Nigeria’s answer to Stevie Wonder, Cobhams Asuquo, speaks with JANE KOLADE about his love of music, craftsmanship, and achieving worldwide success in spite of being blind. Excerpts:
YOU are Nigeria’s number one music producer, and not just that but also immensely in demand outside these shores, how do you manage that?
You know that is not quite true; there are people who will argue that claim.
You actually write songs for international musicians.
That bit would be true.
America has Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder, Nigeria has Cobhams Asuquo, but the social milieu of both countries are so different; worlds apart. How was a man with your challenge able to become what you are today, considering the myriad of challenges in our peculiar environment?
I think it starts with knowing that you do not have an option. On two levels, one, when you were born blind in the early eighties and parents did not know what to do other than just show you love, and that was all they could give at the time. You realise that you are starting from the bottom rung, and starting from there, the only way you can go is up. On another level, it is knowing that you will accept nothing less.
For me, I do not have the capacity to think of being poor or think of not being successful. I do not have the capacity to deal with failure, and that does not mean that I don’t fail. I have failed quite a number of times, and have done classically dumb stuff, I promise you. But it is all part of my journey, and never the destination for me. So I think it comes with knowing that you don’t have any option but to do well.
So, for me, it’s not a question of whether or not I can see, rather my personal expectation of myself, and what I want out of life, and fighting against all odds; fighting tooth and nail, and everything else in between to get that place. I am doing something just moving my life in the right direction, the right course, the right tangent. As you grow older, you become more self-aware, people who are tied to you, who believe in you. So, I think, for me, really, it’s knowing that you don’t have an option. That can really drive you.
Are there things in your upbringing responsible for your success?
A lot of things helped me succeed in my upbringing. First of all, my parents are very positive people, even when we didn’t know how it was going to happen, my mother would say to me, “I know you are going to become someone great in life.” So that positive confession, growing up, stayed with me. And my mother is quite the optimist; she has had her fair share of life, but has managed to remain a happy woman. I think that sense of optimism, undeterred by anything, has helped me.
I am a product of love; I grew up in a family with lots of love. We didn’t have a lot of money, but we had a lot of love, and pride in ourselves as a family. We often described ourselves as a family jokingly as members of the Asuquan Empire or something stupid like that. We liked it, we liked ourselves and took pride in who we were, and I think that instilled in me a sense of pride in myself, and self-confidence.
And then the God side of my mother began to manifest as I grew older, and then my father’s responsibility for his family, his generosity. A lot of things: my father’s love for me, my mother’s love for me, my brothers’ love for me. I am literally the culmination, if you will, of the bringing together everything my family growing up actually believed in.
There are many believers (especially gospel singers) who would not want to do secular music, or even work with secular musicians. As a believer in a secular work environment, especially the entertainment industry, how have you managed that? The interrelationship between your work, your faith, and the people you work with; especially with the lifestyle that goes with the entertainment industry?
I think what makes one really who you are is inside. The environment you find yourself is external; your ability to function in that environment depends on what is inside of you. I believe that I have a strong foundation. I grew up Catholic and went to Catholic schools, and have always been a person of faith even though I had to find my way, from trying to understand Catholicism as a young boy, asking so many questions I thought I wasn’t getting answers to, becoming a ‘Protestant’ (as they would say) to becoming Pentecostal, to becoming a moralist where you believe that it is good to do good and evil to do evil.
Going beyond religion to finding Jesus myself, and being conscious of who I am (is) the whole gamut. I have gone full circle, and for me I believe it helped me build a foundation where I am aware of whom I am. So when I go into whatever environment, I go in carrying the person I am inside, recognising that the person I am has a mission to affect what is around him. So that is what I do. My talent is for a reason; you don’t hide your light under a bushel, or hang out with just anyone. Scientists create innovations that help the rest of the world do simple things, and not just help other scientists function at helping other scientists.
