Mogaji
Saheed Abiodun popularly known as DJ Genius is from Epe, Lekki side of Lagos.
He is a professional Disc Jockey and he has been into the game for over a
decade. In this interview with PublicFaces Magazine, he laid it bare on how
technology has been helping Nigeria Entertainment Industry, how hard it was to
get latest songs back in the days when all they had was Vinyl, his upcoming
track with D’banj and other sundry issues..
Excerpt…
For
the sake of our readers who don’t know much about you, tell us who DJ Genius
is?
My
real name is Mogaji Saheed Abiodun, I am from Epe, Lekki side of Lagos State. Gentle
by nature but a wizard on the wheels of steel. I have being a professional disc
jockey for over a decade. I'm jovial, friendly and generous above all I'm God
fearing.
Kindly
share with us your foray into Disc Jockey and why Disc Jockey?
Music
has been my thing from childhood, I would leave our house at night only to stay
by our neighbor's window to listen to music (dad flogged me a lot for that).
Although I started with recording my own songs but when I got to Moshood Abiola
Polytechnic and needed to survive and promote my songs, I expanded and made use
of my musical talent into disc jockeying and that was how the journey
started.
What
were the challenges you were facing then when you started and also now that
technology has evolve?
Yeah,
there were some challenges back in the days, like Limited access to new songs, I
could remember then, there was no internet in Nigeria to download songs, only
few of us who had friends in the radio house like RayPower and co had the
opportunity to little new songs and some of us paid urban music for music
delivery. Another challenge was non availability of soft library we had to
carry loads of vinyl and cds to gig and it’s so awkward when party organizer
request for a song you have and you cannot find it on time in your rack of
vinyl or cds compare to now that you just type and search on your laptop.
The
challenges now, to mention few are:
Too
many greenhorns are littering the profession right now thereby people don't
really respect the profession like they should, simply because it’s now filled
with dick, tom and harry except when you have been able to carve a niche for
yourself.
Another
challenge is that media houses in this part of the world doesn't employ enough
djs to their organization thereby they overwork the only one or two been
employed.
Your
fame in the Gateway State has not been like before can you tell us why?
I
believe I am too much of a sun for Gateway State alone so I checked out to the
heartbeat of entertainment in Nigeria (Lagos) for bigger, better and
international fame.
You
suddenly went off radar immediately you left Rockcity FM; can you tell us why
you left the prestigious radio station?
In
life one has to take a bold step at a point if you must reach your goal and
succeed in it, like the saying 'the revolution won't be televised' I had to go
and see for myself the greener part of the other side because my ambition and
dream can only be met in the city, so I had to leave to join a record label in
Lagos as the label Official DJ (Trodan Records) and we have been doing a lot of
shows and movement in Lagos State.
As
a known figure in the industry, do you also have a role model?
Yes,
I grew up listening to DJ Cash Money, DJ Jazzy Jeff (Philadelphia USA) Dj cool
'let me clear my throat crooner'(USA) in the late 80's, DJ Jimmy Jatt (Nigeria)
and of course DJ Tlm from USA in the 90s
Your
profession requires that you listen to music, what can you say about the music
industry in Nigeria?
Well,
the only thing that is constant in life is change and so it has affected the
music scene in the country somehow, these days we have better sound
(production) with the help of technology advancement compare to some 70s and
80s productions but most of our recording artistes nowadays lacks content and
word merging so I'll say what we have now is just the instrumental and rythm, we
don't have content and its fast killing the industry and the artistes future
because their songs died few months after been released. The vulgarity in music
now could damage the generations coming. unlike the music of the 80s that we
met, Onyeka Owenu, Felix Duke, Ebinezer Obey, Sunny Ade to mention few, their
songs inspires us to love, do the right thing, respect one and other, believe
in hard work, stay focused etc. I wonder the kind of inspiration music of now
will give to those growing up.
Beat
or content which one do you cherish most in music?
The
content of course because it is the soul and message of the music
Do
you have a favorite artiste that you listen to, who?
Tupac
Amaru Shakur (he lives on)
Sometimes
ago, you released a single entitled ‘yoobaminati’ how well are you pushing your
musical talent?
Yeah,
I'm working hard on that as well especially now that it’s a trend that DJs are
collaborating with artistes but am recording some tracks without features and
some other stunts I'll like to keep secret for now.
Last
month, PublicFaces Magazine had a chit chat with the trendiest female DJ in the
Gateway State, DJ Mjay. How do you feel about having a female in the DJ
world?
It’s
a pretty thing having the female folks on board, it’s actually started with
Annie Nightingale of BBC radio1 being the first female DJ ever and now female
DJs are springing up all around the world, it’s really a pretty cool
thing.
Following
the recent trend among the Nigerian DJs in the past couple of years, they have
been working close to artiste, making songs and musical videos. Should we be
expecting something like that from you as well and if yes, which artiste are
you working with currently?
Like
I said earlier, I'm presently working in the studio with some singles which I
have the likes of Ycee, Minjin, Henry knight on some tracks and my manager is
working on having D’banj on one of the tracks
Are
you signed to any record label?
As
a deejay 'yes' (Trodan Records)
What
other things do you do aside from being a DJ?
I
double up as a hiphop show presenter on radio and now I'm embarking on a Jockey
school (first of its kind in Nigeria) we call it GEENIE SCHOOL OF JOCKEY where
we train applicant to be a professional disc jockey. Big ups to the Geenie team;
Jimmie Julius Oyelude, Lanre Odukoya, Victor Adeshina and Kemisola Abiodun. We
set to launch the school by July 2016 by HIS grace.
Do
you have any plan of giving back to the public? If yes, how?
Generosity
has been a virtue that I cherished the most, I started giving back to the
public when I started my hiphop show on radio called Downtown Battle and I
still have in plan to own a charity home.
Finally,
a word for other up and coming DJs out there?
Always
think out of the box, be creative, work harder, have a mentor and believe in
yourself but above all pray to God always.
