I’m Under Pressue to Change My Style

Kefas at Eyana Kpaja

Kefas Sabo is a reggae artist that holds the promise of becoming the next big star in Plateau State and beyond. After watching his music video for his award-winning song Seventeen Questions, I vowed to meet with him.

Kefas told me that he was born in Zaria, Kaduna State, his native state. At age six, he moved to live with his aunt, who worked with a federal health institution, in Plateau State. Since he moved to Plateau State at a very tender age, all his education was in Plateau State, starting from primary to the polytechnic, where he obtained a Higher National Diploma in Mining Engineering. 

He discovered his music talent after joining his church’s band in Barkin Ladi town. In the band, known as Sammies band, he met talented members such as Iliya, James, and some other guys who love reggae. His talent became manifest when he was given a chance to lead the group. He discovered he flowed well, not only with the band, but with the congregation that resonated with his lead role, sometimes becoming emotional and crying. 

Kefas, who loves Jamaican Christopher Martin’s reggae crossover, talked about how his songs get revealed. The songs often come as a bouquet that involves the melody and the lyrics, while he walks along the road, or when he is alone in a quiet place. When that happens, he says, he records the melody using his phone. Later he develops the lyrics fully. 

Kefas is extremely proud of the way his music move people. When he ministered with his music for the first time, there were two women who sat on the front row. They laughed at the first line of his songs because it sounded frivolous: “I’m angry because there is no salt in my meal…” But then, in the course of the song, there was this line that said, “Someone is crying because he hasn’t got what to eat…” Kefas said that, after this line, he noticed the expression on the faces of the women changed; they started crying. At the end of the show, they approached him and told him he was anointed.

Kefas has enjoyed some of the rewards of his talent. While at the Eyana Kpaja Orientation Camp, during his youth service, he won Airtel’s Copa Has Got Talent contest, for which he received the sum of N200, 000.00. He also won the PRTVC/Sauti Lab Award for the Best Reggae Artist of The Year, 2012. Each time he walks along the road, children mime his songs and point at him.

Kefas’ songs are rendered in both Hausa and English. I asked him if he thinks that doesn’t affect the complexion of the music. He said that, for him, it boils down to ministering. When he sings in Hausa, he is targeting the large Hausa-speaking population of northern Nigeria, and when he sings in English, he is targeting the English-speaking population. He says that one of his songs titled, “Which Image are You,” has been used by an American pastor, each time he’s preparing to deliver a sermon in the US. 

As for challenges, Kefas says he is facing a challenge that is truly mountainous: a lot of people are telling him to change his music genre to Nigerian R&B. How he reacts to this challenge will confirm (or do otherwise) the saying that reggae can bring down Babylon.

My Music is Africa’s Dream Sound –Daps

Daps in his studio

All my life in Jos, I have never heard a jingle that as creative as it. It is that Hausa jingle, which started getting aired last year, 2016, on Peace FM 90.5. It urges the people of Plateau State to unite for its prosperity: ku zo mu daga Plato ta ci gaba.

I never suspected that the very jingle had been made by Daps, one of Jos town’s most talked-about and long-reigning music artists.  This is because his vocal idiosyncrasy did not manifest in the jingle. So, I was shocked when the Plateau Radio-Television Corporation’s, PRTVC’s, Director of Programmes, Sunday Ali Gyang, told me Daps made it. 

I met Daps at his studio in Kabong, at the Gada Biyu suburb of the city. I had heard his voice for over ten years, but had never set eyes on him. He wasn’t anywhere close to the picture that I had built in my head: short, with a crude look. 

Daps said the rhythm and the message in the jingle just came naturally. Given that the song actually exudes a Plateau ambience, I asked how he achieved that. His answer was simple: “it is a gift.” Then he adds, “I love ethnic sounds. My music is Africa’s dream sound.”  As to why the voice does not sound like the voice we are used to hearing, he revealed that; even though he wrote, founded the melody, and produced the song; his younger brother, Sha Gwom, and an obscure security guard who is responsible for that Central Plateau feel in the jingle, performed it.

This jingle is the latest of Dap’s jingles for PRTVC. Before it, he had two other jingles for the pioneer radio station, one of which has been aired for more than ten years.  But in my opinion, this recent one is the greatest. It is original, not just because it talks about the uniqueness of Plateau State, but because, listening to it deeply, you get the impression that the maker was, from the beginning, conscious of the need to approach the music from an astonishing angle and was able to achieve just that.

Done with the jingle issues, I then asked Daps about his international connections that saw him working with other artists from around the world. He talked about one Margaret Motsage from South Africa, James Vincent from Texas-USA, and the Spanish Project in North America, etc. Daps has also done international movie soundtracks and was nominated for one of the best African Soundtracks for the movie, Seventy Six, which was released this February. 

Daps is of the opinion that if upcoming artists really want to actualize their music dreams, they need mentors. It is the mentor that guides an artist towards designing his music style. According to him, “skill is good and comes naturally, but there is a limit to where it takes you, and there is a limit to where discipline can take you. The mentor brings discipline into the musician. The best musician is not he that is skilful. It is he that is disciplined.”

Mees Palace Boils

On June 8th, Mees Palace, Rayfield, Jos, will be hosting an international music show.  

When my path and that of Jos town’s biggest reggae star, Jah Device, intersected today, he gave me the scoop. “Jos is going to be hosting a big music show,” he said. Device, sporting his dreadlocks that have now grown some four feet tall, said it is going to feature artists from within and outside the borders of Nigeria.  From the UK, there will be Peter Huningale and Zige Dub. There is an artist who switches home between the UK and Port-Harcourt, Nigeria. Jos will have the chance to listen to his colourful music style as well.  Then, there will be Jeremiah Gyang and Apsis, representing the host city. In addition to these men, Device says there will be a medley of other artists whose name he couldn’t disclose. 

It is going to be a live-recording concert, with copies of EP (extended play) that he released on May 6^th, the 2016 edition of Device’s birthday.

Tuface: The Greatest African Lyricist of all time

Tuface. Source: www.Jaguda.com

Over the past decade and half, Tuface Idibia, the Nigerian Afro Hip-hop/ R &B superstar star, has been in the minds of millions of African music fans. For many of us, enjoying music boils down to savoring the melody and the rhythm, without worrying about the lyrics. This is largely how many of us have appreciated Tuface’s music: without heeding his messages. It amounts to wasting so much of what his music has to offer. Paying a keen attention to the lyrics of his music would compel one to see an ignored, yet powerful element of his music, and appreciate the rightful place of the artist.

  

When we talk of outstanding lyrics, what are we looking at? We are looking at the depth of wisdom tied to it, the intricacy of rhyming and the emotion that spills out of it.

After my computer crashed, I lost all the music files I had stored in it. With a new PC, I had to repeat the ripping, sorting and storing of the music files. It was while doing this that I gave Tuface’s music another scrutiny. Amazed by the lyrics, I was compelled to begin looking at the Nigerian music setting to see if there are others like him. I couldn’t find any. I then proceeded across the border to other nations on the continent. To make my work easy, I thought of his contemporaries, artists who had contested awards with him (I recalled he had always scooped the awards whenever he was nominated). Doing this, I came to the conclusion that there is none like him on the continent as well.  Also looking backwards, I came to the decision that there, also, was none like him even in the years behind.  Believe me, Tuface is the greatest African lyricist of all time!

Check out some of the lyrics

higher spiritual healing

My Rainbow

Dance Floor

Dance in the Rain

If you know any African who stands ahead of him, do not hesitate to call my attention (+2348032982190).

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.