I Was Not Born Yesterday in Music

An important background of my compositions.

My current photograph of selfie with Nkechika taken this morning with my smartphone and the background generated with Google Gemini, my digital assistant of awesome genius. Nkechika will be featured in the musical videos of three of my songs for my first ELP for the Christmas and the Valentine by the grace of Almighty God.

I Was Not Born Yesterday in Music. 

My great father, Sunday Eke of blessed memory had and played violin and loved classical music. My passion for pop music attracted me to choose to attend the famous secondary school, St. Gregory's College on Lagos Island in south west Nigeria, because of the popularity of Ofege, the school band that was formed in the early 1970s by a group of teenagers at the St. Gregory’s College. Influenced by the leading stars of the era, especially Carlos Santana, Led Zeppelin, The Funkees, and Ofo The Black Company, Ofege introduced a different dimension of funk laced with rock solos that made them one of the greatest Nigerian bands of all time. 

Read about Ofege on
https://guardian.ng/life/ofege-alades-demise-brings-back-memories-of-boy-band-that-shook-nigerias-music-scene/

I was part of the singers in the live performance of "Ipi Tombi" South African musical concert done in 1978 by St. Gregory's College and the sister school, Holy Child College in south west Ikoyi on the Lagos Island, Nigeria.
I studied rudiments of music on my own.
I use beatboxing and tonic solfa to compose my songs and have done sing with a back up band.
I compose the lyrics and the tunes and I worked with  musicians who studied music to produce the songs.
I composed "Hardway To Broadway" in 1981 and paid for the production in California and a copy is in the Library of Congress, Washington DC, USA copyrighted in 1984.

My name then was Mike Nelson Chima Eke.

I composed "She Comes on Sundays" and was produced in 2002 in OJB Studios in Surulere on the mainland of Lagos by three young R&B singers known for their hit song, "Chiyenre".  
"She Comes on Sundays" was broadcast with one hour interview on BBC Radio in April 2003. 
Earlier in 2002, I performed my love song, "Darego, You Are the Most Beautiful Girl in the World" backed by the #1 rock guitarist in Africa, Dabyna Abraham-Poll and his band at the Maison de France of the French Cultural Centre during the graduation ceremony of the students of the Alliance Francaise in Ikoyi, Lagos, Nigeria.

I have used Suno to produce several songs of my original lyrics and I have decided to launch my music company, MCI for music production and promotion.

My original voice and my original lyrics .

Listen to Don't Let Us Give Up On on Suno! 🎵

https://suno.com/song/123f33a9-55d9-4600-9889-474dde6557d1

It is easier to win the Grammys now without even singing well, because you can simply voice over already recorded soundtracks and be slurring sensually with exhibition of sexuality to charm millions of people listening on radio and watching music videos.

- EKENYERENGOZI Michael Chima

Unqualified Judges of Star Quest: Nigerian Musical Talent Hunt Show

A band from Star Quest. Photo Credit: Star Quest


Unqualified Judges of Star Quest: Nigerian Musical Talent Hunt Show

They are not professionals, they are inexperienced and most of them are not even well groomed musically.
How many of them can play musical instruments satisfactorily or defend the music in their albums?

Musical judges should be resource persons drawn from reputable music institutions, industry professionals who know their onions and music instructors with results.

~ Akapo Emmanuel in “Will real Stars be produced” on Star Quest, page 47 of the Viewpoint in Sunday Vanguard on March 28, 2010.

Nigerian Breweries Plc has been spending a lot on Star Quest to promote Nigerian music by encouraging the revival of music bands. But there is a problem. The judges on Star Quest have been making mockery of themselves while thinking they are making fun of the contestants they are judging, because from my knowledge of music since my secondary school days at the famous St.Gregory’s College in Lagos, where good bands such as the famous Ofege, New Generation and others have emerged, I can tell you that these judges have little or no proven knowledge of MUSIC in rudiments and in instruction.
It is erroneous to make Hip-hop artistes who in most cases are music illiterates (those who cannot read and write music) judges.
They are not simply qualified to judge music.


A performer from Star Quest . Photo Credit: Star Quest

Most of these so called celebrated hip hop superstars in Nigeria will not even pass auditions for recording contracts in the US or Europe where music production is not faked by DJs and amateurish sound engineers who dub the sound tracks of American and European musicians and mix them for Nigerian hip hop wannabes to rap or sing over them and these voice over artistes are recorded and released on the streets and bribing radio DJs and TV video jockeys to give them constant airplay (rotation) to hype them on their stage-managed charts. They spend a lot of money to fake or make musical videos copied from American and European videos and using sexploitation to market themselves as stars, but most of them cannot even sing. What we see are Garbage In, Garbage Out (GIGO) hip hop artistes unleashing their mediocrity on us. They even pay bootleggers to pirate their own music in what they popularly call Alaba Mix in local parlance in Nigeria. Then show organizers use them to promote and market alcoholic products and other junk products targeted at the ignorant and vulnerable youths in Nigeria who are now calling themselves the Hip-hop generation. And they have no shame to boast of this sham!

Please, read Our Music Is Dying Slowly, And Still Smiling by Femi Akintunde-Johnson, and Akapo Emmanuel’s critical analysis of the judges is worth reading by the organizers and the viewers.

~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima