In less than two months, Nigeria’s reggae music legend, Orits Williki, will be celebrating his first 30 years on stage. In this chat with Senior Correspondent, Hazeez Balogun, he talks about his life as a musician, his fight for copyright among other issues
•Orits Wiliki
You will be celebrating your first 30 years in the Nigerian music industry soon; you did not celebrate 20 or 25 years why 30 years?
There comes a time in one’s life when you look back to where you are coming from. You begin to take stock of what you have been through and where you are now. Then you begin to ask yourself, has it been a fruitful journey? In my case I will say yes. Being in the business for 30 years and still relevant; that means I have been successful. Like I told a friend of mine, if I was in the army, I would be a general by now. Looking back, there are certain factors that were responsible for the brand Orits Wiliki and I must say, Independent Newspapers Limited (INL) is one of those organisations that are responsible for pushing the brand forward.
So I think it is time to say thanks to God almighty for the journey so far, it is also a time to celebrate. If I am to celebrate, I have to do it in a big way.
What are your plans for the celebration?
I was not planning to have something really big but my friends and colleagues in the business say that they don’t want to hear anything like that. So we have come together to plan a one-week event. We will be having a novelty football match between my stars 11 against Governor Fashola’s team. Then we will have an entertainment summit where we will discuss factors hindering the entertainment industry as a whole. If you weigh Oritz Williki’s brand and compare me with my counterparts abroad, then I should by now own a jet. I should own an island of my own. So you ask yourself, why is our industry not buoyant. Why is that if an American release just one hit album, he may decide not to sing again in his life and yet live comfortably afterwards. Yet here, you release over a 100 hit records and you remain poor. So, I thought, if there is such a time to address such issues, let us do it at such a time as my birthday.
We will also have a media gala night which will hold at the NiteShift Collesium. We will be hosting the media to a night of fun and merriment, and also we engage in meaningful conversation aimed at developing the industry. The main event is on August 16 where all the stars that you know will be performing my own songs in their own way. On that same day, I will be releasing my brand new album. Also to be launched are two CDs of my previous hit songs. It is a re-launch of my past works which will be called The best of Orits Williki: Volume One and Two. It will be packaged for people who are missing my works or do not have my songs anymore.
What will be the theme and the focus of the proposed summit?
The summit will focus mainly on copyright, and that involves all sectors of the industry. So everyone in the industry is invited.
When you talk about copyrights and the issue of royalty collection, it will open up pending issues in the industry especially with you and Copyrights Society of Nigeria.
Yes, that is why we need to discuss these issues. We cannot continue with the way we are going.
Since the collective management organisations (CMOs) are divided into two, don’t you think that to bring unity both parties should be at such summit, or is it just your own caucus that is invited?
Well, we will try our best to invite all parties. We cannot force them to come, but we will make sure that all parties are invited in the spirit of finding a peaceful solution. We cannot continue like this. If we do not address this cankerworm, then we are failures. Everybody work in their offices and they earn a pension at the end of the day. So after they retire, they have something to fall back on. But for us, creative people, there is nothing like pension. My copyright is my pension, it is our pension. Doesn’t it make you angry when you see a musician who had had a good career and at the end of the day begging for alms anytime they fall sick?
Musicians have no need to beg if things are done well. He had worked hard for his money all his life and he has the right to earn from his royalties long after he or she has stopped working actively. It is dangerous when our livelihood is being threatened and we should fight this scourge. Musicians have no business begging; in fact, we should be setting up foundations where we give out money. So the next question is, where is all the money going to? The money is going into the wrong hands. It is going into the pockets of those who do not have business collecting royalties.
The major event you say is going to be a show, give us more details on how it is going to hold?
It is going to be more of a concert; we expect the cream of the crop of the best in the business to perform. It will be holding at the Intercontinental Hotel.
Some years ago, you were performing in stadia around the country, one would think that your 30 years event will be an outdoor event where a lot of people can attend.
It is the mood of the country and the way entertainment events have been narrowed. When I started off, I was living by tours and not the sale of my records. I can live Lagos for three months and be touring states in the North, on my way back I may meet Ras kimono on the way going to do his own Northern tour. That was how we lived in those days. It used to be fun, artistes were busy. Nowadays, staging such public shows has become difficult. Security alone is a big worry. Also, the economy is not helping matter.
Today, entertainment has become a luxury and only wealthy people can afford to attend a well put together event. That is not meant be so. We are hardworking people and entertainment is a means of calming the nerves. Like I said, security is one big problem. We would be doing the event in a hall because the security in a hall is better controlled than an open air event.
What will you say happened to the conscious music movement; nobody is singing about issues anymore, instead we sing about money and women?
We are living in another age and I am sorry to say, this age does not have that depth you are talking of. The new age we are in now, they just want to enjoy themselves and achieve success quickly. Like my kids, they want to get their masters at the age of 23. They do not have time to think deeply at the things that is happening around them. The musicians do not write songs that will edify the mind. Sometimes you would not want your kids to listen to their lyrics. I believe that it is a phase. In entertainment we have something we call circles. Music trend come and go like circles. Later people will get bored of all these and then they will try to retrace their steps and go back to conscious music.
