In 2010, pretty, petite singer Modupe Oreoluwa-Ola aka Mo’Cheddah needed only two singles to stamp her authority on the Nigerian music scene and claim the female crown for herself. By the end of the same year, she had won awards from MTV and Channel O. Even though she lost the Headies Next Rated prize to Skuki in 2010, she stayed unstoppable. However, in the last two years, she practically went off the radar, only to resurface last week with a smashing new single titled “Destinambari” featuring Phyno. In a chat with Senior Correspondent, HAZEEZ BALOGUN, she speaks about her life and career. Excerpts:
Mo’Chedda
You’ve been off the scene for a while now, where have you been?
I took time away to relax and work on myself as a woman and as an individual because, really when you think about it, I’ve been doing music since I was 12 years old. I’ve been working non-stop and I’ve won several awards. I won the MTV awards when I was 18, I’ve won the Channel O awards, Dynamix awards, Fab awards and more. I travelled all over the country for different performances and I was mixing all these with school as well, reading in between flight for exams and all. So, it just got to a point where I needed to relax and take time out to observe, relax because I started loosing my identity and I just wanted to get it back, and believe me I was fortunate enough to take.
There are gists that you went away to have a baby?
Noooo! I didn’t go away to have a baby and I don’t have any babies yet. Of course, I’ll be proud of my baby if I had one. I have nieces and nephews I love so much. So, I can’t hide a gift from God, I would never do that.
Now that you are back, what is the next step for you?
In the period of my break, I learnt a lot about myself and I made some certain decisions to only produce the kind of music I love going forward. I took time to remind myself why I do what I do; why I love to do music and how it makes me feels, because music is supposed to be natural. It’s supposed to come from the soul, and when the time is right, it just happens without stress. So, it was time when I had to reflect, and now that I’m back, I know the time is right, and I only want to make music that I love and music that I’m proud of. I want to make timeless music, because music is like art, it’s timeless. It’s not supposed to have a season or time, it’s supposed to appreciate with time, and now I’m more clearer on the artiste I want to be and what I want to do with my own life.
I have; but then, I was very young, and at a very young age, you are influenced by the change in the industry. I was influenced by the changes I was going through as a teenager, and as an artiste I’m very diverse, I can rap, I can sing, I could do soul. So, at a point in time, I was doing everything and I couldn’t distinguish between what I really wanted to do and what I was influenced to do. But now, I’ve grown, I know what I want, I know what I feel. So, now it’s just a matter of making that decision to do what you love.
Since you parted ways with your former record label, which record label are you with now?
I am on my own now. I’m running my own record label now, called Cheddah Music and it’s just me and my board of directors, and the vision is to stay true and not to compromise who I am as a person and as an artiste.
What really went wrong between you and your former record label?
Nothing really happened, my contract expired, and they had taught me everything I needed to know, and at the time when I left the record label, I made a decision to be on my own. Which also influenced the decision of me taking a break at that point.
What do you really want to achieve with music?
I don’t know how to do anything else apart from music, I’ve been doing music for a very long time, that’s all I know how to do. I just want to make music, because for me it’s a passion, it comes from my soul, from a deep place within me and the beautiful thing about music is that you have the power to create and influence people. So for me, the joy of music is creating good music and blessing people with the God given talent, because it’s a gift, and being able to share that gift with the world is priceless, so it’s not really about the money, it’s about achievement, making an impact and leaving a legacy.
Are you done with schooling now?
Yea, am done with school. I even did my NYSC during my 2 years absence from music, I studied creative and Theatre arts from the University of Lagos.
Do you feel threatened with the number of successful female artistes in the industry now?
Not at all, you know, at the end of the day, it’s not a competition, it’s an expression, we are all expressing ourselves, and really I love them all, am proud of what they’ve achieved, but what separates me really is the God given talent in me, my style of music, my sound, my drive and how far am willing to go with what am feeling. At the end of the day I just want to make good music and I think there’s space for everybody.
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