As you’re reading this, chances are that you could also be listening to the newly released singles entitled: Afro Soul, from Seyi Sodimu, the Mr. Jeje crooner.
US based Sodimu, who now spends more time in Nigeria, is currently in town to promote the new singles, which according to him will hit the airwaves this week.
Speaking with some entertainment journalists over the weekend, in his Ikeja, Lagos residence, the musician cum international businessman, said he’s privileged to be a Nigerian musician and that music runs in his family.
Still baring his mind on the singles and the Nigerian music industry, the act who described his kind of music as Afro Soul, said he combines it with African rhythm, so that it would have a global appeal as well as be globally accepted by his teeming fans.
Sodium, whose debut effort was released in 1997, hinted that the latest singles, which full album would be ready and subsequently launched in the next couple of weeks, is his fourth as an accomplished entertainer and international act. Containing a total of four tracks, including: Gbedu, Boys Will Be Boys, Sophisticated Woman, featuring Wayne Wonder, and Set Me Free. Sodimu, also hinted that work had already begun on the video of Boys Will be Boys with Clarence Peters. “Several of my colleagues in the music, movie and comedy sectors would feature in this video, which is expected to hit air soon. Other videos will follow suit once we are through with this one. We intend touring Nigeria with several leading acts soon. We also intend having a massive album launch here in Nigeria when the full album is ready as well as help up and coming acts, in a talent hunt we are also packaging”.
Sodium, who repeatedly confessed that music is part of his life, also featured his 12 year-old daughter in the new singles and hopes to begin serious collaboration works with most Nigerian acts, whom he also praised for helping to raise the bar in the industry.
Aside singing and writing songs, the act who shuttles between Washington DC, where he has a home and Nigeria, is also into movies, clothing and oil and gas. Visibly excited Sodimu also promised to be more visible in the Nigerian music scene, unlike in the past that he used to breeze in once in a while.
X-Project storms studio for another hit
Multiple award winning group X-Project, which is made up of Akinwoye Akinwunmi (Majeed), Salieu Sindi (Saal) and Aziz Kamara (Slez), is currently back in the studios putting finishing touches to their latest album, in Abuja.
The forthcoming work, a follow up to ‘Lorile’, their monster hit party jam, which is still ruling the music world, would be the fourth from the very talented group made up of two Sierra Leoneans and one Nigerian. Little wonder they are also known as Sierra/Naija project.
The work, according to the trio who are on the label of Sam Kargbo Productions (SKP), would definitely be bigger and better than Lorile, in terms of acceptance and production input. “We have been in Abuja for months working on this project with equally good producers like: OJB, Puffy T and some others. We also did some collabos on this project with some top musicians: In fact, we have recorded over 15 tracks for this project. The work is coming out this year with a big bang; it is for our fans the world over and all music lovers. It is a project very dear to our hearts and we intend launching it big in both Nigeria and Sierra-Leone as well as other countries within and outside our continent” disclosed Majeed, the leader of the very focused group. Also sharing his aspirations for the boys, with us, the boss of SKP, who is also the financier and promoter of the group, said he brought them from Lagos to Abuja, in order to work without stress in the
studios as well as give the job the attention it needed. Kargbo also a lawyer, further added that they have so far impressed him with the content they have in the forthcoming album.
Amiable Kargbo, who also discovered and nurtured the group to this level, further maintained that X-Project has truly come to stay on the nation’s music landscape and would continue to dominate the scene with their kind of music and stagecraft.
Kargbo, whose dream for the group is for them to bring home a Grammy someday, said he was excited when they came back with an award, from their recent tour of the U.S.
Aside carting home several awards in Nigeria since their emergence on the scene almost a decade ago, the group were also rewarded with a Special Award, a few years ago, by the former President of Sierra Leone, Mr. Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, for their efforts in helping to restore peace to the then troubled country through their music. We would definitely keep you posted on more developments about the coming work and when it would be released in Nigeria and the international market for their teeming fans.
Emem Isong on the march again
Respected and celebrated female filmmaker Emem Isong is set to kill three birds (not two) with just one stone. And since she is a member of the make believe world, the above scenario could only happen in Nolloywood, now the world’s second largest filmmaking nation.
