Some say he is the most successful
contemporary music artiste in Nigeria
today. Others say he is the best of his
generation.
But, there is no doubt that Innocent Ujah
Idibia, renowned as Tuface Idibia (and
fondly called 2baba by some), one of the
best music exports Nigeria has ever
produced.
However, despite his phenomenal success
and achieving superstardom, including a
string of hits from his five albums to date –
as well as the evergreen ‘African Queen’
from his debut solo album in 2004;
Tuface,
with over 16 years in the music industry,
has remained humble and down-to-earth.
his is despite the fact that he has
performed alongside some of the world’s
music biggest superstars, who have also
featured in his songs. His biggest
achievement, he says, would be winning
the elusive Grammy Award. “That would be
the height of the whole thing,” he said.
Grammys or not, Tuface is regarded as an
African music icon. From Kora Awards,
Channel O Music Video, MTV Europe Music,
MOBO, MTV Africa Music to BET Awards;
Tuface has won virtually every national,
continental and international music award
on offer for African artistes.
His global success has also paved the way
for many other Nigerian and African
artistes to shine among world music
galaxy of stars.
“There is no film trick around me. What
you see is what you get, No hype,” he said.
With an award cabinet and impressive
resume a whole music generation once
dreamed of, that may be the
understatement of the year. Interestingly,
his record label is called ‘Hypertek’.
In this exclusive, no-holds-barred
interview, Tuface bares his beautiful music
soul and opens up on many issues,
including his controversial relationship
with women and his legacy as a music
icon, like he has never done before.
SUI: Let’s talk about the Nigerian music
industry. How much has it grown?
Tuface: The industry is ripe, a lot of things
are happening, many people are getting
involved now, and many are interested in
artist management now than some years
ago. We have more entertainment lawyers,
more promoters, and more people that are
interested in music business now than
some years ago. So the industry is
growing. The quality of music and videos
and the sound have tremendously
improved. The talent has always been
there, but these days you find that it is
more of packaging than talent.
Although,
even with talent, you still need to package
the product, but it is more of packaging
now. I listen to a lot of music these days
and you find that it just a few of the
artistes today who actually have talent for
music, majority is just packaging. But the
thing is, entertainment is about
entertainment, you know, it’s allowed.
Understand what I’m saying?
SUI: The entertainment industry in
Nigeria is still evolving and growing in
spite of issues like piracy. How has this
affected you as an artiste?
Tuface: That is the Nigerian thing. To be
honest with you, corruption is the reason
why piracy is still a major issue in Nigeria,
because if radio stations are not paying
royalties, because they run to a
government agent and they give them
some sort of backing, you can’t shut them
down, you can’t do anything about it,
because the government is not taking it
serious.
If the government knows that these
artistes have to pay taxes and they are
going to make a lot of money from
collecting these taxes, then they could
decide to create an avenue where these
artistes will make big money and so pay
them big taxes, and it goes round like that.
If the government is serious, they would
make effective laws and enforce it.
They
would make sure music pays and it will
happen but because of corruption, this
doesn’t happen. If police see person dey
sell pirated CDs, dey no dey look am like
crime. He go dey look as, why you just wan
collect food from that boy hand, he doesn’t
even know it’s a crime, na punishable
offence, so it’s serious. The Nigerian
government doesn’t take entertainment
seriously, it’s not by dashing artistes or
anybody money or by you know… but by
actually saying, ‘this industry wetin be the
thing wey they need to do to regulate am
make e tight, so that it can actually be more
productive.
About mine4u
0 comments:
Post a Comment