There was a time reggae music was fading away, but today you see artistes like Oritsefemi, Burna Boy and Pato Ranking doing reggae and they are successful with it, how does it make you feel seeing Reggae bouncing back again?
Reggae never left; it only evolved into another form of music. Bob Marley did the hard root rock reggae, and that was the style we are going. Reggae has evolved into ragga, rock and even hip-hop now. What you still hear and call hip-hop now is still reggae because the base and the rhythm is still reggae inclined. Look at the hip-hop and reggae culture, they are so close. The music is from one source. This reminds me of what Bob said, that reggae will take over the world, and that is happening now. You go to India, and a reggae song is number one on the chart, same goes for other charts across the world. Listen to Omawunmi and Tiwa Savage, you will hear a lot of reggae influences in their songs. Snoop Dogg in America has converted to reggae fully. He has even changed his name to Snoop Lion.
So are you working with these young acts in your new album?
Yes I am working with a few. For example, the remix of What this, What Dat features Jaywon, Yinka Davies, Kupa Victory, and Fidel Ranks. There are many others who featured on other songs, so the fans should expect a full package.
Going back to the issue of copyright why do you think there is so many problems in getting a proper collecting society?
The issue is that the industry needs to be liberalised. When you have a house, for example, and you want to take rent on the house, you give the house to an agent to manage for you. There are many agents out there that you can use. But it is wrong for one agent to be the only one collecting. There have been laws made against this yet these laws have not been obeyed. Another problem we have is that we do not have a union where all the musicians can rally round and decide how we want our royalties to be collected. Unfortunately, The Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria (PMAN) has gone to sleep and people are using this period to grab whatever they can.
For a while you were not active in the industry, what were you up to?
I have been doing some assessments, and saw that I cannot just be doing music and some people will be reaping from it. So I hung my guitar for some time and went to the politics of PMAN as the vice president and then went into the fight for copyrights. And I believe that we have made head way. I was one of the people who fought for the increase in performance fee for Nigeria artistes. There was a time when they bring in foreign artistes and they pay them millions but they pay us, the local artistes, peanuts; we fought against that. Today Nigerian artistes are earning millions, but we still are not where we ought to be.
Talking about PMAN, the association is dead, as a former vice president, what will you say is the problem of PMAN?
I must tell you that we are going to come back stronger. Every union has its own problem, and with PMAN I can say it is about ego. That is normal because when you have creative minds in one place, they play ego games. Also, there are some in the association that did not go to school unlike Nollywood where they are all educated. But there was a time when people in Nollywood looked at us with envy. Today they have overtaken us and we are going down down, down while they are going up, up and up. The effectiveness of the policies they want to push out is understood by all because they are all well-educated. With us, when you try to push such policies, they will say Olboy, no bring that one. You don make your money, make I make my own. There was a particular show that we told artistes not to perform, and because the money is not right, agreed that no artiste should perform at the show. Two days to the event we were getting calls from our members and one says, bros me I don collect that money and I don spend am, so I go perform for the show. Some did not even bother to call. In a union, that is wrong. Look at the vulcaniser association, they are very strong. Anytime they have their meeting, you will not see any vulcaniser on the road. Same goes for other associations. But like I said, for us as musicians, the issue of ego always come up.
You call a meeting of members of PMAN they will not show up. I have played in many African countries and their associations are very solid. In fact, I cannot play in those countries unless I pay their musician association. We have not been able to manage our crisis very well. Right now, we have spent the past few months calling all the warring parties together. We have an interim body in place which is headed by Kevin Luciano. He heads the peace initiative committee. The next step is to conduct a free and fair election and a credible winner will emerge.
How is the peace process going?
Very well, negotiations are going on.
When did you develop the love for music?
It started from my father. As early as eight years old I was already in the choir. He was a good musician and a Baptist reverend. He also played a few instruments himself. So I had developed the love at a very tender age. I grew up in the church to become the choirmaster.
You reached national limelight, it must have been difficult reaching such heights.
Funny enough it was easier in those days to reach national status. In those days we had professional record label whose job it was to push their goods nationwide. They had depots in all the region of the country. If Polygram releases your work on the 17of June, I bet you that on the 18th that record will be in Sokoto. Unlike now, there is no distribution network and that is why piracy is big business. How do you fight a man who is selling what you couldn’t sell? You release a record, you make all the noise about it and yet the record cannot be found in the shops. A man picks up that work, makes a million copies, ships it to Maiduguri and sell. How can you hold such a man?
How did it feel the first time you heard you song on radio?
There you used to be a place called floating Buka in Marina. It was an old ship we converted into a club. If you are a Reggae lover from anywhere in Nigeria and you do not know floating Buka, then you are not a reggae lover. Ras kimono was there as a DJ, his wife was a DJ, Buchi was a DJ there too, myself and Chuxxy (Moses) were there as DJ’s also. Bisi Olatilo was a presenter with Radio Nigeria 3; it was the station with the widest reach then. One day I was playing at the Floating Buka and I played my song, Bisi Olatila told me to give him the record to play on his station. I said no because that was the only copy I had. Finally I let him have it and the following morning, he played it on his station. Wow! It was a big deal for me. My own song being played on Radio Nigeria 3? That is why anytime I see Bisi Olatilo, I am always grateful. He was the first person to play my song on the radio.
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