THISDAYonline

You are from Delta State, but you have a Yoruba name. why? I adopted the name Rotimi and my father liked it. We are all Nigerians, it does not matter the name you bear. Besides, I was born and brought up in Lagos State; the name makes me feel like a Lagosian.

How about Alariwo of Afrika?

I got the name from a friend in 1993. I was the MC at a function, maybe I did not impress this friend of mine enough and he went: "stop making noise, play us music. Alariwo!" He thought he was insulting me, but I took it as a compliment and then took up the name "Alariwo" which means 'noise maker'.

Do you really see yourself as a noise make?

I make creative noise and my friends say I talk a lot. So, I just felt the name would be catchy and very commercial.

When exactly did you start music and how did it all start?

I started music professionally in 1987, andmy first album was released on June 5, 1998, while the second, 'Prosperity', was released in 2002 abroad later 2003 in Nigeria.

Which one of them brought you to lime-light?

Yawa Go Gas was a national anthem and yawa is still gassing in Nigeria. When you see a lot of top government functionaries embezzling money, the people tell you it is okay while it is not, the politicians will beg you to vote for them after voting, they would forget about those who brought them there. They would begin to fly the money abroad. These are the reasons we fight with our music.

What were your parents' reactions when you took to music?

My father never encouraged it, but you know mothers are always supporting their children. My father wanted me to go to school and I went to school and got a diploma. I read Public Relations and was groomed as a broadcaster by people like Lekan Ogunbanjo and Tokunbo Ojekunle. I have worked with Eko FM; I just decided to stop presenting programmes so that I would have enough time for my musical career. I have been doing a lot of concerts abroad lately.

Which school did you graduate from?

I am a graduate of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations. I started with a professional course in Public Relations, I did stages one and two. I am thinking of going back for stage three, but now I am a bit busy. Music is taking a lot of my time now. I have a diploma; I think I am okay with that. At least, I can express myself, speak good English, there is no 'soonest receiver' in my English and I think I am okay with that for now.

Who are your role models?

First, the almighty God, He is the king, the living legend, He is the icon, and without God nobody can be alive. And the second person is Fela Anikulapo Kuti, whom I have a lot of respect for and whom I regret I never met in his lifetime. Then Femi Lasode, the man who sponsored my first album without looking back. Then Nelson Mandela, Kwame Nkrumah Gani Fawehinmi and all the rest of the freedom fighters in Africa as well as my mother.

Fela, you said is one of your role models. Is that the reason you have taken after his style of music?

Well, people keep saying I sound like Fela. I'm not blaming God for giving me a voice that is similar to that of Fela, even the son does not have that specific voice. I thank God for it, but I am not using Fela's name to make waves. I am just Alariwo of Africa, there is no 'Kuti' in my name. I know I can make it without Fela's name, it is just that Fela created a brand of music called Afro beat and it was high time other people injected their own concept into it, and that is exactly what I am doing. Fela was a tree and we are the branches, none of us can ever be like Fela. Even Femi can never be like Fela. We all have our own brand of Afro beat that we have to address in our own way. I have never met Fela in my life, but I am just trying to do my own bit which is playing Afro beat in my own way.

What are the challenges you have noticed in the music industry?

There are a lot of challenges like piracy, non-payment of royalties, you don't get paid at the right time you are supposed to be paid and many more. Nigerian musicians jump at any concert that comes their way at any amount they are paid. It is not every concert that you see Alariwo of Africa. I am very a selective and principled person, I don't need to play in all the shows that come my way. What I do is that, I tell you my price, if you can't afford it, you forget it. I am not one of the switch-over artistes. So I don't like to be taken for a ride. Despite these challenges, I play music whether I make money or not. If I don't make money from music, I have other means of making money.

What do you think should be done to improve on these?

A lot of things have to be done. First of all, Charly Boy is trying his best to put everything in place; he should be given enough time to plan things out. Meanwhile, I am trying to contest for the Lagos State chapter of PMAN and by the time I get there by God's grace, I am going to contribute my own quota in making sure that everything works out for the better.

What has been highest point in your musical career?

The name Alariwo has opened a lot of doors, and that is what I am thanking God for. I am not making money through music for now, I am just making a name. I have only been having opportunities of financial blessings and breakthroughs. Any where I go to, people recognise me. I call it the spiritual recognition and I thank God for that. At times, I would just be filling my tank at the filling station and someone will just come up and say, please don't pay, I will take up the bill.

Are you married?

I am married to a beautiful lady called Shola Martins, and I have got two beautiful girls - Joanna and Kike born in 1999 and 2001, respectively.

What does your wife do for a living?

She is a graduate of Business Administration, Polytechnic Calabar. Now she is into buying and selling of clothes and jewelry.

