Finally, the clock had struck 10:00 am and yes it was another Saturday morning. I was looking forward to the rest of the day though. As it turns out it, it was the day I was to meet and have a chat with music producer and CEO of CASH IN Records; EX-O (real name MAGEGE THEOPHILUS) . Happy enough for me this time, I slept like a baby the night before (thanks to my trusty canister of Baygon all purpose insecticide heheh; don't hate me men, these Lagos mosquitoes are of a special breed) so I was well rested and all set for my well envisaged, fine DAY OUT with EX-O. Since it was the weekend, I was hoping I would be able to go out and get registered to vote but, when I got to the registration point, the crowd was overwhelming. "I go do am later jorr" I mumbled under my breath before slinging the mono-strap Hp bag, containing my laptop, over my shoulder and heading out. By 1:08 pm I was at EX-O's studio, where the interview was meant to go down. Apparently EX-O was in a recording session with one of Naija's HipHop big wigs, whose name I will keep withheld. This meant that I had to wait a few minutes at at the reception. It was a good thing though, it gave me time to cook up a few more questions. Finally EX-O took a break, to have a quick chat with me, now on sighting him, I knew it was going to be a fun discussion; I mean his charm is just infectious. Here is how our chat went.
AJS: It seems like you have been around for a while; so can you put a finger on it for us. You know, when exactly did you start?
EX-O: Err…officially, when I say officially, by the books I started as a producer in year 2000. As an artiste, I started out professionally in 1997, that was just about the time I got out of school. I was trying to get a job, I worked for three months and then I met a producer called Papa Kay, who took me in and…
AJS: Schooled you.
EX-O: Exactly, he schooled me and started a small “mini” label and wanted acts; rappers and artistes under his label.
AJS: So, you started as an artiste?
EX-O: Yeah..
AJS: Has it always been “EX-O”?
EX-O: No…no I started then as “HOSTILE” as a rapper. My mom wasn’t too happy with it cos it was too negative for a positive person. She knew I wasn’t a hostile person, I am a gentleman (with a grin) in all ramifications, so she discouraged me off it. So I was still working with that until I used my name half way and named myself “DR T” because I love DR DRE so much and my name is Theophilous. By virtue of acronym; “T” came from Theophilous and the DR (Doctor of Rap). (laughs)
AJS: So how did “EX-O” then come about?
EX-O: Well gradually as I interacted with other people, as I started growing intellectually, I was picking up magazines, reading novels, reading poetry books, browsing, listening to a lot of music. I started opening my mind to concepts and understanding that ok, what represents an artiste or an individual, starts with the name. Once the name is on point, people will be looking forward to hearing what you sound like. I just thought of it, people qualified me as Theo the extraordinary guy. It was just the thing with me…..you know, I was nice and easy going, never liked to quarrel with anyone. If people quarrel with me, I just kind of opt out like a… coward.
AJS: So it’s more like an acronym for extraordinary?
EX-O: Well EX-O in the real sense of it means the EXCETIONAL ONE, so I abbreviated exceptional with EX and hyphen O representing “one”.
AJS: What’s your music to you?
EX-O: Errr…hmmm….if I go through the history, music has always been that part of me where creativity is centered. If I want to see myself as something, in “worth” or “value”, music is it for me. I feel creative when I’m in music or around music, or I’m doing music. I feel focused, I feel like I can influence mankind, I can influence nature, I can influence my immediate surroundings through music, because of music. So music to me is life , music to me is the very essence of man’s orientation.
AJS: Wow…
EX-O: that science of human beings is music for me, so….it’s a lot more….for me its just life basically…..(reluctantly ending that subject).
AJS: I have had experience doing studio work…even though I’m not a recording artiste, but I have recorded voice-overs. Now my observation is that time in the studio tends to fly by.
EX-O: Yes it does.
AJS: Do you sometimes feel like you are missing out on life?
EX-O: (with a deep sigh) Men…100%, I wouldn’t lie to you, I would be honest with you. I have had issues with friends, I have had issues with family members, even with myself. I find that I’m so into the work and because I’m the kind of guy that likes to be a perfectionist in whatever I do, no matter how small or insignificant, I like to make it perfect, so you cannot fault it. Even if you fault it, maybe one or two things that can be pardoned. Basically, for me I see myself almost struggling socially. I rarely attend functions, marriages come from friends and I’m invited, even personally invited sometimes and I end up still having one studio session or struggling my way out of the studio and still end up getting there late, which is sometimes not very good for my image socially. What can I do, it’s something I’m so good at and people recognize me for that. You can fault me on any other thing, but musically...no.
