Nigerian veteran dancehall star, John Asiemo, popularly known as Daddy Showkey, has decided to give the Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, a run for his money with the launch of his social media called Confam Made.
The 51-year-old singer who, alongside his contemporaries, African China, Danfo Drivers, Baba Fryo, and Marvelous Benjy, were Ajengunle’s most prominent music exports in the 1990s until the early 2000s, revealed this in an interview with Premium Times.
The dancehall star speaks about his new app, his strong affiliation with Ajegunle, and numerous accomplishments during the interview.
Excerpts:
PT: It has been a while you released an album. Should we expect a new song or album soon?
Daddy Showkey: First of all, I have a new project called Confam Made. Confam Made is a social media platform like Facebook, but this time, it’s an African kind of social media. It is accessible anywhere in the World. It is a social media platform for you to share sweet memories.
I don’t want sad memories and make the world understand that it is not only the bad and ugly things that make up the entire nation. If one American is wrong, it does not mean that the whole of America is wrong. So Confam Made is trying to preach to the world that it is not only Mark Zuckerberg that can do it.
PT: Does this mean that bad news would be restricted on the app?
Daddy Showkey: We are in a society where nobody wants to hear bad news, but if it comes, there is nothing we can do, but we would veer through it. We just want people to be happy.
I am always a happy person, problems will not go away, but we try to ensure that we are always happy because God will never give us what we cannot handle, no matter the situation.
PT: Interesting, don’t you receive bad news as an individual? So how do you stay happy?
Daddy Showkey: If I feel bad, I just wear my canvas and go for a walk. I can walk for a very long time because that makes me happy. If I remember where I am coming from and where I am, and where I am going, I am always happy.
PT: Speaking about where you are coming from, you recently posted the picture of the room where you started from. What’s unique about it?
Daddy Showkey: That’s the room where I was born, I was born there, and I had my first child there too.
PT: Did you renovate the room?
Daddy Showkey: It’s not my house. It was a rented apartment consisting of a room and a parlour, and my mum rented the apartment. My mum rented it because my dad had died in 1978, I was eight years old. I grew up and started entertainment in that same room in Ajegunle, and I still pay for the room.
I built a house at the back of that house. People fail to understand that the property is not my property, it is not my family’s property either, and there’s no way I will renovate another person’s house.
But I always knew that I would buy that property one day because that property is my history. I won’t want somebody to go and demolish it. That’s why I would still retain the room because the address of that room is used for my business card and complimentary.
PT: Back then, you sang that you wanted Ajegunle to be great. Would you say it’s a dream come true?
Daddy Showkey: Great people have sprung out from Ajegunle, giving me fulfilment. I am not a king of Ajegunle, and I was just a messenger.
When you see me talking about neighbourhoods, I am not saying that Ajegunle is better than other neighbourhoods, but I am giving them hope that where you come from, you can make something out of a life where you come from.
Most people are not proud to say they are from Ajegunle, and I want the young ones to be proud of who they are and where they come from. As for me, I am proud to be a Confam Made.
PT: Why do you refer to yourself as Confam Made?
Daddy Showkey: I hate being fake because it is my original nature. My original nature doesn’t have confirmation from anyone; I am OK with it if it’s okay with me. That’s what confirmation made is all about
PT: About the app, when would it be released?
Daddy Showkey: The app is already on social media. Just go to www.confammade.com. We are only available on the website. The app will be ready on Google Play and other platforms in two or three months.
PT: As a veteran in the music industry, what changes have you seen in the recent music trends we have these days?
Daddy Showkey: There is no change in music. Music is timeless and ageless. What has changed is not the music but what you listen to and appreciate.
I am surprised that people say back in the days that people didn’t sing about the bum,’ or girls or money. The truth is that all these things have been in our music for a long time.
It is about what we choose to listen to and appreciate. This social media generation likes these kinds of songs; that’s why they are invoked.
PT: But people believe that some songs in the past had more messages than now. Is it valid?
Daddy Showkey: With what is going on in our country, everyone is sending messages through their song differently. It depends on how we digest the messages.
Some people can misinterpret the message in the song. For example, when I did my first album, people said it was a song for touts without understanding what had inspired the song.
Music is about what you choose to listen to and how you understand it.
PT: Would we see you perform some of those old songs again?
Daddy Showkey: I will do it again and again. Music is part of me. But aside from songs, there’s a lot I have at hand, and I am also shooting a movie.
PT: A movie?
Daddy Showkey: It is a documentary that I plan to commence shooting soon. When it’s set, you will know about it.
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