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J-Martins "P-Square Made My Hit Song What It is"
Thursday, 04.02.2010, 11:18am (GMT)
Martins Okey Justice, popularly known as J-Martins, is one of Nigeria's most popular new school musicians. He recently spoke with Reporter, Ifeoma Meze, about his career and those who share the credit of his success in music.
How did you start tapping into the music side of you?
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| J-Martins |
You became popular first as a producer; can you explain that?
I started as singer but the thing is that people got to know about the production side first.
While growing up, did it in anyway occur to you that you were going to become famous through music?
I have always known that I was going to get somewhere. Sometimes you know where you are going to but how to get there most of the time is what you don't know. So in my mind, my conscious mind, because it is not the subconscious, I knew that it was going to happen. I did my best and God had to figure out the rest for me.
'Good or Bad' was an enormous hit, how did you come about the concept?
When you want to give credit to that song, it is not just about me. I think you will probably have less of me to the credit of that song. When I started working with P-square (Peter and Paul) and their elder brother Jude Okoye, they told me as a beginner that my way of singing might not work. All of them had their contributions to the song. I had done the recording of the song before Timaya came to do his own verse. They monitored and they did the finishing of the song. That is why I said that the credit of that song does not belong to one person. If you ask me, I will say that they have the upper hand when it comes to the credit of the song. Like some will ask me if the song is instrumental to my success, I will say yes. P-square made the song what it is. They made the song what it is because it is not about money, it is not about the coming to studio to sing but being able to say things like 'don't sing like this, do it this way'. You rarely find a topmost artiste that can have that kind of time for you.
How is your new album Elevated doing in the market now, are you smiling to the bank?
Of course I am. If there was no Get Serious there wont be Elevated. If I were not gingered to be serious in my career, we would not be talking about elevated now. We are doing pretty much well. They are happy for me and I am happy as well.
How is piracy affecting it?
It is everywhere, it is affecting everything including other things aside music. You cannot take it away.
Do you have an idea on how piracy can be reduced?
I cannot really say because you cannot be master of all. If you are a Jack of all trade, then as the saying goes, you will become a master of none. I would like to stay focused on the one that I know how to do which is making good music with the support of my brothers in the industry. I call them my elder brothers in the music industry. About piracy, the Federal Government can come in and do something because the people that do piracy are not ghosts. These people live with us and we know them. We know them one on one. They don't hide it anymore; they are now in the open. So I believe something can be done.
Your songs are mostly what people call inspirational, is it your style or is it a kind of song that you grew up into as someone that started with gospel music?
I have always been a church boy; I am still a church boy and will continue being a church boy. I try to deal with issues that have to do with life, things that surround us, our every day-to-day life. Like now, we are talking about Haiti, nobody saw it coming and that is why you have songs like 'Cool Temper'. Not that you plan for such things to happen then you now sing about it, no. But when you look at the society in general terms, our president has been out of his office for two months now and he cannot hand over power. Really, they are not showing good examples to us. So if we look at that critically, the things that we live with has a lot influence when I write my songs. After I must have written and I have a direction of what I want to do, I usually call them, i.e. P-square and Jude. I seek for their advice and they are in charge when it comes to bringing in contributions. Aside that, a lot of musicians have started following this trend too. When you talk about Elevated that means you have the heart and mind to go into other things, probably to diversify. I am sure that there will be a whole lot of different me from my next project that people will be seeing. It might not be necessarily what they are used to but even at that, they will love it because I am not going to be doing that alone with the help of the same brothers because I have never done it alone myself.
Speaking of a difference you in your next project, are you going to add 'shayo, Hennessey and booty' kind of lyrics that most Nigerian musicians are now known for in your music?
I don't have problem with all that singing wining, booty shaking, mama and all that. What I have problem with is doing the same thing that others are have done. I go to clubs and when I get there, I listen to songs of other colleagues. I like songs like 'Collabo', its one of the hit songs when it comes to club bangs. As a producer, I must commend the beat of the song. I won't say because I don't do that kind of song, then I will dislike those that do them. In my next project I meant to go into songs that you rarely know me for like love songs. In the Elevated album I have a love song titled 'Iva'. The video would be coming out soon. I have restriction to the kind of words that I can use because of what I believe in.
Do you think the lyrics that most of our artistes pump into the market on a daily basis are what we should expose our children to?
I think it's for our parents to decide what their kids listen to. The same way it is here is the same way that it is in the western world. What might be good for you might not be good for the next person. I will not say that everybody listens to only my own genre of music. It won't work. There are different kinds of music for different sets of people. There are different flavours that add to total enjoyment. They have their area of concentration; I have my own area of concentration. We all stay there and perfect whatever it is. Though most times some of them are not the best, there is no need to bring in vain words or words that are not necessary into music. This is not the western world. Even the western world is trying to find a way to get their people back to where they were before and we are getting ourselves deeper.
What motivated the track 'Oyoyo'?
That track can be credited to the fact that I remember when I was small. As little kids we run to our aunt or mum when they are coming back to the house. But the first time I thought about recording 'Oyoyo' was when I came back from an outing and was held in a terrible traffic. The next day Peter called me and said he wanted to do a song that the title would be 'Oyoyo'. It was like our minds were working alike. The next time he reminded me about the song, I told him that that song is not his type of song. I told him its not the kind of song that people knew P-square with. When you are under mentorship, you have to show that you are learning. So I went and did the beat after Peter gave me the song and some verses. Peter contributed to the chorus, which is why I always say the credit of the song is not mine alone. When I needed some advise on how to go about the song, I went to Peter but they were too busy with their Danger album so I had to really prove that I am learning. I got some advise from Jude but he did not actually know when I finished the song. He was still saying I should move verse two to three and three to two before he knew it the song was ready and out.
Any embarrassing moments since you started this profession?
That was the day I went on stage and then it was only one song that I had, which was 'Good or Bad'. When I finished people shouted they wanted another. That was not really good but now by the grace of God I can comfortably boast of 10 to 12 songs.
How would you rate Nigerian music?
We are good; we get better everyday though we still have junks. The good thing is that the public have ears; they know those that have content. We know those that make noise and we know those that have content.
As a graduate are you likely to fall back to what you read in school?
May be later in life I would practice but no matter how old I am it won't stop me from playing music. For me music is life.
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