Preying From Paris: Olamide Will Disappear Into Oblivion Soon, But He Can Stop It!

I meet people in Nollywood who tell me, ‘Do you know how many films I have made?’, ‘Do you know how many films I have acted in?’ I also meet writers who have written lots of books. Sometimes, it is good to push out work all the time. Olamide has lots of albums. But, slowly, he is beginning to fade away. He is beginning to drive into oblivion. It will be disheartening to see Olamide disappear into oblivion. He should not. He needs to learn the magic. As I always say, nothing lasts forever. In the next two years, if care is not taken, Olamide will sink. Deep down. And we will not find any piece of him. His music would have gone with him because his music is not for eternity. There are artistes who make everlasting music, not Olamide. Asa is one of them. Olamide is for the moment. I love him. I am very concerned about him. I am not even famous, but I have interacted with Masters of Continuity: Denrele, Charly Boy, Wole Soyinka, Onyeka Onwenu, Linda Ikeji, Orlando Julius, Seun Kuti. Apart from Orlando Julius and Seun Kuti – and maybe, Wole Soyinka and Charly Boy, what does Denrele do? He stays fucking relevant. How? Find out. Over the years, I have interacted with Denrele I noted that when he burns bridges, you won’t know because he rarely does. Last time, I was in his room in Southern Sun Hotel in Sandton, South Africa. Perhaps, he didn’t realise why I was there. I was there with my luggage, heading to the airport, to head to Kigali. But, I was there to learn something. Something more refreshing. Lovely soul as always, he entertained me and my friends. He made us all happy. He behaves as though he does not have sorrows. But, when Denrele sat down and told us his SoundCity story, I quivered a little. I knew there was something, but here was a man who was not ready to burn any bridge. The bridge he builds, he does not burn. In the past, I have failed Denrele. He does not take it to heart. Maybe, he does. But he doesn’t show it and he doesn’t keep grudges. I told my friends before we walked in, that I had offended Denrele in the past. Here I was again, in his chamber, all trusting and lovely. Did he forget? No, he remembers, but he does not take any of these things seriously. No one can break him. People see me and my rings and they feel I want to be like Charly Boy . Oh well, part of me wants to be the Charles Oputa at home. Ever loved at home, Charly Boy is the Real Daddy. He is a human being (don’t mind the tattoos and piercings). He is loving and emotional. We had sat down to talk and I realized I was on the right track by just hanging around him. There was a night Seun Kuti was playing at the Shrine and I went to say hello to Charly Boy and he kissed me on the forehead. He was overjoyed to see me and he said something about being proud of me. He forgot I am his student. He is my teacher. I am learning how to be what you are and be who you are. Wole Soyinka teaches you that humility can’t be faked and that poverty makes people arrogant. Soyinka was never raised poor and has never been poor, but last week when I visited him, he treated my friends like his age mates. Yet, kept his mystery right there. Intact. Orlando Julius does not understand he is a God. No demi-god or anything. He does not realize this and his wife, Latoya Aduke, does not help him to know, so both of them think they are like us: ordinary people. And I love that. Seun Kuti thinks he is arrogant. But, there is no friend of mine that has met him and didn’t fall in love with him. Both male and female. In fact, one uses his photo as his Facebook cover picture. Many of these people are not Yoruba. In fact, none is Yoruba. They bother me all the time: “Please, when are we going to see Seun again?” I will say, “Calm down! He is on tour.” And they will beg. People hate Onyeka Onwenu . Hate is a strong word, but they do hate her for real. You know people who hate her? People who have never met her. My friend Obinna Obika was scared of meeting Onyeka Onwenu and when he finally did, he kept saying, ‘My mommy. My mommy.’ I had to remind him that Onyeka Onwenu is not his mommy. He should go and look for his mommy in Enugu. An acquaintance who had arrived from Cambodia heard Onyeka Onwenu invited me for a hangout and he pleaded to go with me. Initially, I refused. When I agreed and he went with me, we returned by 3 am and he kept saying, ‘But that was not Onyeka Onwenu that I knew.’ Because the Onyeka Onwenu he knew was an arrogant woman who walked with her shoulders held high and the one he saw that night, was a lovely, cheerful, soft-spoken soul who spoke about her foray into music and drank with us and laughed with us and didn’t talk down on us. We were in the same bar, eating meat and drinking beer! And she kept asking, ‘Are you guys not ordering for more?’ The boys returned to the hotel with me, broken. They were disappointed. They wanted a different Onyeka Onwenu – an arrogant one to confirm their suspicion. On Linda Ikeji … I don’t even want to start before anyone says I am kissing ass. I am. If that is the case, but here is the thing: you can’t spend a day or ten minutes with Linda Ikeji, especially on Saturdays when we go to see movies and catch up and never want to see her again. I once turned down an invitation to a European embassy in Lagos when she asked me to join her to see a film. I thought she was more important than the embassy. I intentionally missed the event so I could spend that time with her and it was worth it because it was the moment that I was with her that I got a message: Did you see? Your film has been nominated for the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA). The relevance of these people will always be attributed to their character. Not the works they have created. The problem is that they travel more than the ones who take themselves seriously! Humility is not being walked all over. Humility is making people want to visit you again and again. Making people think about you, making those moments memorable. These people I have mentioned, when you spend time with them, you will find it hard forgetting those times. But, please, give them the space. It is when people say great things about your personality that your creative output will stay relevant. And I think Olamide needs to study these people and learn from them, that way, he won’t disappear into oblivion like many have done in the past.

Onyeka Nwelue is the President of La Cave Musik, a record label based in Paris, specialising in music from Africa and the Caribbean. He’s an Assistant Visiting Professor of African Studies at the University of Manipur. His latest book, Hip-Hop is Only for Children won the Non-Creative Book of the Year at the 2015 Nigerian Writers’ Awards. Push. Build Bridges. Don’t Burn Them. Who Wants To Host Arrogance? Nobody