Award-winning
singer, Olu
Maintain’s R&B
single ‘Nawti’,
released last year,
enjoyed impressive
reviews from
pundits at home
and abroad,
winning a couple of
awards. His new single, ‘Hypnotize Me’ featuring
American rapper 50 Cent and velvet-voiced songbird
Olivia, was released yesterday. The singer hopes to make
a big impact in the industry with this musical
‘marriage’. He speaks on how he has fared in the recent
past, his new plans and sundry issues.
On Winning NMVA Award: "It just makes me feel that
hard work has indeed paid off, having been quiet for about
three years and nominations popping out everywhere to the
extent that 'Nawti' won the Best Video of NEA Awards in
New York.
"'Nawti' was also nominated as the Best R&B Song at the
Hip Hop World Awards, and I learnt that the only reason it
wasn’t nominated as the Best Video at the Hip Hop World
Awards was that no video directed by a foreigner is ever
nominated. I don’t know why. They should have asked
because the director of 'Nawti' video is Kehinde Nayomi
Smith, and she’s a Nigerian. She was in Nigeria recently for
the first time when I won the NMVA Award.
"But going forward, 2012 has been a very eventful year
because my target was to release the album for 2012. With
success of Nawti and the dynamism which the music
industry was taking, I slowed down on the songs I had
recorded initially because I have not been satisfied that I
have put in my best into the ‘CHOOSEN ONE’ album. So,
I went back to the studio and stared recording again. But
now, I can confidently say that the album is coming out in
the first quarter of this year and the second track on the
album titled ‘Hypnotize Me’ features two international
artistes."
On the Title Of the Album: "The reason it’s ‘CHOOSEN
ONE’ with double ‘o’ is that it’s a ten-track album, and
each of the letters that come together to form the acronym,
represents each track on the album.
"There’s a remix of 'Nawti' in the works, and I found a new
PR team in America called KNX based in Los Angeles and
they’re trying to stock my songs and see the possibility of it
pre-listed on mainstream radio and the response has been
positive. They’re the ones making collaborations with the
international acts that I’ve been working with.
"For me, doing collaboration with any international artiste
should not just be by the star power of the artiste; it should
be by merit that this artiste can genuinely do justice to the
song in question. So, if I was asked who I would love to do
collaboration with, a female singer that is equally as pretty
and has a beautiful voice, my choice would be Olivia
because I’ve always been her fan. So, when we met and I
played her the song, she liked it and said she was willing to
do it. Then we met in New York at the Platinum Studio
owned by Jerry Wonder, one of the most sought after
producers in the world.
"Coincidentally, Olivia is Jerry Wonder’s new artiste as
well. 50 Cent has his lines on this track too. And there was
this chemistry upon our meeting and we did the song with a
beautiful experience and the video too is on the way.
"Everything is pretty much falling into place and I’m more
than happy that I’ve waited this long. In terms of quality,
you should never compromise because you have the
obligation to always beat your best. So far, my name has
evolved from Mr. Yahooze to Mr. Nawti. So, I look at
'Nawti' as the best effort that I’ve put out there and
Hypnotize Me has to come to beat what Nawti has done."
Assesment Of the Industry In 2012: "In all fairness, the
industry has evolved bigger and more eventful in 2012. The
Nigerian music industry is breaking more frontiers. Afro
Beat is now a genre that’s now officially accepted in the UK
and the larger parts of Europe and we have international
record labels signing Nigerian artistes. We have more
collaboration with international artistes as well.
"2012 was big and 2013 is going to be bigger. This is
encouraging from what the industry used to be some ten
years ago. This is just a motivation to keep striving harder
yearning for music that has substance. Nigerian music
industry has gained a lot although; in its growth, it still
lacks some level of development in terms of structure.
Recently, I learnt that COSON has been able to get some
level of publishing for some Nigerian artistes who have had
songs over time. I’ve not got anything from COSON but
that is a welcome development from COSON because
Nigeria is the only developing country in the world where
artistes don’t get publishing for airplay. Go to the UK and
the US, one of the major income generating avenues for
artistes is shows/concerts but everywhere else in the world
publishing plays a larger part in financial rewards that an
artiste gets. So for COSON to have intervened to forcefully
demand for what is the right of Nigerian artistes, I think it’s
a positive development. It’s like a marriage. A typical
young man is not ready for marriage but when you find
yourself in a situation where it’s inevitable to be in that
circumstance, you deal with it. You manage it and you
excel in it. So, if the Nigerian media hides behind the
excuse that it’s not ready yet, nothing will move forward.
Saying you’re not developed enough to impact in policies
that the Western world has been doing for decades, you’re
basically running from responsibilities. It’s like a loser’s
statement; that it’s not going to be easy is not an excuse for
it not to start. COSON has started. If everyone has that
mentality that we want to follow the structure that we look
up to in the west, then it can in no way be a step in the
wrong direction."
2013 Of My Dream: "2012 for me was a production phase.
It was a phase where Olu Maintain came out of a three-year
hiatus and when he came out, he made a statement. So, the
Olu Maintain brand is now known as one that doesn’t make
a statement every time, but when it does, he gets it right.
Coming up from a split in a group called Maintain, it made
a global statement with Yahooze. And after three years
hiatus, he made a statement again with Nawti, both the
video and audio and won awards. So, in 2013, you can only
expect that the production phase is over and it’s now an
exhibition phase. Tours, endorsements, concerts are in the
offing for the brand Olu Maintain in 2013."
Collaboration With Nigerians: "There’s a track in my
album titled ‘Naija A-list’, and it’s a beat produced by a
young producer, Yung D. He has produced quite a number
of successful songs in 2012 and one of them is Timaya’s
‘Bum Bum’. This is the part I want to have collaboration
with five best Nigerian rappers, so I called it ‘Naija A-list’.
I have my choices but I’m not going to subject the feature
on the song to my decision making alone. I want to let my
fans decide who the best five are. It will be an online
campaign and people are going to vote for their five best
Naija rappers which will be like a survey among industry
heads and fans out there."1
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