Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Why I attacked Timaya in my song –Nico Gravity

Many may not know him as Paul Nnamdi Okpara as the name does not ring a bell. But as Nico Gravity, he is the musician who went off the music scene for many years and has now returned to re-establish his presence. He is also the singer who is trying to cut Timaya to size through his wave-making album, Scatter Timaya.

Here, Gravity opens up to Blockbuster on what he stands to gain by beefing Timaya. The ghetto boy also talks about his death rumour and relationship with women. Excerpts:

How it all started
I started music way back in1991 in Reggae Dub Chapel where we used to have the late Johnny Nab. It is a place where we used to gather and play instrumental on turn-table and boys used microphone to rap and to impress a very little crowd that had gathered. I used to go there everyday and at a point, I started staying there with a lot of guys like Daddy Showkey, Daddy Fresh and Marvellous Benjy.

It was like a training ground for those of us that did music in the ghetto. I started in 1991, then in 1993, I did a duet with Daddy Fresh in a song entitled, Clean Up, then in 1995 I also did a duet with him, Fakafikifaka. In 1996, I released my debut album, Story Teller under Felin Records and two years later, I did another song, This is Lagos. I have done other songs such as I Go Mortuary in 2000 but when it was about to be released, I left Lagos and got a job with the BBC as a Sound Engineer. I worked for three years and was away from Lagos for four years and when I came back I released Scatter Timaya.

Inspiration
Before I went into music, I was learning spare parts trade in Idumota and that was when I discovered that I was always listening to music, rapping, making songs and people were always commending and encouraging me to take it up as a career. I just love music. I love to make people laugh. That time, it was not about the money. If you sing and people clap, you are very happy for a whole week. It was just the love for music that made me go into it.

I’m teetotaler
I don’t smoke marijuana. I don’t drink alcohol but I just like making songs. If am in a club listening to music and I dance for too long, I can get a musical idea. I could just be strolling and get an idea. Basically the things that I see and the things that happen to me inspire me to make songs. It is just God.

Why I scattered Timaya
I came back from Abuja and needed to re-establish my relevance, to let people know that I am back, that was just apart. The major thing is that I listened to Timaya’s music, and I want to say that it’s very interesting. I saw a lot of loopholes in his lyrical reasoning. He makes 10 songs, nine and half are about himself and the things he has acquired and the money he has made. I remember that when we were learning how to play music, the first thing you try to make is sense.

As some people would ask you, what is the meaning of this song? I discovered that music was becoming more meaningless. Yes, self praise is an internationally acknowledged and accepted pattern of writing songs but an artiste’s lyrical range doesn’t have to be narrowed down completely to self-praise and I discovered that Timaya was mostly all about himself. I also saw that Timaya was making his songs as if he is quarelling with somebody and has problems with artistes who are based in Lagos.
Timaya’s music reflected a certain kind of disrespect or let me say anger for artistes in Lagos.

The ultimate reason I attacked Timaya was because of that line where he said, I broke into their Lagos market. Note the word, their, if it had been, I broke into the Lagos market, am very sure I wouldn’t have had any problem with that. But the word their sounded so direct and so personal as if he has been beefing Lagos artistes for a long time. I know artistes from Port Harcourt who came to Lagos and made a lot of waves, Etiene T Boy did it, Daniel Wilson also did it, but I saw all of that as fun. It was interesting and I saw the opportunity of making interesting music based on that topic.

There’s need to re-establish myself
They think I hate Timaya and want him to fall. No, I saw an opportunity of making a song that has the intention of becoming interesting based on the topic of Timaya’s kind of music. I am sure most artistes in Lagos didn’t do it because they were friends of Timaya, they didn’t want to get on his bad side or somehow they did not want Timaya’s fans to dislike them but I needed to re-establish my return and entertain people. It is basically entertainment.

On Timaya’s response
I have never seen Timaya face to face in my life. I only see him on TV and am sure he only sees me on TV too that is if he has ever seen me on TV. I am sure if he passes me, he might not recognise me but funny enough, most of his people are my people. Most of the people he rose with are my friends. We have never met. If I meet him one on one, it would be like guy, how far now, don’t take it personal, I hope you understand its entertainment. I have no beef whatsoever with Timaya.

Controversy and death rumour
I want to play down on the controversy because it has caused its own ugly side even if it has exposed me. It has also brought me a lot of things like the death rumour and people harassing me. I’ve gone to shows with so much security around me. You never can tell a crazy Timaya fan who is trying to hurt you. It has brought a lot of unpleasant things

On Mighty Mouse
Mighty Mouse is just a guy who is misunderstood and who also misunderstands himself. But he was like fighting against the album, “Scatter Timaya” at a point when it was becoming big. He was using his sound system and microphone to preach against the music and telling people not to play it. Recently, we spoke and we are doing a stuff on the computer.

Mighty Mouse is bigger than me. We are not fighting over supremacy. He is a big man in the music community in Ajegunle and he supports us a lot. I was just not happy with him but he is a man who I respect a lot and have supported in many ways. He is not the person that should be fighting me now that I am trying to break even.

Relationship with women
It’s a big problem. It is very hard to handle especially when they find out that you are not married. They all want commitment which is easy to promise but hard to deliver. My New Year resolution is to be very prayerful. I am praying to God to give me the wisdom to be able to juggle girls properly and eventually come to the one that I will settle down with. You can’t marry non-tested. If you want to buy a car, you have to test it to observe the engine noise and other things. I am just like test running, if things go well, I would get married before this year runs out.

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