In the concluding part of his interview Joey Akan from Afrobeats Intelligence had with Dapo Oyebanjo, aka D’Banj, the ‘Koko Master’ details his motivations for taking African music global, and how entrepreneurship offers him a future beyond music.
D’Banj
What did Good Music mean to you then? What did you think you were joining?
Like I said, details would never really be known unless we make a documentary. It wasn’t more like an artist deal, it was more like a movement. And it was a movement. And if I look at it today, I see that God positioned it for it to be a movement of stars aligned. We needed something to give—not just me but the whole African music industry—a kind of stamp. Because before that, we’ve been doing music forever and they always separate us. Even if you go somewhere, you’d be in the World Category. But this was the first time that in the same room we’re talking, you’re having a Big Sean, D’Banj, Pusha T, 2Chainz, Kanye. For people watching, even me stepping outside and watching, it’s more of a ‘yes, we can do it.’ I don’t know how they’d explain it for you, but I know you already know what I mean.
It was a confirmation of what was possible.
Yes, it was a confirmation of what was possible. What has been thought about and never achieved. Because the predecessors before us, even though they went there and gained, it was within the African or Nigerian community. But for the first time, and as at that time Kanye was the biggest artist in the world. It was more of that stamp that we need, that was what we got that time.
It’s like when revolution wants to happen. They say it takes one person of courage to go forward. And in the short time those people always suffer. God forbid na when they don die or something don happen na him them go talk say ‘wow, na this guy lay the foundation.’ That’s what I saw, and that’s what it meant to me. Not just the GOOD Music part, but that whole movement. And Naeto C then used to say it every time, like if there was a negative press or something harsh that came out. If I’m complaining, Naeto would be like: ‘you can’t complain, you’re the Jesus christ of the industry. You know that you’re supposed to be the one to suffer.’ I say no, I don’t want to suffer again wey people go con pass. And I remember we joked about that maybe seven years ago during the ‘Tony Montana’ remix.
But to an extent your vision is playing out now. And seeing it play out, does it make you feel in some type of way that there are other people that are at the forefront of it?
It depends on what you’re saying it from. If you ask a JAY-Z or Diddy how it feels on the same question, I feel it’d be almost the same answer—he’s happy. This is what we’ve always struggled for. And I’ve always said no man is an island. So you can’t say you want to do this and be alone. And when you are alone and doing something, people add different things and call it different reasons. So being alone then and doing this move, what I saw is what I just told you. But what people saw was different. Some said it was Illuminati, some said it was…
What was the greatest thing you think ‘Oliver Twist’ did for you and the continent?
The same thing like we’re saying. Like GOOD Music, it was like the icing on the cake for the crossover. It won’t have been believable without one of ours doing it. And not doing it like them, but doing it like us. Most times, people that have left. When you hear them, and you hear their hit records like top ten that have gone global, you don’t even believe that the person is Nigerian.
It’s not when you hear the name that you now believe that it’s possible. Like we heard of Nas being Nigerian, we now checked his father and saw that his father is Oludara Jones. We heard of Shola Anna and Sade Adu. When you hear those names you’d be like wow. But when you hear their songs, you no go see yourself inside. So that is what ‘Oliver Twist’ did for me. It finally gave me that stamp to say ‘yes, this can happen for all of us.’
Which is what I’ve been trying to get with the Snoop Dogg collabo, with the Kanye West movement. Not just because we just wanted to be with Kanye and be chilling up and be jumping up and down. Same way wey e be for Nigeria. If established artist bring person under him wing, e fit give am that stamp wey him need. Kanye was humble enough, smart enough to see the future. To render not just his presence as a stamp, but he said that the whole GOOD Music should come.
We were in London. DJ Ryan from BBC and just said that this song nice o. Let’s just mix it into the system. They always do countdown in Hyde Park into the new year. And they need people wey go come stand for there. You go register 250,000 standing in the whole Hyde park. The they now do the countdown. 10..9….Happy new year! My brother before you know wetin dey happen, everywhere lit. ‘Oliver Twist’ play after them do that thing. So that’s why I now went to London to look for a way to maximize it. I con see the DJ, him con say na you get this song? If you release this song here, it has a potential to be a huge hit.
By that time, Mo’hits don already scatter. I was just like maybe na God lead me come here. So I just decided to stay there. I stayed in London throughout, e-mailed Kanye because then him no dey use phone. I just put everything the way dem take put the Hyde Park say there’s an opportunity, I think we need to maximize. Him just respond like two days later, ‘where are you. I’m in London too’. He was in London, I was in London too. I went to see him. I played him the song. He said ‘what’s your plan for this song?’ I said I just want to release it here, maximize it here, if you allow me, I’d shoot the video here. He said okay, you can do so. And I said ‘would you be able to show face in the video?’ And he was like, I can’t make any promises and just before that he just arranged all his people. Kanye arrive video shoot before me sef.
So how did he treat you as a person?
Like a big brother. He’s Gemini like me. He was born a day before me. So we really connected and I know. I remember there was a time when I brought Big Sean, Pusha T and Idris Elba to Nigeria. And I remember offering Kanye $750,000 then to come. He was like ‘wow, you have this kind of money? Why don’t you put it towards your project? I told him I had already paid Big Sean, Pusha T, everybody but I wanted him because I wanted the whole Good Music. He was like ‘this is too expensive for you.’ He actually showed concern for my business and said, let’s leave the money. We didn’t have ‘Oliver Twist’ then. He said ’put it into the marketing of your project and there’d always be time.’
For me, I’d always have that sincere and genuine love for him. And I remember when we were going into Nigeria the first time, and it was only Twitter that was reigning at the time. And people had heard that we were with Kanye, but they didn’t believe. And I remember Jazzy saying ‘go meet am na, go meet am, make e tweet as we dey go so people go believe.’ I went and met Kanye and said, ‘baba we’re leaving o. Our people won’t believe. They doubt a lot. They won’t believe we met you. And he said ‘oh really?’
And Kanye said, ‘what do you think?’ I said maybe you can tweet for us and say “Yo D’banj and Don Jazzy get back here quick.’ And he says ‘oh really, oya write the tweet.’ It was us that composed the tweet, he looked at it and edited it the way he liked it. He said it’s good, and he’d tweet it. We thought he will post it in front of us before we dey go airport. But he said he’d tweet it. So we were now gallivanting around. Wey we dey wait say ‘baba no do us like this. (laughs). But if we were doing that, we were going to miss our flight to Nigeria, so we had to leave. So we now begged people there and they said ‘no wahala na, baba go do am.’
I remember we were getting to the airport as the tweet just enter Jazzy shout. me too I shout, I say that’s it. It’s over. As we dey reach Nigeria like this, everywhere was on fire. So kudos to him. And I feel he’s the person that they should ask how he feels, seeing that he’s the first person ever to have spotted Afrobeats and taken the risk. And when he met us, he even told us that he had even been working with university students who were studying African music. He wanted the sound, like ‘who did these drums?’
D’Banj
Did you date Genevieve Nnaji?
Yes, we dated.
When people tell you things like you would have been better if you didn’t split with Don Jazzy. How does that make you feel?
It’s their opinion. I always feel like it’s their opinion and people are free to have their own opinion. But like I said, I pass through every experience in life as a school fees. If you go to Harvard, you’d pay expensive school fees. For me, especially when you can’t do anything about it. I look at it from the half-full part, instead of the half-empty part. And in the beginning, if you had asked me this question even a year, not even a year after. That’s the thing. Because we didn’t get the final stamp of global attainment until the group broke. Clearly the person that’s telling me that, is looking at it from a different perspective. And the reason why the group broke from my own point of view, which is part of the reason, is the global stamp. So I didn’t even see it as anything for a long time. But when I started hearing people—and knowing the kind of synergy we had in music—I said okay, that’s possible. Nobody is an island and we’re really really great, he’s a great producer. So I said the fact that he’s not the only and I know that all perfect gifts come from God.
