Excerpts of interview with AYDU AMAH, the former Big Brother Nigeria Housemate who is currently making waves on the Nigerian music scene....
1. WHO IS AYDU AMAHA AND WHAT CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT YOUR BACKGROUND?
I am an all round entertainer who can sing, present and act. I see myself as the Big Brother of Nigerian music. I am the Big Boy who is ready to take his crown as the king of Hiphop. I sing and rap to send messages for the nation and to make my fans happy.
I am the last of 7 kids, grew up in a middle class Nigerian family back in warri in what is called Delta state today. We moved out to Port-Harcourt in ’98 and pretty much built a much stronger family unit having lost our mum in ’93.
After university in Awka Anambra State I made it into the inaugural Big Brother Nigeria show in 2006, its been up and up ever since.
2. DID YOU GRADUATE FROM THE UNIVESITY AND WHAT COURSE DID YOU DO?
I graduated from Nnamdi Azikiwe University in 2005 with a second class lower degree from the department of linguistics.
3. YOU STUDIED LINGUISTICS AND YET YOU ARE INTO MUSIC NOW, WHY?
I recognised my talent as an entertainer sometime around 1998, over time I knew I wanted to be a star and I kept going. After finishing Big Brother Nigeria, I knew music and entertainment is what I wanted to do with my life but it was hard getting a sponsor that believes in me until I met Ope Banwo of Stingomania records.
4. WHO WERE YOUR MUSICAL INFLUENCES WHEN GROWING UP?
I listened to plenty of Osadebey, Oliver d Coque, Michael Jackson and Tupac.
5. WHAT WOULD YOU SAY WAS YOUR MOST MEMORABLE SONG WHEN YOUWERE GROWING UP?
Not very sure, there was always something hot around, it was either Sir Shina Peters, MJ, Alex O. Music was nonstop around me though I have always been captivated with the adure song of Sir Rex Lawson while growing up
6. WERE THERE ANY MUSIC HEROES THAT INFLUENCED YOUR MUSIC?
I am not so sure right now because I had access to a bit of everything though I was very interested in Sir Rex Lawson and Osita Osadebey.
7. CAN YOU GIVE US A SUMMARY OF YOUR MUSIC CAREER TO DATE
I started writing in 1998, formed the group Def Soldiers which went on to win 2 awards back in my home city of Port-Harcourt. I performed throughout my days in university and I finally got a record deal with Stingomania records in 2009. Since signing up with Stingomania, my music has stepped up big time becos the Coach allowed us to have free expression with our music and he provided us with a first class audio recording studio and two resident producers.
Now my debut album is finally coming out next month and I am so excited about it particularly after the Coach finally found a foreign marketer who purchased 20,000 copies for about $9.99.
8. WE KNOW IT IS NOT EASY FOR A YOUNG ARTISTE TO START A CAREER, HOW DIFFICULT WAS IT FOR YOU TO GET YOUR FIRST DEMO TRACK?
As difficult as making the choice to use my A-level exam fees to pay for the session. I knew my family would kill me if they found out what I had done but I had no choice. I was desperate to get my music done and there was no other choice. Its either pay for my exams or give the money to music producers and I chose music. I paid the price but I have come to realize that most artistes had to go through that phase due to limited recording labels and investors willing to take a chance on a rookie artiste.
9. TELL US ABOUT HOW YOU GOT YOUR BREAKTHROUGH IN MUSIC AND WHAT IT HAS BEEN LIKE TO GET HERE?
Really stressful but I understand nothing in life comes easy so I will keep on. I had a 2 year frustrating period after my appearance as part of the cast of Big Brother Nigeria. I had really expected the Big Brother show to be my platform for breakthrough and was very encouraged with the different promoters and marketers that were coming around after the show to encourage me to go for it.
Unfortunately, while I had lots of discussions with people who promised heaven, none of them came through at the critical time. I was ready to explode but nobody gave me the spark. I learnt a lot from the experience that you cant rely on promises and that you must learn to wait for your time to shine.
Eventually, I ran into Stingomania boss who was surprised at the quality of my music and why nobody has taken a chance on me. He signed me up and started to major marketing and positioning moves that got me ot where I am now.
10. CAN YOU TELL US THE STORY BEHIND YOUR GETTING HOOKED UP WITH THE WAVE MAKING STINGOMANIA RECORDS?
What can I tell you, I had a hot material, the managers liked it and I got a deal. It was that simple although the process was a bit more complicated. I was initially hired as a product development manager by Stingomania but somewhere along the lines the Stingomania Boss stumbled on the music I had done just after the big Brother Show. He asked me why I didn’t tell him I was a musician too but I explained that I had had too many disappointments and heartbreaks with promoters who promised only to break my heart. He encouraged me not to give up on my dream and asked if I was ready to hustle now for my career. When I said yes, he made an exception and signed me up as an artiste.
