Jahbless and 9ice

The biggest sacrifice I ever made for 9ice-Jahbless

By Samod Biobaku

Sixthsense34@yahoo.com

The dream of any good artiste, actor, model, producer or any other showbiz personality is to achieve professional success within the shortest time possible.

Ironically, the achievement of this feat comes with a truckload of risks to be taken, hard work, financial barriers and most importantly, sacrifice.

We’re all familiar with the level of enmity that suddenly takes root between friends when success rattles the equilibrium of friendship between them.

If having a friend who takes risks and makes sacrifices that only a mother’s love can rival is used to gauge luck, then the Gongo Aso crooner, 9ice would arguably the luckiest artiste in Nigeria today.

How else does one explain the level of selflessness of one of 9ice’s closest allies, Owoloye Olatunde Oluwabukunmi popularly known as Jah Bless who effortlessly sacrificed so much to ensure that 9ice’s music got a face at a time when he was relatively unknown to many.

9ice and Jah Bless have been friends for almost a decade and during the course of their friendship, there came a time when their appetite for musical success crossed their paths with the C.E.O, Edge Records, Ibrahim Okulalaja who made it clear from the start that despite the fact that he appreciated the musical creativity and originality of both 9ice and Jah Bless, he could only work on one of them at a time.

Rather than become blinded by selfish thoughts or the revulsion of being sidelined by the producer, Jah Bless made a sacrifice that only a ‘true friend’ would be capable of. He shelved his act to create room for 9ice to build his musical platform.

In a chat with SimplySamad, Jah Bless told the story of his musical odyssey as well as the birth of his album, ‘Believe in Thyself.’

After secondary school in 1999, he started music with a defunct group called Melodyz and he narrates what happened thereafter. “We had a hit that goes, ‘Jumoke, jowo mo feran re baje… ’ Melodyz eventually fell apart because we actually drifted apart. Two of us gained admission in Ibadan while the third member of the group gained admission into the Lagos State Polytechnic. We were not always together and this affected the group. In 2002, I started my own thing because I was on Star Quest in the Ibadan zone. I came third out of over 200. Kelly Hansome emerged first and Iron King was second. Star Quest exposed me and I even got some money. I also did my first demo in 2002 titled ‘Like This-Like That.’ The following year, I did a video for the song. At this point, I just kept a honed edge on my music; polishing my game.”

He later went ahead to study Mass Communication at the Polytechnic Ibadan and eventually met ID Cabasa and later on, 9ice. “I was with ID Cabasa all though this period and this was when I met 9ice. We met while we were both learning about the production aspect of music from Cabasa’s studio. There were so many times when I told my parents I was in school but the truth was that I was always in Cabasa’s studio. In 2002, I had to leave home and I never returned till date. My folks, as expected, were worried but my mind was made up on pursuing a musical career. I was there in the studio with Cabasa and I recorded an album. Back then, the music industry was just growing and not too many people were ready to invest in music.”

With a little prod, Jah Bless revealed how he and 9ice temporarily left Cabasa’s studio to have a feel of life outside the studio.

Destiny led them to the door of a music producer who was ready to invest his money in just one of them due to the financial challenges that lay ahead. “At a point, 9ice and I left Cabasa’s studios because we felt we had to go out and have some external feel. This was when we met Ibrahim Okulaja. That was the guy who made us understand that he had some working capital to work with and he was ready to invest it in music. He made us understand that he could not sign both of us at the same time so we both decided that we should work on 9ice. That was the sacrifice I made for 9ice. That was how 9ice’s album, Certificate was born. Okulaja also shot four videos for the album; Little Money, Music Daddy and others. There were so many challenges that trailed the album because a point, there was no marketer to collect it because they all said 9ice was news artiste. Nobody wanted to take the risk but Okulaja did and when he started selling that the marketer, St. Jude came in. that is the story behind 9ice’s album. Certificate was the beginning but today, we thank God for Gongo Aso. After Gongo Aso, 9ice decided to set up his own record Label, Alapomeji and that was how Alapomeji started. My first album is going to be released under Edge Records. After the album I might also decide to set up my own label but for now, it’s Edge Records.”

Despite the apparent success, they remained best of friends and continued to grow from strength to strength. “9ice and I are still best of friends. We’ve been friends before we met Ibrahim Okulaja and started producing the albums. We went through everything together; the pain, joy and all.”

Speaking on his new album, which he has aptly christened, ‘Believe in thyself,’ he described it as heavy, adding that he deliberately took his time to record an album that would speak for itself. “My album is bad. It’s a big album. It’s very heavy. I have 15 songs on the album and I have 2 Shotz, Lord of Ajasa, Banky W, Durella and so many other acts. Apart from the party tracks and love songs, the rest of the tracks are furiously motivational. They are about discovering yourself. It will be out very soon,” he said.

As expected, his female fans are a major part of his career and he takes a peek into the role they play. “My female fans mean everything to me. Without them, I’m nothing. They are all I have. I’ve had a whole lot of crazy encounters with them. I recall that on so many occasions, I’ve had girls openly tell me that they dig me and would give ‘it’ to me anyhow I want it. Some have told me to my face that they would crush me in bed if I would openly give them a chance to do so. I’m committed to somebody but I don’t want to disclose her identity yet. We might get very married soon but I’m not sure about it yet.”