Why I have been silent – MI

Jude Abaga aka MI announced his arrival in the Nigerian music scene in 2007 when he released his debut “crowd mentality” and during that period, he kept dance floors busy and sold out concerts; breaking barrier that hitherto were a stumbling block for rap artistes in Nigerian.

Fast forward to 2017 and you will release MI runs one of the busiest record companies in Nigeria-Chocolate City and his last body of work was “Chairman” back in 2014, a situation that has reduced the number of times MI fans and rap lovers heard him on a radio or watched him on the radio.

The short black boy from Jos who spoke to journalist recently had these words for his fans

“The truth about it is that the CEO work has been harder than I thought and it has taken a lot of time from me. Also, when you become a brand, you have brand commitments as well.

My contract with Glo expired this year even though I have been working with them for seven years and I had been their ambassador for five years. We had to go for interviews, tours, shoot commercials, then you come back and you do the same thing for Martel.

Then, I have friends that would want you to feature in their concerts. So, as a brand, it became tougher. Once an artiste gets to the point where he becomes a brand, it becomes tougher for him.

““I have about five projects in my heart that I want to do because I am getting older and once I am done with that I would probably leave,” he submitted.

The award winning star said he feels excited that after ten years down the line, he is still being compared with younger talents ruling the game.

“I am ten years in the industry since my first song came out in Lagos in 2007 because that’s when Crowd Mentality was released. It is an ultimate compliment for me to be compared with the likes of Olamide, Phyno, Ice Prince and others that came out after me.

If you think about my first five years, I was really hot but as you get older, you get tired of saying some things. It is very hard for me to write a song about being in the club.

If you hear some artistes sing about being in the club, you would say that you’d prefer a younger artiste to sing about that,” he said.