That is how I see Christianity. For me, it’s about just functioning in the space where you are just holy or safe. So you go out, and you influence people. The word says that they will know us by our love, so you try to influence people and you show love. You do what you do with people, you don’t judge people, and you don’t have the right to. Just do right and you will influence people, and you learn. I think, for me, that is what it is. I have a foundation because of who I think I am internally, and I take that presence with me wherever I go, and I try to create my own impact. It functions better when you are actually in a space that actually limits it.
Can you tell us about your scheme (foundation) to give back to society?
I never started a foundation. I do a lot of things though. I haven’t started a foundation. I think I’m too scatterbrained to run a foundation right now. Maybe I will get better. I’m growing and learning, just gaining a lot: business acumen and the like. Having said that, I don’t think I will start a foundation just yet. I am happy supporting foundations I believe in.
For instance, I am closely associated with the Niger Wives Rehabilitation Centre, an association made up of women who were not born Nigerian but are married to Nigerian men. They started this organisation that crashed the price of Braille mathematics textbooks from ten thousand naira to three hundred and fifty naira, amongst other things. They made a lot of our literature textbooks accessible to us when I was in secondary school. They continue to create material for blind people to make education more accessible in the Nigerian space. So I’m closely associated with them and I support them in whatever way I can, because without people like that I don’t know how I would have managed through school.
Also the Nigerian Association for the Welfare of the Blind. I am associated with foundations that run courses that I support, but I don’t run a foundation myself. What I do, however, is I am starting something for people who actually want to create good music, who want to make great organic music, and I want to give them a platform to shine, but that has not taken off yet. There is like a ton of stuff that I do but I wouldn’t call it a foundation in that sense. I am associated with Jacklyn NGO, Food for All, run by Patricia Esebhade. I prefer to be associated with organisations, at this point, than to deal with the logistics of running one. I think there are people doing great work out there who need to be supported. I think that is the more practical position to take for now.
What informed your decision to abandon your degree programme and pursue music?
I think that is how much of a hold music had on me. I realised: “Don’t kid yourself, this is it. This is what you live for.” I used to cut classes to be in the studio, and if you know the kind of person I am, I was not an average student.
If I may say so myself, I was pretty much an A student. But when it got to that point where I would leave everything to be in the studio to make music, I realised that it was the sensible thing to do, thinking “This thing has a hold of me, and I might as well pursue it.” When you follow the trajectory of your life, you know the things that move you in the right path towards your destiny.
Sometimes, if you doubt it, you live to regret that you doubted. I didn’t want that to happen. I wanted my life to matter. My original plan, (and it sounded lofty) was laudable and the sort of thing for an academic like me to do, go to school, and come out and work with the International Court of Justice in the Hague, and all of that. But I realised in all of that I really wanted to make music, because that is where my soul unwinds, my soul is set free. That is why I decided to pursue it, and I have no regrets.
At what point did you realise that you wanted a career in music?
My third year in university. I think I just realised that I couldn’t go back; it didn’t feel right, in any case. Someone had messed up my admission process in my getting into Unilag, which was by itself another story altogether because I already had admission to study in a school called Mercer University in Atlanta, Georgia.
But for whatever reason, that didn’t work out. And I wound up in Unilag, and in my third year I realised that I wasn’t cut out for it. I was coasting, and settling, and I needed to find my life. I needed to find my joy, and the person I had always been. I had been performing from my primary school days; doing all kinds of things. Then I was settling for this life, going through the motions, and waking up and going to sleep, and just living life like everyone else was just great. But you know that you are cut out for much more and you are settling for less.
I realised that music was the key to unlock the rest of my life, and so after I wrote fifteen letters to God, and I signed each one of them Cobhams Asuquo God, as I felt, “If I am your son, I might as well bear it as my last name.” So after a while I made up my mind that I was not going back. So I went back to school to give out my stuff. I went to my room, gave out all of my stuff and didn’t go back.