AJS: What is it that attracts you to an artiste and makes you want to record with the person?
EX-O: (laughs) I won’t be cliché by saying: money, half the time, we discuss money last. First of all, personality must speak for that person and the person’s eagerness to be successful with music, because I feel, the moment you say you are going to the studio, it means that you are taking it as a career and not as child’s play or a hobby, so when someone walks through that door (pointing at the studio entrance) the way the person addresses me, is the way I will address the person back. So that first of all is what attracts me; personality, orientation, character. All those key elements, I look out for and then (emphatically) once the artiste is highly skilled or musically inclined; then we can hit the mark and start work ASAP.
AJS: Has it ever happened that because you don’t find any of these things you just mentioned in an artiste, turn such a person away?
EX-O: Yes, at some points, yes I have.
AJS: So you have turned people away, even though they had money to pay for sessions?
EX-O: I have actually turned some people down, only for them to come back and…you know, try to correct their impression about themselves, but it’s very rear. People are proud you know….arrogant in this business. So when they come in, the moment they sense you are not feeling them; they go around telling people that you are arrogant and pompous, meanwhile it’s the other way around. It’s a defensive mechanism or strategy, but you can’t take it out on them because we are all guilty of that same thing.
AJS: In recent times, the producer, especially the Nigerian producer has started to earn his due, so to speak. Producers now get due mention in their work. Before, it was; you see the artiste, you love his music and that’s it. So what’s your take on the new level of consciousness that the audience has about the producer?
EX-O: I will say, thank God for the western community who always set the standards, who always make it a point of duty for others to want to follow them. You know….they set that standard and we follow, because we know that we are not there basically. Without that, we here would not have had this privilege we have now to be recognized. The way artistes over there…first before the song starts proper, they yell out their producer’s name (demonstratively)..”eeeeh POLO D DON, you crazy for this”… (with more enthusiasm) that already gives people the sense of; “oh is that the guy behind the work?” you know, people forget that there is a person behind the artiste. They tend to see who is in front of the camera but forget that there are people who made that thing possible. So, we thank God, it’s growing but it’s not there yet. We hope to start getting royalties and more accolades for the work we have done.
AJS: Now let’s lean more towards EX-O the artiste. Do you have any recent work?
EX-O: Yeah…err…apparently, two. I had in 2009 a song called girl on facebook that I dropped on the airwaves but of course I didn’t do massive promo. I dropped it in two radio stations: Rhythm 93.7 and Radio Continental. It got sparse airplay, then gradually, in 2010, I heard they started playing it but it wasn’t that much. So people didn’t really know about that song until when err..what’s his name? this other guy dropped his own facebook song with Essence.
AJS: Jaywon and Essence.
EX-O: Yeah... then people went….wait wait ….who is this one again? In Unilag it gathered some buzz because peple actually thought it was Banky W that did the song. I was at a gathering when the song started playing and I was like "ahaha….nice so even here they have it" I didn’t think they had it in Unilag at all. Only for some guy to say “you neva hear this song?....na Banky” and I said, (laughing) “no….na me oh…na my song be this oh” and I just went on and on explaining like; “sorry I am a music producer”, “I did Won Beri (by Knighthouse)”. It was not easy to convince him cos he didn’t know my face. So I decided, I said; 2011, EX-O, you are releasing your song and the title of the song is BLACKBERRY, now with that one I hear there is another BLACKBERRY song. I don’t know why this is happening to me, if I had known I would have shot a video last year, but I am shooting one in February for BLACKBERRY.
AJS: Just give a list of people you have worked with and on what songs?
EX-O: Ok, let’ s start from 2008, with knighthouse their first single, The Finest (Won Beri). I did their second single Ijinle Pam Pam, with Kel, YQ, El dee. I worked with Igho on his Naija Boy album, I did; Make me kolo and the one he did with Mode9 and Faze … Get away. I worked on the whole album, mixed and mastered. I worked with Teeto, I did Feel The Vibe with Wizkid I did the remix to Teeto’s Oshamo. I also worked in 2010 with Teeto on his Freshness mixtape.