Your career and that of your wife are far apart, how do both of you cope?

She gets really worked up at times because majority of those I work with are women. There was actually a day she got really furious at my receiving calls from different women, so she was trying to give me too much problem. I had to report her to my god-mother and my god-mother was like: "look, before you got married to my son, you knew he was a musician. If you cannot stand the heat in the kitchen, then you get out!" But then she is very understanding. Sometimes I travel abroad and spend four to six months, she is always there praying for me. She is more spiritual than myself; she is more deeply religious than I am. She is really understanding and now coping so well with my kind of work, and we have been together since 1996. At times when I am traveling, she would buy me pack of condoms. She feels I don't belong to her when I am out there but that wherever I go to, I will always come back home to her.

Where is she from?

She is half Ondo and half Fulani.

How do you ward off advances from female admirers?

Let me tell you one secret, we make more money and more connection through women. Women are an irresistible evil. I have more female friends than men. I like having women around me, the reason my wife is always worried stiff. I love women a great deal because when a woman penetrates a territory, the door will definitely be opened. It is not all of the women that come to you that you would definitely jump at. You have to be diplomatic when you are dealing with women, you don't tell them 'No' and you don't tell them 'Yes'. To have the contacts, you have to be very friendly and polite to women. You can't do without them and I don't resist women, I am very friendly with them. If you avoid them, you might lose something great.

What plans do you have for the future?

My 15-member band has just signed a contract with Doprice Barpet. She works with a management company in America. She is going to be managing me all over the world. Very soon, I will be touring Europe, America and Canada. Our band plays all over the world, we just came back from Germany and the UK. We have been traveling a lot and we are waiting for the right time to penetrate other parts of the world. My plans are to collaborate with big time artistes. Right now my manager in America is negotiating with two sisters called Lesnobian, they are French ladies but based in America. We are trying to see if we could do a duet and I am trying to discuss one or two things with some people in South Africa and Ghana as well.

When was your last album released?

My last album was released in 2003 and I won an award for the Best Afro Beat Artiste and the Best Crossover Artiste of the year. My latest album was released on July 31 in Europe, and will be released in Nigeria by April 2005.

How do you relax?

I don't relax with my wife, I relax with my children and I enjoy the trouble they give me whenever I am with them - jumping all over the house, destroying one or two things and asking for Indomie Noodles.

Which brand of music do you love most?

I love all kinds of music. Music is a universal language. I listen to reggae and I can also play reggae. I started as a reggae artiste. In fact I was groomed by Ras Kimono. When I was doing reggae, I was not making a lot of money. I was paid N30, 000.00 in the first reggae concert I did. But when I did 'Yawa go gas', I earned N1.4 million in the first Afro beat concert I did. So I dumped reggae music for Afro beat and said to myself, "So there is so much money in Afro beat" and it became a challenge. I started composing songs for the Afro beat territory and today, I am grateful that God is still giving me the inspiration.

What inspires you?

Funny enough, I get more inspiration when I am on bed or in the toilet. Even when I am driving, God will just send a song into my head and I have to make sure I have a pen with me always to get the songs down when it happens because if I don't write them down at that moment, they go off my head.

What is your wardrobe like?

I love strictly African designs and fabric. You can never see Alariwo in Oyinbo clothes. I am Alariwo of Africa and I try to live true to my name.

Who is your designer?

My designer is Azuka Daco, he is a cousin of mine. He does all my wears. His outfit is called Live-on Fashion.

In the album "Yawa Go Gas", you had a sweet stick in your mouth while performing. What prompted that?

My wife was heavily pregnant when I was doing the video, she kept complaining that she was hungry, her stomach was biting her and all what not. She had this sweet in her mouth while I was patting her to hold on for a while that I would soon be over with the whole thing, then we would go home for lunch and at that moment I collected the sweet from her and into my mouth it went. Just then, my producer, Weird M.C called me to come on set and when she saw the sweet in my mouth, she said: 'Alariwo don't remove that sweet, it is an identity,' and I left it. That was how it appeared on the video. When I did 'Omo Pupa', I used the sweet again. It was like a concept and I liked it. But when I became more matured, I thought the sweet thing should be a history. God has given me a good voice and I am using the voice properly. The sweet concept was just the doing of my wife and I am sure I made her happy for that.

What advice do you have for upcoming artistes?

Please, upcoming musicians, read your book. Go to school. Don't jump onto stage because Alariwo is singing Alariwo don read book small. So go to school, get the basic thing, which is education. Don't do drugs; it will destroy your life. I don't drink nor smoke. And finally, a winner never quits and a quitter never wins. The way to success is very rough but it is never rough for a man who is tough. Just be yourself.