Did your parents support your decision?
Yes, my mother (well both my parents actually) and it was scary for me. My parents trust me to always be responsible and always make sensible decisions. When people have that level of trust in you, it behoves you to live up to their expectations, and for a young guy who also wanted to enjoy life, I had to grow up quickly and become responsible, and actually live up to their expectations and make them proud up to that point.
The general assumption was if this was the path I had chosen to take, I would do them proud as well. I think that was it, but it also kept me in check. So I lived with the reminder to be responsible, and to make something out of my decision, and like I said, failure as a final result was not an option, so I had to do everything I could to make sense of this path I had chosen to follow. My parents believed that I would make success of my life even if I chose to be a plumber.
What qualities do you believe helped you succeed?
I never think I am too much to do anything. When I decided to transition from producing to performing, I said to my friend Obino, ”From now on, I am going to be Nigeria’s official houseboy.” I appeared at whatever gig I was invited to perform, and I would go there and do my share. When you have that mindset, you just keep going, and you never know, even when you begin to do big things, in your mind you are never too big to do anything. I think for me that’s just very important. I think being straightforward,
I realised that I am thirty-four now and I have very little time for foolishness. I am not a serious person in the typical straightjacket way, over-efficient, never-laughing way, but I have discovered that my life matters and time is my most valuable currency. And so I use it judiciously. I don’t like it being wasted. So I think my value for my time is another quality. I think my understanding of principles – the world is not a function of accident, there are principles that govern this world – and those principles are sure to work for you.
My understanding of those principles and my application of them in my life has contributed to my success. I know that it is important for me to honour my parents. I know that it is important for me to give. I know that it is important for me to live far beyond myself. I know that it is important for me to go after what I desire. I just know certain things that are principles that you can find in the bible, and other books you believe in. Principles that govern the earth, that are sure to give results, I live strictly by them, from a Christian perspective because I am a Christian. But Hindus, and Sikhs, and Taoists; whatever you call them, all imbibe these principles, one way or the other.
I am a strong believer in principles, and I think principles are definitely a route to success. What else? I am not a baggage person. I don’t have time for it, it’s too much wahala. I’m easy, and I think that when you are easy, you don’t carry negative energy around you. You attract your kind. It’s just a disposition that helps you get through life, making more of a success of it, especially if you are more of an optimist. And optimism is infectious; it attracts everything that is good. I try to always love. I try to find a reason to laugh.
Have you ever been discriminated against because of your peculiar gift in the course of your career?
Yes, I think I have been. First of all, I started my career having to prove a point that I could actually do it. You don’t want to go into the studio as an adult with a sixteen-year-old producer, most especially a blind producer. So I was discriminated against because of my age, it’s like saying your doctor is a mental case.
How do you trust that kind of doctor? But I am thankful for the likes of Maintain, and those who took a chance with me, and decided to work with me, even though they had achieved some sort of notoriety at the time. That was sort of a springboard because the chance they took helped launch my career as a young producer.
Do you do anything outside of music?
Yes, I do a few things outside of music. I love to, or rather I should say I get to speak to people – it’s the most unnerving thing I do because I run away from it up until I get to do it. I never want to do it, as a matter of fact one of my most widely circulated speeches was given at Tedtalk, and I was going to cancel a few days before the event. I prayed I would miss the flight. I’m just generally nervous before I give a speech, but for some weird reason it turns out well. So, yes, I get to speak; I can’t say with boldness that I love to speak.
But what I do know is that if I don’t speak, I regret it because I realise that I have a lot to say, and I might have missed the opportunity to say it. But afterwards, I’m happy because I realise there is a lot of truth in what I say; I can be expressive. I will never think of myself as a motivational speaker, no. It’s a very overrated title. I have a thing for real estate. I also have a thing for radio. I am not doing much of that right now, but I actually was with Rhythm 93.7 for a short while as an On Air Personality.
