“I trekked from CMS to Ocean View to perform on one of the biggest stages” – Skales
My first official single was produced by Jesse Jagz, while my first unofficial single was produced by Tim Gyang (Jeremiah Gyang’s brother). They used to lend me their studio to record. Jeremiah Gyang was a huge fan from day one and I was only 15 years old when I recorded my first song with him in their studio, “Kauna Allah”. “Kauna Allah” was Jeremiah’s song; he had a version with M.I. and another version of the song with me.
Back in the day, it was either you are doing music in Lagos or in Jos. Jos was the musical city and the universities had their campuses right in the middle of town – That was the youthful and thriving area. I told my mom that I wanted to go to Lagos, but because I was just fifteen years old at the time, she didn’t agree. It took a lot of convincing and winning a number of awards from competitions before I could get my mom on my side. People also convinced her that I was doing amazing. In all these, I was still getting good grades at school. So, all she needed to do was to bless me.
I was thinking of ways to leave the house, so when I was to write JAMB, I applied to school in Unilag and Jos. I got admitted into the university in Jos and as soon as I got there, I started linking up with all the musical people. I reached out to Abuchi, who was managing chocolate city studio back then. The first day he heard about me and my song, he opened up his studio for me. The studio opened in the morning till around 4/5 pm and after that time he usually left guys like me, Ice-Prince, and Jesse free sessions to do whatever we want to do. We just had to buy diesel and make sure the studio was safe.
I met everybody in that studio. Jesse became a fan immediately he heard my song. He showed me a lot of support. As a matter of fact, at that time, Jesse ‘signed’ me unofficially because I needed the beats. After that, I was featured on some tracks and he put me on his album later on.
Jeremiah Gyang was also very helpful and impactful to my career. He hooked me up with one of the biggest stages I ever performed in Lagos back in the day. He actually even gave me what I wore to perform at that show because I had trekked from CMS to Ocean View. I was really sweating so he gave me a jacket in his car, and I buttoned it up.
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