After a long wait, Isong and her partners; Desmond Elliot and Uduak Oguamana, are poised to dazzle movie buffs with their latest film projects. Already, Edikan, an Ibibio language film she jointly produced with the above two, would be premiered on July 10, in her native Akwo-Ibom State and later, Lagos State, the US and UK, amid splendour and pizzazz. In the words of Isong, the film thematically centres on the issue of child witchcraft and its effect on the victims as well as the society.
Meanwhile, Before The Light, a Christian movie jointly produced by Isong and Elliot, is also expected to hit shelves same July, with the sole aim of winning more souls for Christ.
“Edikan is a movie after my heart because of its plot and sub plots and what the society, especially my State stands to gain and learn from it. I’m also using this opportunity to implore my State Government Akwa-Ibom, to partner with us on this movie by using it as an advocacy tool round the State. It’s the first Ibibio language movie to openly treat and thoroughly dissect the issue of child witchcraft and its effect on the society. We can do more of these language movies, but that can only happen if government supports and shares in our visions as film makers”.
In another development, Isong, further disclosed that she has concluded plans to formally open her long awaited Nollywood training school. To be known as Royal Arts Academy, she posited that when opened in the next couple of weeks, the institute would train aspiring Nollywood stars as well as those who intend working behind the scenes.
“ We have made all the necessary arrangements towards the smooth take-off the institute. We are only waiting for signals and the arrival of some of the state-of-the-art equipment from our foreign partners. As soon as they are here, we would immediately take-off. Our aim is to help empower Nigerian youths through entertainment.”
Koko Mansion begins audition
After a long wait, which according to the organizers was worth the while, audition into the television reality show, Koko Mansion, will now hold this week in Lagos. Already, there is so much excitement in the air as the potential Kokolettes (ladies) that have registered, are looking forward to the ‘show’ before the show. Three judges and a celebrity judge will be in the panel that will carry out the video audition.
There is palpable tension among the hundreds of girls that the 12 finalists will emerge from.
Koko Mansion, is a reality television show featuring D’banj and being facilitated by HiTV, the wholly Nigerian pay Television Company. Koko Mansion revolves around the quest of 12 beautiful, and talented girls that will live in a mansion for eight weeks, with one of them finally becoming the ideal Kokolette (wife). The Mansion is situated in an undisclosed area in Lagos. Hip hop superstar D’banj will play a vital role in the coming show that has the support of Nigerian Breweries, Jagal Group, makers of Tetmosol among other sponsors. It is scheduled to begin this month.
In these weeks, the young women will be groomed and tested in various activities in order to determine the one with the greatest Koko Virtues, worthy of being a wife –a Kokolette. The winner will among other benefits, be crowned Kokolette 1, get a Chris Aires Diamond ring, a brand new convertible car, feature in his next music video, You Don Make Me Fall In Love alongside N5 million in cash. Again, the winner will be D’Banj’s companion at public events both within and outside Nigeria. She would further emerge as HiTV’s Hi-Babe.
Meanwhile, aside the huge revenue being used in the production of Koko Mansion, critics of the entertainment sector are applauding the initiative as one that will create employment for many people.
The winner of the show aside the mouth-watering prizes, the organizers have also made a commitment to invest in whatever talent she has that was discovered during the duration of the show.
Hip-hop star D’Banj, on his part said part of the agreement he reached with the organizers, was to assist the young lady develop her talent. “If it turns out that she is a good singer, Mo’ Hits Records (a label owned by Don Jazzy) will not have a choice other than to take her in and make her the superstar she has desired to be all her life.” This goes for all the participants to prove that a Kokolette is not a street girl or party music video girl as most people may want to misrepresent.
Most people for some time now, have said one of the reasons behind Koko Mansion is to shop for a female singer in the Mo’ Hits all men crew. “It is not entirely correct,” D’Banj said, adding: “But a female singer in Mo’ Hits is not a bad idea, and if she happens to be the number one Kokolette from the Koko Mansion, why not?”
It is however laughable to think that the organizers are also looking for a wife for D’Banj.
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