Tuface Idibia

HOW do you feel about your recent award at the MTV Africa Music awards?
I just thank God. I am happy about it and it means more challenge for me to keep up the standard and keep working.
You have been performing in a lot of shows lately, where do you get all the energy from?
Within Nigeria it’s all the fufu I eat you know….emm outside Nigeria na burger (Just kidding o!) I think when your job is what you love to do; it makes it easier for you. So I guess it’s because I love to perform on stage and I love music.

Your latest album, Unstoppable doesn’t seem to be doing as well as your previous albums, what do you think is responsible for this?
I can’t really say because the kind of deal I had on this album had to do with the marketers being responsible for the sales so na dem know whether e sell or e no sell. I can’t really say its moving in terms of selling in the market but maybe the buzz is not like that of the previous albums.

Why is that?
I can’t really place a finger on what the problem is.

Tuface Idibia

Do you think it has anything to do with you losing your touch?
I don’t think it’s the song, I think it is….. Wow! What do I think it is now sef? (Pauses)
I think it is the promotional strategy that didn’t work well for the album.

You spent a lot of money establishing Hypertech, what happened to the label?
Nothing actually, it is just that right now I am trying to reorganize and rearrange so that whatever Hypertech is going to be involved in next time will come out well. You know it was my first time setting up a label and there are a whole lot of lessons I learnt. And I believe that is the way of life, we learn in order to grow.

Can you outline some of the wrong steps you made as regards Hypertech?
I am not going to answer all that. It is a baby company and like I said, the promotion did not flourish as expected.

Why did you go back to Now music?
I think they are capable to do the job because I have worked with them before and I think they will be able to carry me to where I am going in terms of management.

There were speculations that R. Kelly denied featuring on your song entitled Flex, what do you have to say about that?
Let me just put it this way; R-Kelly has not sued me, so let anybody not say anything. That is the only thing I have to say because it is now as if I have to start defending. Let whoever said R-Kelly said that show me a tape or something.

Tuface Idibia

But you did feature R-Kelly, didn’t you?
Yeah. There was a collabo and whoever is trying to say there wasn’t just want to rubbish my name. They are tired of talking about the baby mama issue and they want to use something else to tarnish my image. It is just the work of some people who are trying to spoil my name.

Now that a lot of people believe the rumour, don’t you think you should have R. Kelly officially make a statement about it?
Well, don’t worry, I am working on it. I am going to do something about that soon. I will just say father, forgive them for they don’t know what they are talking about.

What are you working on at the moment?
Right now, I am packaging a Disc Jockey master mix. I am trying to pick a DJ that can use my music and do the best mix. That is what I am doing right now and it will be ready next month. And I am still celebrating my ten years on the scene and there are a couple of events lined up for that. I did one in Abuja and I am doing one in Bayelsa next month as well. There is a whole lot I am coming up with but I can’t really talk about them now because they are still in the pipeline. When e don done, I go let una know.

I am working on another album right now and I am preparing for the UK release of Unstoppable.

Do you think the album will do better there than it is doing here?
It is doing better there. Many Nigerians told me that the songs are not Nigerian enough. And I don’t know what that means. They say they are not commercial; they said why I didn’t do something like what the boys are doing right now. So I am like, the thing wey the boys dey do now, who do am before the boys dey do am? Some people just want you to remain a Nigerian artiste; they don’t want you to cut across to the other parts of the world. I have heard it a lot that the album is not Nigerian enough and maybe that is why they are not playing it.

Examining your other albums and this particular one, did you do the same things you did?
I will say almost the same thing. Not really the same but its still me. I will say the only difference is one or two styles of music I introduced on the album because I did some afro beats and I didn’t do so many singing songs.