Being signed by Stingomania is probably the greatest thing that has happened to me in a long time. It meant a lot to me that a man who hardly knew me will believe in me and take up my career when some of the entertainment moguls that I knew very well only promised and did nothing. The CEO of Stingomania has actually surprised me with how much he has invested in my career in terms of money, emotion, training and motivation.
11. WE HEAR STINGOMANIA RECORDS IS A BEEHIVE OF ACTIVITIES, WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR EXPERIENCE AS A STINGOMANIA ARTISTE?
Out of this world. Stingomania is so unconventional that you don’t know what to expect from the Coach. You wake up every morning excited and ready for anything. Sometimes we just gather for business training, sometimes for strategy sessions and sometimes just to goof around.
Stingomania experience is just too wild and interesting. We can get into the studio at any time to record music or even shoot a music video on the spot. Stingomania has everything at the studio and he allows us to do whatever we want artistically though he is very disciplined and hard when it comes to conduct and following agreed procedure in house.
The other artistes on the label are also wild and they are so good that Nigerian music don’t even know what is about to hit them when the coach start unleashing them one after the other. Trybson, Baba Nee, Whichlevelz, Bianca Black and others re just waiting to explode too
12. WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE STINGOMANIA STAR
Me! No to be proud but my other artistes just know I am the best of the best at Stingomania. That’s why they call me Aydu Big Boy! Ask any of them and they will confirm that Aydu is the big cahuna in the pond. While I love Baba Nee, Trybson, Eazy Lizy, Naturah and others, I am simply the big brother in the Stingomania house!
13. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BOSS, OPE BANWO. I HEAR YOU GUYS CALL HIM COACH…
The man knows what it means to lead, and he has a way of making you listen as he teaches you to understand how the world works. How many CEOs of record labels do you know that actually organize training sessions for their artistes on a weekly basis on different topics ranging from personal development, to business to marketing and branding? Sometimes the training can go on the whole day. There was a time we had an impromptu training for 2 days straight and none of the training has to do with music, just stuff like leadership, team work, ethics etc! I was just blown away.
We all call him coach because he uses every opportunity and situation to train. If you make a mistake, after yelling at you, he will sit you and any of the staff around down and use the mistake to teach a new principle or lesson. I have never seen anything like it. Also, calling him Coach is our only way to avoid calling him by his first name which he insisted everybody at Stingomania must do. We all go by our first name whether you are General Manager, manager or cleaner but it is hard to call Coach by name. The guy is old enough to be my fatherand he is the owner of the company. So Coach satisfies everybody.
I really cant tell you enough about my boss. He is very creative and does not believe that anything is impossible. His favorite teaching is that we should think as if THERE WAS NO BOX. He believes that even if you think outside the box, you are still limited by the reference to the existing box but if you think as if there was no box at all, then your imagination can really run wild to bring about solutions.
14. WHO WOULD YOU CONSIDER THE KING OF MUSIC IN NIGERIA TODAY?
The whole environment looks chaotic. There is no clear king and from my perspective, it looks like the new generation is looking for a king, it needs to be taken over by its king in waiting. Who else is the king but me. The Big Boy is coming and everyone else needs to watch out.
15. WHEN IS YOUR ALBUM GOING TO BE RELEASED IN THE MARKET?
Next month. Finally, the Big Brother is ready to storm the market with his debut album. Fans are guaranteed to get value for their money and get a fresh of new breath with some of my tracks in the Ishi Monkey album.
16. WHO IS GOING OT MARKET AND DISTRIBUTE IT
Nollywood blockbusters and Stingomania Entertainment are working together to get storm the music world with an innovative and aggressive plan that will introduce some new models for music marketing and distribution in Nigeria. The Coach is getting ready to do his thing and prove why they call him the Solutions Provider.
17. HOW MUCH ARE YOU SELLING YOUR ALBUM AND HOW IS IT GOING TO BE DISTRIBUTED
This is an exclusive international release for N1,000 and My works will only be available in exclusive stores within Nigeria and by Black Treasure in the U.S.A. it will also be on itunes, reverbnation, cdbaby and rhapsody online.
We understand that it is a bit unusual to sell our album for N1000 in Nigeria but then Stingomania has never been known to be conventional. This is a new movement and all of us are committed to it. We are trail blazers and understand what is at stake.
18. WHY ARE YOU SELLING FOR N1,000 WHEN OTHER CDS ARE SELLING FOR N150 IN THE MARKET?
I have to get paid, an artiste can only survive when product pricing is right in the market, N150 will not keep anybody alive in these times. At the current pricing, it is clear that it will take a long time before I see any reasonable royalty considering that Stingomania has already spent over N4million on production of my album and music videos. This is what has caused fights between artistes and record labels in the past because most artistes did not understand the accounting and business side of this business. The Coach has trained us over time on the issues and encouraged us to read up and investigate on our own. Before Tuface came out with the N1000 ALBUM Coach has already told us that something has to give on the present pricing structure. So we were all happy when Tuface finally said enough is enough and decided to release our own albums at N1000 too.