AJS: Is that out yet?
EX-O: It’s out, it came out with SOUNDCITY BLAST magazine. I have worked with Wizkid, although the song is not out, I don’t know if they would be releasing it. I worked with Kel on a song she did with an artiste abroad, someone featured her, so I did the beat for the girl; her name is Ezzy B, she was in a group but has gone solo now. I worked with Terry the Rapman on his album,No love I was on the hook. I worked with Sausekid, his last album, the one he dropped last year, Airplane mode, I produced that one. Quite a number you know….Illbliss, Asa…..quite a number of artistes.
AJS: What’s your take on the Nigerian music, in terms of quality and commercial success.
EX-O: Em..so far, I have been in this business since 2000, so that’s about ten years or over. Industry wise, the standards have improved drastically. In short, in five years it has been a very high sloping improvement. The gradient is very steep…in five years it just went up straight, almost vertically. To be honest, that’s good, in fact too good. Success in the industry is not just here in Nigeria, but the world over, we find ourselves winning BET awards, MOBO awards, MTV base awards, I mean it’s beautiful to be a part of the industry at the time of it’s peak and there is so much more that is going to happen in 2011, I’m looking forward to that. The commercial success, in terms of sales, we have had more sales in recent times that way back. The early 2000s and late 90s, you cannot compare the millions of records that were sold, especially when you metion names like 2face, Psquare, Dbanj; sales have been so extreme. I mean, it can only get better, there is no dropping in the standards.
AJS: Have you done anything for the audiovisual industry…movies, television, any sound tracks or theme songs?
EX-O: Yeah, I did one for HipHop world, Rhythm 93.7, that’s radio not TV now, jingles for Radio Continental, I have done jingles for companies and conglomerates, even for the Nigerian Government. I did a song for amnesty, I did some for the CBN, I did for companies like Procter and Gamble (Ariel). I have done for banks…I virtually worked outside the music industry, for the business/corporate sector.
AJS: Your advice to people who want to become producers in this environment.
EX-O: First thing, patience, extreme patience and extreme humility, because first of all, to sit down for hours treating a person’s vocal, while the person is there or not takes some discipline. For you to sit down sef for an hour, listening to one voice, over and over. From minutes, to an hour and before you know it, three hours have passed while you are treating that one person’s voice. It takes humility for you not to lash out at an artiste when the artiste is lashing out at you, because they do that a lot. It takes the fear of God, because if you think about the money first, honestly there is no telling, you are not going to get too far, you might get somewhere but that’s how far you get. Then you need to be talented and also have your ears to the street, ears on the radio, ears to the market, locally, internationally. Keep your steps ordered, be conscious of the market you are in, be conscious of your industry, who’s making what, who’s leading, who’s not leading, why they are failing, why they are succeeding? You need to have this information at your finger tips so that you don’t just always stay on top, but you remain relevant.
AJS: What are we expecting from EX-O as a producer and an artiste in 2011?
EX-O: Ok, let me start with EX-O the artiste, it’s pretty brief compared to EX-O as a producer. EX-O the artiste is signed to CASH IN. Of course, CASH IN is my label, but I’m still signed as an artist under it. I intend to release an album this year… and finally quench the hunger and thirst from my fans for years, they have been expecting me to drop stuff, singles but I did not do that, I have been working on a lot of artistes and trying to make them sound good. So it’s my turn to do that; put a little bit of my skills to my own benefit and make myself relevant in the industry, cos people need to hear what I do and I can tell you, my songs are the bomb. Seriously, I’m not saying that to hype myself or anything, but if you hear my songs, trust me, you might end up not listening to some artistes in another 2-3 years. Then as a producer, I have artistes that I’m bringing out under my label; Emsong, Kay-L, Flow, I have HIPHOP SPEAKS coming out February or march, it’s a compilation, a HipHop compilation, that should be out anytime in the first quarter of this year. I’m looking at selling it, we don’t wanna dash people, we want people to see the value of the work, cos we have heavy weights on that album, virtually the who is who, hiphop wise on that album. So EX-O as a producer, that’s what to expect for 2011.
AJS: Ok, this was fun, thank you so much. (shaking hands)
Discussion Concluded at 2:33pm
Jan 22nd 2011.
Here is his latest single
Download, listen and enjoy
Watch out for his upcoming
mixtape titled HIPHOP SPEAKS.
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