A few years ago, a young man hit the recording booth in Bekaji Yola at Trust Recording Studio. According to him
“At that time the recording session at the trust record studio was timely and I booked for an hour session I was the youngest among big names in the studio that day everybody was cheering me up and it gave me a lot of confidence, though there is always the first time pressure but the experience was great”
That person who went to the studio, and paid his hard-earned money to be on the mic and record is today known as Jabih Mandela. One of his experiences was full of trekking due to lack of transportation, staying out at night at a recording studio while having sessions, and performing at different events for publicity and promotions. I asked Jabih what made him develop an interest in music
“What made me develop an interest in music was simply the love I have for it and the environment and the family I grew up from also loves everything about music, my dad was a Choir master, to me I think music is one of the generic gifts I inherited that’s why I’m putting it into practice, music is spiritual and I can boldly say that music is a therapy to me”
I have been a blogger in Taraba for quite a while, my first niche was music blogging until I switched off recently to this present niche, quite a lot of people have concluded that doing music is a waste of time especially around this environment, do you think so?
“Lol, that is actually for those that are not interested in it. Many people around here think music is a waste of time thinking it is a wayward life and may be due to their religious opinions of a sort, to be sincere you will never see what you have love for as a waste of time”
What are the most challenging issues concerning artists in Taraba State that you know of?
“We have a lot of challenges around here, money to fund recording and promotion around here is one of the major problems. As entertainers we need to hustle to support ourselves, no one will invest in you as an artist if you have nothing to offer, and no one will pick your career from scratch just like that, music is business and it starts from the bottom to the top. Apart from singing or Rap, there are many things we artists need to learn around here at the discretion of our multimedia smartphones but unfortunately, we don’t, we think it’s all about just knowing how to sing in the studio. Also, artists around here don’t pay music producers or they don’t pay them well enough, not to talk of the graphic designers and promoters, how do you expect to be paid back when you don’t pay what you are supposed to pay? shout-out to some of our producers around here who have been rendering helping hands but I think producers should stop helping those who can’t help themselves at least when you pay for most of the things you are supposed to pay as an artiste you will make yourself valuable and be respected, let’s try for ourselves. One more thing I want to say is that an artist should learn to be humble and be ready to learn”
What is your advice for the individuals of Taraba state when it comes to entertainment?
“My advice to individuals here is to support each other, especially the home-based entertainers, we have good artists here that are trying their best and can represent but if we don’t show them support no outsider will, support can come in different forms through streaming and any kind of support, we always feel inferior to all this foreign artiste forgetting that we can also get better and do better, I urged and challenge us all to show see love to our music artiste around here and see how they will thrive positively,” he said.
Jabih Mandela was born as Japhet James Joshua (Nkafiyan) and he is popularly known as a Nigerian Hausa-English Hip-Hop/Rap artist born and bred in the North, he has released songs like Ruwan Bagaja, Fama, zafi, Shake Body, Jagora, Kun Gane, and Shake Body.