konknaijaboy | On 19, Aug 2013

Nigerian rapper who enjoyed a bit of media attention in the mid 2000s, Mode 9 had a little chit chat with TuTu Adeoba and Cheezy Charles on hotfm’s breakfast radio show  not too long ago and he opened up about his supposed absence in the news in recent times and he complained about the stereotype mentality of people, read an excerpt from his interview below.

I put out a whole album nobody cared’ ‘A whole 20 track album ‘alphabetical order’ nobody gave a f**k’, nobody cares.You see how the industry is’ how do you expect me to feel? Nigerians don’t like hip hop they only follow the hype, they don’t even know what it is’.

I only cater for my real fans; I don’t really care about the fair weather, band wagon jumpers. I cater for my fans and they are feeling it. I have put up too much effort in promotion of my materials.

It’s just some certain people in their minds feeling that I’m not doing well. I have decided I am going to attack anybody who calls me up and asks ‘where have you been?’ I have attacked everyone that has done that, I amnot afraid of anybody. It’s just the way they think. If your music is not playing in clubs then you are not putting out the best. My music is not club music;  I didn’t put out a club album. Real fans of Mode 9 know where it’s happening and know how to get it. They’ve seen it on TV and they loved it. So I think I’m doing a great job. Imagine you doing all this and someone walking up to you and asking, ‘common where’ve you been? Imagine how bad you’ll feel after spending millions of naira to promote yourself from your own pocket.

Do you think Nigerians don’t really value true hip-hop? Are his points justifiable?

Mode 9; please revamp and re-organise. Infact, rebrand and re-modify. We love you but try understand the fans (consumers) then feed them with the music (product and service) they really need. We need not record songs for ourselves as artists because we love the way it sounds in the booth (studio). The question is; will your fans love what you are recording when it drops?

The Nigerian Hip Hop artist MUST see himself/herself first as a brand, a company producing goods or delivering service for its customers. What happens if your product is not of top quality or your service delivery is very poor? You loose customers to competition……………………………

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