love
song for the year. I hope to perform at Dangote’s daughter’s wedding,
Adenuga’s son’s wedding, Fashola, all of them, dem dey owe me money so I’ve got to collect my money (Laughter).
The little twist to the song is that for the first time, I’ll be
shooting my local languages, Isoko from Delta State. I’m a confirmed
Warri boy.
For how long have you been a singer?
I
have been in the business since 2009, we’re talking of four years now.
My first single, I no fit lie was out in August 2009. It was well
accepted and that was the song that bought me to limelight. I was in and
out of Nigeria then but came out fully in 2011 after completing my NYSC
as a graduate of Urban and Regional Planning from University of Lagos. I
normally go to South Africa to holiday and there was a particular time I
stayed there for a while and a lot of people thought I grew up or
stayed in South Africa though I have a large fan base there. A couple of
months ago, I did a tour of Pretoria and Johannesburg. My music is
kind of diverse. I like to always experiment. I put myself to my sounds
and whatever sound comes to my head, I plug into it. But basically, I am
into different genre of music, it comes from R&B, Dance hall, hip
hop but I call it ghen ghen music.
Your song was nominated as the Channel O’ Ragga/Dance Hall of the year 2012?
Yeah, Buddy Bounce was
the song, my third official single. I was elated hearing that it was
nominated as Ragga/Dance Hall of the year 2012. I felt great. A lot of
people don’t notice your work, they don’t probably give you what you
deserve. As at the time I dropped Buddy Bounce, I had dropped E Mo Ti video that was doing pretty well in Nigeria. It was topping the chart. I sang Ko Mi Je with
Jimmy Jatt, it was doing pretty well and I now had Buddy bounce. I
began to see Nigeria Awards then none of the songs was nominated. I
didn’t feel good about that. As at that time I felt I was doing pretty
well in the Industry. I had three songs and they were good. Ko Mi Je was along with Jimmy Jatt, Sauce Kid, Muna and those were the artistes doing well in Nigeria. I had E Mo Ti, a Dance all song and it was doing well. I hadBuddy Bounce and in nominations and categories in Nigeria, they were not there. I felt embittered and was questioning myself, Watz Up! because
there were some that were not doing half of what I was doing. When I
say did well, I mean how the public accepted it, from the clubs to radio
to TV and all my songs had videos. And they had people in Nigeria that
didn’t have videos and they were nominated. I felt bad and didn’t
understand Nigeria but as at that time that I was feeling bad, I was
nominated for an award that wasn’t Nigerian-based, in South Africa. I
felt somebody, somewhere recognised my hard work even though those in
Nigeria don’t which was sad and disappointing. In an environment where
the people don’t embrace you and you now receive accolades from the
outside. It’s awkward but I was in Zaria coming from a show, when I saw
it on my phone, “Orezi nominated for Channel ‘O Awards”. I didn’t
believe it, I called my manager and we checked it and it was true. I
felt relieved. Dis award dey, dere and dem no nominate me and I have been around for a while.
I do good music by all standards. Before Buddy Bounce, I did two videos, I no Fit lie and High B.P. They
were shot in South Africa. I was happy at long last though I didn’t win
it. An artiste, Buffalo Shoulders from South Africa won it.
What inspired your Rihanna video?
Rihanna
was a song I created for about a year. It’s a love song about a girl, a
girl I met that looks like Rihanna. I’m a big Rihanna fan. She’s a
pretty girl and is doing well, a young girl that has obviously attained a
great height in life.
You don’t mind being weird like Rihanna?
I
don’t like to do the same normal things like her, if that can be said
to be being weird. So, I’m a big fan of her music. Being called weird
has a lot of connotation and depends on which aspect of weird you’re
talking about. When somebody does something abstract or something
different, you could address it also as being weird. To an extent, my
music could be described as something different from the norm. I’m a big
fan of Rihanna and I love her music and when I did the song, it was
because I met a girl that looks like Rihanna, a love song that describes
me liking a beautiful girl and proclaiming my love for her. I wrote the
song. I got the chorus, I got the hook and I got the verse. When I
wanted to shoot the video, there was a great need to look for a Rihanna
look alike. It was challenging getting it right. A lot of girls came
with pictures of themselves and a couple of them don’t even have the
look, they just wanted to be in the video. I wanted to use this girl in
Tinsel, Damilola Adegbite who looks like Rihanna but she was in Banky
W’s video. So we now had to look for somebody else. Since we wanted a
global look for the video, we decided shooting it in South Africa and
sent a word out there to get a Rihanna look alike. Currently my video
has gotten over 90,000 views on you tube and it’s barely a month since
it was released. Judging by that, it’s my most successful. And two days
after I did the video early in September, I got verified on twitter. So
far, I’ve shot two videos in South Africa and one in Nigeria.
Definitely this has made people to reckon with Orezi?
Yeah,
Orezi- Rihanna- the song just brought me a little bit out there. The
song really has announced me because people that didn’t know me before,
they talk about it. People and a lot of artistes find a way to reach me
and say they love that song: Banky W, Sound Sultan and others by
twitter. So it means the song got to a lot of people. A certain time,
Banky W twitted that Orezi’s Rihanna is a jam. I was surprised. I felt
good because they make me feel this guy is talented but I’m yet to prove
myself. I think my newest work will show them how much of a talent God
has blessed me with. It’s always a movement and it’s a never ending
story. You don’t prove yourself in one day. There are so many emerging
artistes doing well and it only shows that music business is a great
business. Nobodi wan run enta biznes wey no go do well (Nobody
wants to deal in a business that does not do well in pidgin). For
artistes to be coming out every day, it shows that there’s a lot in
Nigeria music industry. Music is the only thing that puts food on my
table at the moment. Currently, I’m not even using what I studied in the
university. Music is just Plan A for me, there is a Plan B. I’m rich
enough to fend for myself and take my friends out.
One wonders how young artistes break even after spending so much on a video?
Yes we spend so much on a quality video because we have to compete. I give you an example; on my Buddy Bounce video;
I spent about N2 million. Within three months after the video release, I
didn’t really make any money, I was waiting but exactly three months
after, I made double the money I used to shoot the video. I did a lot of
shows last year -2012, between Augusts to December, making over triple
the budget. It’s like mathematics, music is a give and take certain
business, I’ll say. You put in this amount of money; It’s almost 100%
that you are going to make the money back given that you meet all the
external factors that deserve that product. When you do your promotions
very well, then it’s almost sure that you make your money back. Given
the population that we have in Nigeria, there is no business that can’t
thrive. Trust me, all you need is about 100,000 that will key into what
you are doing. I make my money through online downloads since I don’t
have an album yet. The Alaba boys also have it on their mix tapes only
that I don’t see the money. If your song is doing well it gets to the
Alaba-mix automatically. For us, it’s always a competitive market.
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