A Brief Chat with Pupa-J

This is an interview taken from a magazine, Inside-J-Town, published in September, 2007. The interview was conducted by Inside-J-Town’s Publisher, Yiro Abari. The picture that appears here wasn't the picture used in 2007.

Inside J-Town Magazine sought and found Peace FM’s reggae pistol, Pupa-J and had a short chat with him. It is difficult to believe it is Pupa-J when you hear him speak in plain English. Incidentally, Pupa-J happened to be an English Language graduate from the University of Jos. 

Pupa-J has inspired a lot of young J-Towners into speaking the Jamaican street language. This is how our discussion went:

Pupa-J. Picture source: Emmy Dabz

What is the meaning of your name, Pupa-J

“Pupa” means father. In plain language we would have said Father-J, but in patois we say, Pupa-J. When Dancehall came out, there was competition among the fans, and every Dancehall “posse” was trying to device a stage name that asserts his prominence. So I chose “Pupa-J” or “Father-J”

I have been your fan for a very long time, which is … (cut in)

First of all, I have to say thank you for that.

As I was saying, you came to my mind first because I happened to be a fan of yours. How did you learn patois?

It is, in a way, God-inspired. I have an elder sister that loves Reggae music. She used to play Ginger Williams, Eric Donaldson, Bob Marley and the likes. I used to listen to hers songs, enjoying the base line, the rhythm piano and the drums. Later, in secondary school, St. Joseph College Vom, we used to have what was known as the Reggae Night during the weekends with Morris Suwa (who was my senior at the college) as the patron.  At that time we used to play artists like Yellow Man, Peter Metro and the likes. It was a time when Dancehall was just emerging. Suddenly, the whole thing was revealed to me.

St. Joseph College Vom is always associated with patois speaking. Morris Suwa, Steary-J and stranger are all ex-students of St. Joseph College.

Like I said before, every weekend we used to have Social Night. Some students would prefer to go to the Drama Club. Others would prefer to go to the Reggae Night. Morris Suwa, who was our senior, would be in-charge and speaking in patois.

So, he was the only one who knew patois at the time.

His set started it. There were other colleagues of his who were also patois speakers at the time. Among them were Paulinus Ayante, late Boniface Agyobo (Tevez) and one other guy whose name I have forgotten. From then it became a culture, percolating down to later sets in the school.

Where you looking forward to becoming a DJ?

I never ever knew I would become a DJ in my life.

When did you become a DJ?

In 1992.                      

Currently, that makes you the second oldest Reggae DJ, after Sogio Malik?

Yes. 

So, how did you become a DJ?

There was an auditioning. I took part and did well. Then the Assistant Director of Programs at the time, Patricia Bala, introduced me to Morris Suwa.  He and I started sparring. 

What is sparring?

It means co-presenting. It was how I was initiated to become independent.  My first program was Skanky Rub-a-Dub.

How did the idea of a reggae version of Top of the Morning came about? Did you suggest it to the authorities? 

No?

How did it happen?

The programs department just decided on it. The Program Director, Jeptha Jakdel, called me and told me about it.

You seem so disciplined.  Where did you imbibe that? I have noticed that you don’t ever start your program late. You are always dot on the spot, and Steary-J is always coming later. Do you two plan it that way?

I respect punctuality. If you are doing something, just go ahead and do it right. If for any reason I am not going to be around, I call and tell the authorities in good time.

In some countries, DJs make a living out of the profession. Can you say that it is the case here?

It boils down to interest. If you love what you are doing, you will find fulfillment regardless of the little money it brings. If I were to become the Governor of the Central Bank but derive no pleasure in doing my work, I still would have no zeal in doing the job.

Do you sometimes record yours shows for keeps?

Oh yes! Otherwise, I will be a liar to be children.

Is it possible to come to the studio and sometimes play an old edition of the show?

No. We are not allowed to do that. It has to be live. They old edition would perhaps become necessary when you have given up the ghost and the news is being carried. 

Do you know you are a star?

By the grace of God, if you say so.