I believe the price of N1000 is very reasonable to sell the CD when you consider that the same CD can sell for $19.99 abroad and we have been selling the same album for N12.99 online for months without problem. One of the marketers in Wisconson, USA has actually bought 20,000 copies for distribution in the USA. We are convinced this would work and in any case we are not relying on traditional outlets to sell this thing.
19. ARE YOU NOT WORRIED THAT THE MARKET WILL NOT ACCEPT THAT PRICE?
I have good music, that’s what makes all the difference. I believe the market will come to accept the new realities that will allow labels and artistes to survive. As Coach will say, IMPOSSIBILITY IS ONLY A STATE OF MIND. We believe we will sell the cds with our unique selling strategy which is not relying on mainstream distribution channels
20. WHO IS THE CURRENT LOVE OF YOUR LIFE?
My music. The big Boy has too many things going on right now to think of women. I will be hosting the Golden Jubilee of Entertainment in a months time while also going on a nationwide tour to promote my album. The mamas can wait for a while. Now, the big boy is working
21. YOU HAVE BEEN DOING LOTS OF PERFORMANCES RECENTLY, WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH FANS
I have played a couple of gigs in the last couple of weeks and when I get on the stage it feels as if I transmit my internal energy through the audience, they give me back what I give them on the song and that is love. I even surprise myself with the energy I generate once I am given the mike. It can only be God.
22. WHAT IS THE MOST EMBARRASING THING THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED TO YOU AS AN ARTISTE
The Big Brother is never embarrassed. Big Boys are not embarrassed. I have never been been embarrassed. I expect anything and take everything in my stride.
23. WHAT IS YOUR WILDEST DREAM AND WHAT DO YOU FANTASIZE ABOUT THE MOST?
I dream a whole lot so if I start talking about them here I will probably fill out 5 pages, but first up I dream of the day I would pay for my phantom rolls Royce…Trust me you don’t want to know my wildest dreams. You will probably get fired by your boss for printing it….
24. WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS TO PROMOTE YOUR ALBUM PRIOR TO AND AFTER RELEASE OFF YOUR ALBUM?
We are doing major radio runs, club performances and we will be giving out freebies like blackberries, recharge cards, wrist bands etc to get the customer longing for our works.
One of our innovations is the BUY a CD AND WIN A BLACKBERRY BONANZA for our fans. You buy a cd and have opportunity to win a blackberry as well as other great prizes.
25. ARE YOU PLANNING AN ALBUM LAUNCH
Not in the conventional manner. Stingomania does not roll the conventional way. The management plans to throw me out on the road promoting the product and hosting celebrity parties, we think it’s the best way to get it going. Remember, Stingomania is very unconventional. We will be doing something different than the norm
26. WHO ARE THE CURRENT MUSICIANS YOU ADMIRE THE MOST
I believe there are lots of great musicians out there but saying I admire them is bit strong. I admire the old school who have made way for us the young generation but I cant accept that any current artiste is better than me. You can only admire someone if you think they are doing what you cant do. Nobody current is better than me, pound for pound and talent for talent. So the case of admiration does not arise. Maybe they have had more opportunities and exposure but certainly not better.
27. WHAT DO YOU SEE FOR THE FUTURE OF MUSIC IN NIGERIA
I don’t look so much at the general future, I only see me on top of the industry in a few months from now.
28. WHAT IS YOUR TAKE ON THE RECENT CONTROVERSY BETWEEN HITV AND MSCN?
I think the issue is highlighting the major problem with copyright violations and payment for artistes in Nigeria. I believe the issue is hitv not paying royalties on music played on Hitv and I think it is an issue that also affects me as a rights owner. While the status of mscn may be debatable according to hitv, the company must still pay appropriate royalties use of copyrighted works. So, if hitv is sincere about paying royalties to artistes, let them deposit the amounts due from them into court pending a resolution of who is entitled to it or not becos from what I hear, they are not disputing using the works in question, they are just saying mcsn is not recognized to collect the money.
29. WHAT IS YOUR TAKE ON THE CONTROVERSY BETWEEN MCSN AND COSON?
I see the whole brouhaha as two sets of old people who don’t understand that it’s time to let the next generation of artists move the industry forward. The same old warriors are fighting for who should be recognized or run the collection of royalties for artistes. I say they should show us how we artistes can get compensated for our works. I think some new voices and new people should allowed to do this instead of us rerunning the old fights between Charly Boy and Tony okoroji every 5 years.
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