FUNKY ROCKER, D'BANJ SAYS HE DOESN'T WANT A SERIOUS GIRLFRIEND
SINCE 2004 when fame beckoned, D'Banj has occupied the front seat in music - planted firmly on the top ten charts, enjoying commercial success to boot. Very talented, the energetic performer who has a large followership among ladies is becoming an enigma, with his trade mark sunglasses and a lingo many have adopted.
Dapo Oyebanjo who is back in Nigeria for good after his sojourn in United Kingdom says he has the keys to happiness...
How comfortable were you when making the transformation from a church boy in the choir to a pop idol?
At first, I wasn't comfortable knowing my background fully well. My dad is a deacon while my mum is a deaconess and I grew up in the church as well. But from the day the kokolets have said that that's the image they've given me, I've accepted it and I'm very much comfortable with it now.
Was it an image that they gave you or it was something that you consciously adopted yourself to suit the kind of music you want to play?
At first, I wouldn't say I consciously did that. I wasn't confident in that way but I will say my producer was. Don Jazzy. And he's been saying it from the first day we've been together. For example, when I'm performing on stage, he tells me when to remove my shirt. And I'm not yet comfortable even though people say I have six packs. I think it's about four packs. And I take off the shirts and I see kokolets shouting, and I'm wondering why are they shouting? When I finish the show, I keep asking him “Why you say make I commot my shirt then” because I wasn't comfortable with it. It was just the way the glasses image came. When we did the “Tongolo” video, everybody liked the image and they started to say ah… “D-banj is always wearing shades.” So it grew on me like that and that's the same way this has been for me.
In essence you would say that the D-banj of today - the bad boy, the sex symbol, the ladies man - is essentially a Don Jazzy creation?
I would not say that it's exactly a Don Jazzy creation. I would say it's a Mo Hits…I'm the first person to sign under Mo Hits records. And as we all know, once a record label signs you on, they're not only signing you because of your lyrical content. They take the whole package. They take the image, plus the lyrics, plus the music as a whole. And for me to be the first artiste under Mo Hits, and also being the vice-president of Mo Hits Records, I believe it was us coming together and deciding on it. Don Jazzy is my producer, he's also my best friend. We stay together both home and abroad. So we've been together and speak about it. Whatever is going to favour the label, whatever is going to favour the music and the image we're carving for ourselves, that's what we do.