I remember praying to God and saying: ‘God, I know that I’m a full businessman and I’m fucking talented, I want you to shock the world. Give them something that they’d hear and they go hmmm, ‘this one be like Jazzy o’, but it’s not Jazzy.’ And that’s how he delivered me ‘Emergency’ from nowhere. I remember it was Olu Maintain that brought the beat. He tried to get on the show with us that we were doing in Warri or Owerri. He sat beside me in the plane. And when he was beside me in the plane, he said that he had studied my music and he had a beat that he wanted to play for me. And as we landed, he played me the beat and I said I love this beat. And I remember what he wanted for. It was a collaboration and a video, and he said he had sorted out the producer. And for me to have paid him and then got the beat and used the beat. and It was later I found out that it was just maybe like N25,000 that the producer was paid.
I remember calling him again on Hip TV and giving the producer money and signing the producer that he did four other beats for us. But what made me gravitate the more is this ‘Emergency’ beat that everybody hears. And the only thing they said that was missing is if I said ‘It’s Don Jazzy’ again’ in the beginning. It was done by someone that received just N25,000. So it proved what I was trying to say that yes, my success is not in one person’s hands. It’s actually in the right energy, in the right spirit. Yes, you can have better relationships or better synergy with someone. But it would not mean that without them, you would not achieve your goals. And for me that was it and since then it’s been beautiful.
Performing at the nations cup, how was that experience for you? Very few artistes get to perform at these type of tournaments.
I think it’s the same way you’d be feeling if you ask Beyonce how she played for the Super Bowl half-time. The Super Bowl half-time was considered the biggest tune-in performance wey people go watch. In fact, they talk say one advert na one million.
So when you get on stage what’s the feeling?
I still get butterflies in my belly
For real?
Of course, even for one person, or two people or 10,000 people. I’m not sure if it’s stage fright or butterflies in my belly or just anxiety. But whatever it is, it just comes.
Why do you think it still comes?
I think it’s a natural human thing.
How did you start CREAM?
You know I already told you the story from not having a record label and then forming a record label. So after the two issues happened and I couldn’t tie my hands – now I know, they say it’s Special Ed, he said it himself but which I thank him for, like I said. But I didn’t want to not do what I was called to do to support and then be blamed for something else. I didn’t want a situation whereby I would be caught here now feeling guilty that I didn’t complete my purpose. So me looking for a way of protecting my brand and my mind from the reactions I’ve gotten already, and not denying the new generation or the new potentials that I’m supposed to bless. I said, can I have a platform that I don’t have to see them but I can still help them? I started talking to my tech guys and that’s how … And I remember then Mr Damian Okoroafor, my CEO, we were already talking and working on a number of things since I had a vast following. So, I said let’s build it. And the aim was to build it for the masses, knowing that if you don’t come to Lagos, you won’t make it. So let’s build it on a USSD and web base. Because if we should say app, how many people have smartphones?
We thought about that carefully and thought who is the first best telecoms. We wanted to connect to all telecoms but we said let’s start with one. We approached some but they were not getting the vision so MTN got the vision and said okay we’d like to connect with you. And immediately MTN agreed, we knew that we had to push further. I had a deal with Glo then as an ambassador so I had to wait six months. After the deal expired, I had to wait six months for I didn’t want to breach anything which gave me time to prepare the backend. So I think the fifth month was June or May, then we launched CREAM in August 2016. And since then, it’s been a dream come true. It’s been tough, but it’s been so successful beyond what I expected in the beginning in such a short time. And if not for the setback that I had with what happened with me and my family recently, we just took a 24-month break to restructure our lives back. And now, we are about to relaunch CREAM again. I call it CREAM 2.0.
So far, what are the successes you’ve recorded with CREAM?