If you weren’t doing music, what would you be doing?
And I shouldn’t say if I wasn’t doing music, because I think I might still do these things. Politics, because I think leaders actually impact the lives of people, leadership, and doing things right. People need to give people direction, and step up to the plate.
You can’t keep criticising, take up the mantle of leadership and start doing things to make things better. So I would probably be a politician; I will still be a politician. I would probably be preaching, I might still preach. I am born again; unashamedly so. And I love Jesus, but I listen to a lot of Dr Dre (He laughs) and I love Jay-Z, and Kendrick Lamar, and all that other stuff. I am a very interesting person; it’s a very confusing mix that is this personality that is Cobhams Asuquo.
I don’t know how my church members will feel to know that I’m in touch with everything that is trending. Like I know that Miguel has put out a new album; that kind of stuff. It is quite confusing like I would definitely love to preach, I feel like I have just experienced life, I love God’s Word, and I love how it has the power to transform lives. And I want to share it, and I love worship and I want to share that. I have all those sides to me.
You once said that blindness is your gift. Why do you think so?
I think so because I learnt a lot from it, because it shaped who I am. I think so because sometimes it takes something as startling as blindness to find yourself, and find meaning. I don’t know who I would have been if I was not blind. A ton of sighted people have done amazing things with their lives.
I just feel that not being able to see has this amazing side to it. It gives you perspective. As I have said, it left me with fewer options than everyone else, and so I had to make use of the options I have. When something transforms your life radically like that, you can see it as a blessing or a curse. Whatever you see it as is what it will yield to you. And for me I see it as a gift, and I think that is self-evident.
Are you happy with your life?
I am ecstatic. I love my life so much, I look at my life sometimes, and I’m amazed. I would love to be me. And it doesn’t mean that I’m satisfied with who I am, but I am happy to have come this far, and where I am going (which is a better place.) I know I am not where I used to be. I have so many things to be thankful for. I am one of those people who wound up on the right side of life, and I don’t take it for granted.
Because I’m conscious of what other people have, and what other people have to go through. Because of my position in life, I have to support other people, and be there for them. They were born on a day stars were shining just like mine, but here I am.
If a young guy just starting out in music walked up to you and asked for advice, what would you tell him?
To do amazing things, you need to have something that makes you stand out – talent. They say talent is not enough, but talent is important, whatever it is, whether for music, or anything else. Talent is not skill, skill is important but you need to have the predisposition for it to be able do the thing and understand how it comes together.
That is when you can acquire skill quickly and make sense. In the words of my friend, Banky W, if what you want is a quick-fix or money that will come quickly; if you don’t have the energy for long term hustle, or delayed gratification, please don’t do music, because it will shake you and you will go through the wringer. But if you have the energy for that stuff, go for it. If you have passion also, go for it. It requires dreaming, working to achieve your dreams, and believing that your dreams will come true.
And of course, stick around people that have gone down your road. They will help you get there faster. What I would say would depend on his peculiarity. It’s not a cookie cutter answer.
What would you tell him to stay away from?
The lure of the opposite sex that can derail you, stay away from excesses, and you will get a lot of things in excess as a musician, because it will ruin you. On your way (to the) top, you have to believe in something, so stay away from religious-free mindedness (for want of a better word.) Stay away from standing for nothing, because you’ve got to stand for something.
In my own case, my preferred suggestion is God in my life, and the grace of God in my life, and what God is but if you don’t have that, then you’ll be introduced to so many other things. Stay away from draining parties that don’t add to your life. Parties are great if you are going to meet great people, and hang out with friends, or land you your next gig. There (are) a lot of useless shindigs out there, and everyone is going to want you.
Stay away from too many people, or you will become too many people’s best friend. And those people will disappear in the blink of an eye the minute you run out of the things that make you who you are. As sure as the sun rises in the East, they will disappear. Build your core team and stick with them.
