I almost Quit music out of frustration, began selling Furniture at Ikeja – Singer Kcee says

Nigerian singer, Kcee has opened up on how he almost quit the music industry because of the frustration that he experienced.

It will be recalled that during the week, there was a viral video showing a popular Nigerian singer, Waje, lamenting how tough and expensive it was to do music in the country. In the video, the distraught singer stated that she was likely to quit music as it was not paying her well enough.

Interestingly, it seems the singer is not the only one that has passed through this phase as Limpopo singer, Kcee, admitted that at a point, despite making hit songs, he quit music to sell furniture at Ikeja.

Talking with Saturday Punch, he said,

“I saw Waje’s video and I was touched. I was supposed to say something about it but I was busy with my album project.

However, I spoke to a few people about it. The truth is that the industry is a fake one; I am not just talking about the Nigerian music industry, but globally. Everybody is struggling. I have been in this business for 19 years and at every point in time, you have A-list artistes and they are about ten.

“These set of people are the ones making all the money. There are hundreds of artistes behind them struggling to get to make it to the top ten list. These other artistes keep spending the same amount of money (the A-list artistes spend) to just get there and they also have to live like a celebrity. This costs a lot of money. If you do not have the drive and focus to keep the fire burning, it is going to weigh you down.

“When I was with Presh, I was also discouraged and I went into business because I was frustrated. I started importing furniture and I had a showroom at Allen Avenue, Ikeja. It got to a point when I had to tell myself that I love music and I needed to go back. I promised myself that I would make sure I get it right the second time. At that point, I had hit songs already and I made a lot of money from the industry but everything was finished because new people would always come into the industry.

“That was what gave birth to the Limpopo era. It was determination; it was me being focused plus I had the grace of God. The message here is, what Waje said is not happening to her alone but to a lot of artistes. She was able to speak out. You need to listen to other people. Her situation might be better than a lot of them. The average video I shoot costs about N4m. I can travel anywhere to shoot my video; I do not want to talk about the cost of hotel and other logistics. I have been able to promote some artistes under my label and I know how much I invested in them. I know how much I shot their videos. That is why sometimes I look at the up-and-coming artistes and tell them to appreciate their labels. It takes a lot.

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