ADENIYI ADEKEYE
Entertainment promoter, Adeniyi Adekeye otherwise known as NiyiGiggles is quintessential on the beat. He talks about his foray into the industry, his deal with defunct Mo Hits, rested job with Chuddy K, towering business portfolios and sundry issues in this interview with OLAMIDE AHMED
JOURNEY INTO ENTERTAINMENT WORLD…
I ventured into entertainment when I was in University of Lagos between 2000 and 2005. I studied Electrical Engineering and I started getting involved in entertainment when I was in year two. In year two, I changed to Actuarial Science; a discipline that applies mathematical and statistical methods to assess risk in the insurance and finance industries. I made this choice because I realised that entertainment was taking much of my time and I also made up my mind that I was going to do entertainment. While I was in school, I had a couple of friends with whom we were all into entertainment. I had three Social Secretary friends in the UNILAG Students’ Union Government then - Feyi Michael Akinmola, Tunde Dynamix and Breeze. While they were in government, we did some entertainment programmess together. Tunde Dynamix started a departmental magazine at the Faculty of Engineering. I was part of it because we were in the same department. From there, Feyi and I started a magazine called Deeply Magazine. It was during this time that I met D-Banj in 2003. He was supposed to come to Nigeria from the UK to establish his music. Before he came into the country, he met a couple of persons and one of the guys is my friend, his name is Franklin Amudo and he works with 001 Events. He met D-Banj and told him that he could connect him to me and that I was capable of making him meet those who mattered in Nigerian entertainment at that time. That was how I was introduced to D-Banj and Don Jazzy and we started working together in 2003.
BUSINESS WITH DEFUNCT MO HITS...
What I was doing for them in the beginning was more than publicity. I was doing nearly everything - public relations, artiste management and so on. So, I can safely say that I was D-Banj’s first manager in Nigeria because when they started, they were working with R-70 World owned by Ayo Sonaiya. Bankuli was designated to them before the release of ‘No Long Thing album’. But when they started, something went wrong so they discontinued their service with R-70 World and disengaged Bankuli. That was the point I took over.
FIVE YEARS WITH DON JAZZY AND D-BANJ...
Those years didn’t really pay a lot of money but it was extremely eventful. It was a symbiotic form of relationship. I gained from them and they gained from me as well. With them too, I honestly garnered a lot of field experience added to what I already had. So, I have no regrets working with them at all.
ABOUT MY ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY...
My entertainment outfit, SELGGIG Plus LTD is a magazine publishing company and we’re also into artiste management, especially upcoming talents in music, football and movie making. We’re the first complete entertainment company to render all these services altogether. We do nurture these artistes, find them record labels where it’s necessary, do public relations for them and promote their works when they’re finally out. This does not mean that we don’t render services for established artistes; we also give their works visibility and other promotional supports as well.
ARTISTES WORKING WITH US CURRENTLY...
I have four artistes I’m working with currently - K’Zed, M3riss, Black Child and K-Shab. They’re growing talents but they’re doing well already. I have a footballer, Ahmed, he was supposed to go for a trial in Sweden a few months back but along the line, he was denied visa. We’re working on that now anyway. The last time former Chelsea FC coach, Di Matteo, met the young man, what the respected coach said about him was highly impressive. I have Ruth Kadiri who is into script writing and acting as my client, I do PR for her and she’s an amazing talent.
HOW I RUN THE MUSIC PART OF SELGGIG...
The way I do my business is very different. I have some artistes whose projects I’m solely responsible for. It’s just like when I started with Chuddy K, he was unknown and I began his project in 2008. I was the one financing the project; we shot two videos, ‘Slow Slow’ and ‘I No Know’. We shot I No Know with GodFather Production. In 2012. I stopped managing him because he was growing up and it was time for him to terminate the deal we had. But we have a very cordial relationship. We advised him also to get somebody we would sign his contract over to and he did just that. What I do is to manage an artiste. I don’t take the burden on my head alone. If I sense that the talent will do well in the industry, I source for record labels to sign the artistes. I’d just be like a guardian to coordinate the project for the record label.
UPCOMING TALENTS AND GRATIFICATION...
When you’re working with upcoming talents, it’s not the same thing as working with established artistes. The established ones are getting shows and getting paid. With the upcoming ones, you’re just investing time, finance and hope in them. It’s difficult because the upcoming act doesn’t have the money to pay for the services. That’s why they just come around you and say; ‘bros, please help me. If you don’t, how will I make it?’ But we’re coping because I’m into other things. I’m a magazine publisher. I publish Giggles Magazine and our debut edition had both D-Banj and Don Jazzy on the cover. I do blogging of the same magazine these days for want of quality sales and adverts.
HOW I COPE WITH FEMALE ADMIRERS...
To be honest with you, when I started, it was a bit difficult. For instance, when I started working with D-Banj, nobody knew him but somewhere along the line, he began to get the popularity. And as his popularity soared, I was in the limelight and my popularity soared with him. But one’s age in the industry has taught one the diplomacy with which one can get by, more so, that I’m married
Clued From: Thisdayng
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