Thank you.

My message to the youths.

Go ahead.

The youths should know that education is a vital weapon that does not destroy but strengthens the individual and society. The government should stretch its tentacles to the ghettos where there are talents that could be used for development in different respects, but where, at the same time, there is no financial support to develop the talents.

Thank you.

You are welcome.

Music Review -Legalize It, forty years after

The Legalize It Album

As the saying goes, “behind every cloud is a silver lining.” My mobile phone got infected after I transferred a file to an ironically sparkling-looking laptop computer. The result: I lost all my music and picture files. 

I needed new ring tones for my device; the ones that came with the phone were some tunes that I found exotic and not so cool.  So, I logged on to www.mp3skull.com for what we call “awuf” in Nigeria.  There, I downloaded the Peter Tosh’s songs that were in the device before the crash.  In addition to those songs, I downloaded Legalize it. 

I had often overlooked Legalize it. This is because I prefer to download songs that I have not properly listened to. The only thing about Legalize it is that I had listened to it back in the eighties, from an elderly man who rented a room in our house. This time, however, I was attracted to it by the fact that it is a remixed version. I listened to it through the earphone of my device a countless number of times until I got inspired, leading to this review, forty years after the song was released. 

Playing the song this time, I became conscious of flashes in it whose reggae cores I wouldn’t have been able to understand back in the eighties, when I listened to it with a mind that couldn’t see the cultural essence of the music.

The first thing that grips you when the song begins to play is the melody of the bass guitar: simple and heavenly at the same time. Strongly tied to it, is the rasta mood and the drugging effect of the music.  Through four verses on the legalization of ganja, Tosh attested to the profound depth of his intellectual thought. 

Physically, you wouldn’t want to dance, as the creeping pace of the song discourages dancing. Emotionally, though, you dance, holding your head between your hands. Through the strong impact of the song the fading standing of Tosh in my heart was rekindled. 

In one of Peter Tosh’s songs, Moses the Prophet, Tosh referred to death prophets as men who are still “alive”, watching their prophesies get fulfilled. Listening to Legalize it, I got the strong feeling Tosh wasn’t death, ensuring he continues to entertain the world.

Secularism is the Ultimate Teacher

Aim your knowledge to where you mind points!

I have decided to print and market my book, How to Become a Music Maestro, myself. Only then did I understand what it means to market a book yourself. I reached bookshops that refused to buy, preferring to accept copies and pay only after selling. It was the same with newspaper vendors who displayed copies of the book, side-by-side, with newspapers. 

Each time I checked the bookshops to see how many have been sold, I get something like N1000 for the few copies sold. The newsstands sold better, but most were dubious, preferring you to waste the money on transportation, as you come repeatedly over the token.  

In the end, I decided that the little sales with the bookshops, plus the dignity associated with working with them, is far better. Plus, the book covers, exposed to the sun 24/7 at the newsstands, lose color and attraction so that any copies remaining may never be sold. 

Eventually, I discovered that the church was a far better place; there are music bands and choir groups in churches. There was a band leader who bought 20 copies and paid cash. In some churches, though, there were conservative pastors who thought the book teaches how to play secular music. And I wonder what is in the book points to the door of secularism. If you are going to school to study mathematics, it is all you are taught. No one teaches you “Christian Mathematics” -it is up to you to decide how you wish to use your knowledge. I hope the pastor sees this point.

Music Review -Glory to Your Name- Solomon Lange

The Grateful album

I had known that Solomon Lange, the big fat gospel music singer from southern Kaduna, had released a new music album. I had listened to a single song from the album when Anita Mallum played it on Music on Radio II on Peace FM Jos.

Yesterday, 12^th December, I was in a taxi, on my way home from the city when the driver played that album from his stereo. Then, suddenly, there was this track that encored the line “glory, glory to your name papa o.” 

