Simply Samad meets Illbliss (Ibo Boy)

How I tamed Terry G – Illbliss, popular rapper

By Samod Biobaku

Sixthsense34@yahoo.com

Popular singer, Terry G has over the years, branded himself as an artiste whose musical dexterity hardly ever comes into question.

Despite his penchant for controversies, one item that had remained resolute in his years as a singer, song writer and producer has been his overwhelming musical personality.

Those with a good grasp of Terry G’s strengths and weaknesses would readily attest to the singer’s ability to bring a song alive with his creativity and the level of musical freedom that comes to bear on his songs.

Interestingly, his strength has however turned around to haunt the energetic artiste on a number of occasions; as made apparent in his fights with AY, Drama and a host of others; over what they termed his attempt to take over their songs.

However, despite Terry G’s domineering musical personality that tends to subdue the performance of other artistes especially in collaborations, one artiste has proven that even the wildest of personalities can be tamed if the right strategy is deployed. One artiste who has been able to achieve this feat is popular rapper, Illbliss.

In this interview with National LIFE, Illbliss recalls how he handled the collaboration with Terry G on his hit single, ‘Enough space.”

The dark-skinned rapper also spoke about his projects, family and other interesting issues.

So, what’s happening to you right now?

We’re really good. We’ve been pushing and trying to get more people involved. That’s what it is and the next step is to keep pushing the album, drop a few m ore singles.

Are you still with the Throughbreds?

We never left. It’s like a Catholic church; we never left.

How many people make up Thoroughbreds?

That’s five of us

As Throughbreds, do you still push musical works as a group?

We push our materials but for a while, we decided to slow down the pace so that a few members could work on some other projects. So, we try to strengthen ourselves individually. The floor looks good enough for rap music now.

There are certain artistes who appear to have a strong hold on singles even when they are just being featured in the songs in question. A good example would be Timaya and Terry G. You featured Terry G in one of your biggest hit singles. How did you handle the situation?

I don’t know how to day this but I had three verses on the song.

Yes, but you didn’t give him any verse?

Yes! But it wasn’t consciously. We just agreed that he would do the chorus part of it and I would do the verses. It’s simple. It’s your song so you need to retain control over it. I just thought that was the best way to go especially with an artiste of his pedigree. Terry has a very domineering character; not consciously but Terry often takes over the track and it’s really because he has the swag. It’s not really because he wants to kick you off your song. Some artistes don’t get this right and still don’t understand how collaborations work. In Ego (by Beyonce), there was a Kanye West verse at the beginning of the song. We had over 30 bars of rap. I’m sure Beyonce was never bothered about Kanye doing 30 bars. Rather, she thought about the signage and record sales. That’s what artistes should bother about rather than fighting over songs so, that’s what I did on the song. If I had my way, I would put Terry on the song again and blow it up further and not really bother about who owns the song or who doesn’t. That’s the truth.

Happily married

Her name is Mona Chisom. I got married in May 2008.

Wow! That’s a very bold step because most artistes just don’t want to get married

(Laughs) We’re different.

Where did you find the courage to pull that kind of stunt?

I had known my wife for six and half years and we perfectly understood each other and felt we should cease wasting time and get married. We decided to stop clowning and got married. So, we just got together, did what we needed to do and today, we’re very happy.

I would like to know how she copes with your female fans, their relentless calls and so much more

Do you know the secret? Marry a fine wife. If you marry a fine wife, you might be still be tempted to look elsewhere but that possibility of that would be cut to its barest minimum. We’re men and we’ll always be men. As for the fans, we handle them properly and that’s why they are our fans. They breeze away so you just do what you have to do. You have to be nice to them because they are the ones that keep you relevant. They are the ones that buy your records.

Background information

My name is Tobechukwu Melvin Ejiofor. I was born in ENugu; Coal City in Eastern Nigeria. I hail from Imo State. I attended the University of Nigeria, Nsuka. I studied Political Science, graduated, came out and joined the banking industry. I have a four-year banking experience. The last bank I worked with didn’t do so well with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) mergers, the N25 billion mergers and then I left the country. I went to the United Kingdom precisely. I lived in the U.K between 2005 and 2007. I came back and decided it couldn’t be banking again. I worked with planet one as an Events Manager for a year and a half. I also worked with Ultima Studios and we produced TV content for MTN; ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’ and Project Fame West Africa.’ I try to do so many things in addition to music because the money from music is very sketchy. You can’t always plan on it. It’s like ‘Yahoo (The Nigerian term for cyber fraud)’ money. It comes and goes and I don’t want to live my life like that. That’s why I might not be number one on everybody’s list. I’m supposed to be bigger than I am. I just do what I can do and move ahead. I won Best Hip Hop Video at the Soundcity Music Video Awards in 2008. When I won it, I was nobody and the award was presented to me by NAS. A lot more people know me know and it’s all thanks to platforms like Soundcity; that your records and videos out. So, all I can say is thank you to them and thank you to you too for staying on the red carpet and keeping artistes relevant. It’s very good for us. If there was no press, there would be no event. Just look out for more Illbliss materials.