Firstly, the aim of CREAM was to give access to the creative sector. And this access ranges from capital, to sponsorship, to scholarship, to funding, to also mentoring. If you look at it, what we’ve done in a space of four years that I’m telling you now that we’ve been actively active for about 2 and half years, I’d say we’ve shot about 4 videos for young talents on the platform. We’ve released these videos on the platform. Now because when we started CREAM, the DSPs, the Apple Music, the Spotifys, even now they are not yet fully in Nigeria. So we based our marketing on what our biggest strength was. Our biggest strength was caller back ringtones. And there’s nobody that has come through CREAM platform as a top-ten artist that we picked as a winner, that has not done top ten on downloads on MTN ringtones.
We’ve generated over a hundred million Naira in caller back ringtones. From there we’ve paid all these winners that would not have made this in the first place if they did not even meet me. We’ve had two winners from Port Harcourt, one winner from Kaduna, two winners from Abuja, TK Swag and Pastor Courage. Two winners from Ikorodu, Mr Real who did ‘Legbegbe’ and Slimcase. That is why if you watch that ‘Legbegbe’ video today, the first thing you’d see is CREAM. The way you always see a record label on the front door. As we started doing this and shooting videos, most of the complains we had from people was ‘yes, I know that I need access. Like you for example; I’m a journalist, I need access to interview D’Banj but I’m not going to go there empty-handed. I need small kala for my hand. I don’t even have a laptop. My laptop needs changing. So people started complaining that yes, you’ve picked this winner. But after you pick us, we no go dress well? We no go look good? And to be an artist, you need all these attributes. So the next thing we started doing in our mind was to attack and made sure we started giving.
So we got a lottery license, the lottery permit from the NLRC. Then we started monthly. Even if you don’t win, the fact that you’re on CREAM platform would give you added incentives. And so each category had its own incentives that added to about 3 million in a month or 3.5 million. And that we started doing, and distributed that successfully throughout the time for about 2 and half years, up until now that we’re about to relaunch back into the market. These are a few of our success stories that we have.
At this stage of your career, entrepreneurship is what’s important to you? That’s where most of the focus is?
That’s where most of the focus has been from 2016. But moving now, it’s going to be more of a balanced structure. Because I think I’ve been able to manage the entrepreneurship phase to a place where we can now have an auto-pilot mode and the music side. And when we finished that, we got into the studio, did an album. Now I have a full album coming out this year. And more importantly, with my strategic team, we’ve been able to embed it together to see how both can grow.
What does fatherhood mean to you?
For a long time, I felt like I had that fatherhood responsibility, but I’ve never had one of my own. That’s why if you’re saying fatherhood, most things it did was actually make me more humble and more aware of what our responsibilities are in this life. Because you’ve done dealings with your brother, you’ve done dealings with your family, you care about them. You care about your friends. You care about maybe the artists you sign. But when you have one of your own, you know that you’re the one responsible for bringing this child into the world. A sense of responsibility and ‘you go die there’.
It’s different from ‘I’m responsible for my friends, if something goes wrong, I try my best, they go away. In this sense, I have to find the way. I think that’s what fatherhood is to me. Whatever it is, you’ve just got to stand tall with your family and be responsible for their happiness in a weird way. So you can’t just be saying no, I’m not in a good mood today. As a father, you must always have that good mood even if it’s denying yourself. Sacrifice.
What’s the one thing that you’d be most proud of that you did?
I think it was me being me against all odds. Because I could have turned out a mechanical engineer. I was smart. But the fact that me being me and everything that ‘me’ has done. That for me is the proudest thing. Just me being me.
What does celebrity mean to you?
I saw one interview once in a series that I was watching about one of my mentors, Micheal Jordan, which is the ‘Last Dance.’ And he said in that documentary that if he came back and they asked him if he wanted to be a role model, he’d say no. Him just wan play him thing. Because there’s a saying: To whom much is given,, much is expected. It’s synonymous to celebrity. That’s what it means for me. It means that sometimes you don’t even know what you have landed yourself in to be celebrated. And then the pressures. Whenever I see someone as a celebrity, I don’t say that ‘hmm this guy is celebrated.’ No. I first see the work he’s done. To whom much is given, much is expected. He must have done so much in order for him to be celebrated. And for him to be celebrated and to be seeing the pressure on his head.