Right from the beginning of the song, I could feel the emotional spin of the song and its outstanding audio identity. Music with an emotional spin often transports me far away in thought. That was exactly my experience as we drove towards College of Mary Immaculate. My thought spun around the cliché of the message that was nevertheless striking. It was about praise and adoration. Of course messages of songs, especially gospel would always be the same: praises and adorations. But what should make it striking is the uniqueness of the melody and its capacity to swirl one’s mind. It is from there that the fortification and inspiration come - the power of a song comes largely from the melody and the emotion it evokes. I paid attention to the conscious effort to give the song a Nigerian and African identity: a phrase like “papa o”, the inflexion and an element of central African Makossa. 

I disembarked from the taxi at Vom Junction with one intention at the back of my mind: to go ask for the album at a music retailing studio at the junction. The music vendor told me copies of the album have been sold out but he had a copy on his computer. He could burn the songs to a CD for me if I wanted. I told him about this particular song Glory to Your Name and he said it was part of the collection. Not wanting to take chances I requested him to play it. While the song played, a lady who was traveling from Lagos to Yola had to disembark from the commercial bus that conveyed them to ask for the song, having heard it blaring from the huge speakers in front of the studio. The lady was moved the way I had been moved on hearing the song. Such influence comes from the strong power in a song. So, I asked the music vendor: “can you see what playing this song has just done? If you want to continue selling this album all you need to do is just to continue playing this very song. People will come in to ask for it.”  

Solomon Lange knows that getting people to love your music does not come from going to the homes of music presenters, knocking and handing out a brown envelope. It comes from writing a good song, awakening your creative wits and using these qualities to make the song striking and acceptable. The song Glory to Your Name is one example.

A Letter to My Pastor Friend

Dear Sir,

I am writing to thank you for the opening you gave me to meet with the youth group, particularly the band, of your church. I did meet with the group and learned something that gave me a jump in my endless desire for understanding.

As we all know, the Evangelical Church brought Christianity to our own part of the world. The men and women left the comfort of their homes, traveling into harsh condition –man-made and otherwise- to win those souls.

Today, the Evangelical Church stand the risk of losing those souls it won through those sacrifices of Kent, Bingham and so many others, to churches that were never part of the early phases of The Great Commission, the most direst. What matters is not the fact that they are being lost, but the fact that they are getting lost to false prophets, prophets who present concessionary brands of Christianity, prophet who present the wide and beautiful easy-to-walk-on "road" to eternal life, just to win the minds of the most vulnerable of your congregation and satisfy their selfish, worldly desires.

While I sat waiting for the leader of the singing group to arrive and introduce me to members already present, I felt offended that the leader failed to report early enough as we agreed in our phone conversation. I wasn’t aware that it was designed by God to give me time to watch the singers and see what He intended me to see. It was during that period that I notice, with pain, the paucity of the singing population –five men and women, in a town with a population of 200, 000 folks. I also noticed the inertia in the song-learning approach. This is the most critical.

I realized that your church is passing through the challenge of what to do to hold back the army of young men and women from the church. Of course, as the Bible says in Proverbs 20:29: the glory of young men –and women- is their strength … No church would want to lose this strength of the youth.

Pastor, I want you to forget whatever use to which the world has put singing into. It is just an abuse, brought about by the devil, for singing was designed by God, to be used in his praise and ministration. In Proverbs 149: 1, the Bible says: Praise the LORD! Sing to the LORD a new song. It follows from this that while it is good to sing songs of praise, it better to do so with new songs. 

News songs come from creativity. Creativity involves understanding circumstances that are in reality new songs beckoning to be discovered and have life blown into them. It involves writing the songs, giving the songs moving melodies and touches of originality. 

If you have a singing group where new songs are made, the youths would not run away. To make new moving songs knowledge is required. Needless to point the fact that the Bible also say: So, God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them –Genesis 1:27. In this likeness of God, lies the capacity to write and compose new songs. So, the youth must seek knowledge (my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: Hosea 4: 6) on how to make new songs.

There is power of ministration in songs. With a musically creative church, keeping your youthful congregants will come with the ease of inhalation and exhalation. Pastor, you know these are reflexive acts. 

Ministration and winning of souls take a multimedia dimension as well.