What do you think about the Nigerian music industry?
The industry is still in a little bit of chaos in terms of copyright laws, in terms of combating piracy and artistes getting their proper dues. I think it is still a little bit unstable but in terms of growth, creativity and awareness, in Nigeria, the music industry is growing fast. It is like that everywhere in the world; you have the very talented artistes, you have the business minded artistes that don’t necessarily need to be talented and you have those that don’t have both the business and the talent.
They don’t have any business in the show. And then in terms of audience, you have people who respect good music in Nigeria and we have those who just want to party without listening to lyrics and then we have those that don’t have respect for Nigerian artistes, they only respect foreign artistes. Nigerians easily put people aside. We have a lot of great old school artistes who no one talks about anymore.

Tuface

People just come up today to say they are this and that whereas there are people who have been there from the outset and they really did a lot of work in the industry and nobody talks about them today. I have never seen any radio DJ come on air and play old school songs alongside what we have now. But the way it is, when new artistes come up, they just sideline the older ones. When 2face Idibia came on board, everybody forgot about older artistes such as Onyeka Onwenu and Sunny Ade. I think that thing is one thing that is really bad in terms of respect for artistes. The way dem dey forget old school artiste dey very unfair. No matta wetin the person do, Na only the person mate dey celebrate am some time. In all, the music industry is growing pretty fast right now.

Recently at the Arthur Guinness Concert, P-Square created a scene in your defence, what is your take on the matter?
We actually came back and some people tried to disrespect us. They always disrespect Nigerian artistes when it comes to stuff like that. It is not necessarily Guinness; it’s the people they employed. You know they employ some agencies to handle stuff sometimes and these people just disrespect Nigerian artistes.
And the Guinness staff actually came to apologize to us. That was why myself and P-Square came back on stage to perform. I will advice big companies to tell those who run the agencies they hire to stop disrespecting Nigerian artistes. I left the Guinness show but the members of staff who understood what went wrong, came after me and pleaded for me to come back.

Why do you think these agencies disrespect Nigerian artistes?
It is because they tend to look at us on their own level and see foreign artistes in a higher level than we are. It’s just like when you say a prophet is not respected in his home. They want to impress foreign artistes when they come to Nigeria. They want to kiss their butts or something in that line. When they have shows like that, Nigerian artistes also make demands but everything they would prepare would be just for the foreign artistes. For instance, I made demands for my own backstage arrangement and on that day, I come to the venue of the show and they have a general backstage for all the Nigerian artistes and they have one particular area for the foreign artistes. And then sometimes, even the area that is created for the Nigerian artistes, when the foreign artiste come, they deny Nigerian artiste access to the place. Although sometimes, some artistes do not make these demands when we get to the venue of the show, they complain that they are being maltreated meanwhile in their rider they did not make these demands. Even those of us who make these demands are not even satisfied and there are confrontations and one just decides to refrain from displaying and making trouble.

Who was 2face as a fourteen year old teenager?
I was very shy but very playful, very friendly but extremely shy.

Are you still shy?
Yes I am but I can’t afford to be shy anymore because of the line of business I am in.

So how are you taking in all your fame?
Well I just look at it like I am still me. The fact that people know me doesn’t change anything.

Do you think you would have made it this big if you were still a member of Plantation Boys?
It is only God and time that can answer that. Maybe I would have grown bigger than this, maybe not. I can’t really say.

Are you guys planning a come back?
Right now, no! But we are thinking about

Are you planning to tie the knots anytime soon?
Hmm…I am already married o!

Really when did you do that and why did you hide it?
I no want make una know o!

Who did you marry?
Una no go let the person rest so….

Is it Annie Macaulay?
Don’t worry, you go know when we don tire to keep am secret. (Laughs)

So you are no more in the market?
No I am not o!

For the records, how many kids do you have?
Dem plenty o. I am still counting sef.

Don’t you think your having kids here and there will affect your career negatively?
One thing is that we are in Africa; it depends on which angle you are looking at it from. Polygamy is a normal thing in Africa. I am not trying to say anyone should do like I did; it’s a matter of how you want to live your own life. What I did was the noblest thing I could have done in that situation. I don’t care about what anybody thinks about me. I just know that I didn’t kill anyone and I did not commit any crime and I did the right thing given the situation. So, however anybody looks at it is a matter of opinion. If they want to crucify me for it, no problem, I go take care of my pikin them.

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