I’m not at war with MI — Jesse Jagz

Jesse Jagz
| credits: File copy

Rap artiste, Jesse Jagz talks about his career and his exit from Chocolate City

How is life, now that you have exited Chocolate City?

It has been great. I have had to adjust but it is good because the same team that was with me at Chocolate City is the same team with me now and I have not had to do anything new. At the same time, it is still a lot of responsibility and that is why the adjustment is needed.

 There has been a lot of misconception on why you let your former label…

I spent five years at Chocolate City. I got there in 2007 and left officially in 2012. Chocolate City is not my company. I had put in so much work in my new album and felt it was time for me to do things for myself. It was not a spur of the moment decision; it was something I had thought about over time. The reason why I probably did not tell anybody was because sometimes, family might be more concerned about you taking business risks. The day I took the decision, I did not tell anyone including my brother, MI. I produced about four albums for Chocolate City. I don’t owe them anything and I don’t know where the news that my contract had not run out came from.

 Do you have your own label now?

It is not a label in anyway and I am not signing anybody on. Jagznation is just a business outfit, where I put out my music.

 What’s the state of your relationship with the boss, Audu Maikori?

There is no fight. We have been talking and there is no personal war.

 Will you continue to produce for Chocolate City artistes like it was the norm while you were there?

MI and Ice Prince are my brothers; therefore, we will always find time to work together.

 How about the other artistes?

I am not saying yes, but it is possible. For every other artiste, they will have to go through the normal process. If I like the song, then I will go on it.

 Did your exit affect your relationship with MI who is an executive on the label?

I still saw him last week  and at my show I said, ‘MI I love you but I am at war with Chocolate City.’ I said this so that people can understand certain things. Yes, he is my brother but as an executive of that label, he must own up to other people and be the same thing applies to me. What if he was not my brother? I would still have to do what I did. We are not shooting Missiles at each other, it’s just business.

 Brymo left Chocolate City soon after you did. Was that a conspiracy?

Brymo has been my friend before he even got signed on. He is still my friend but we never sat down to discuss our plans.

 You happened to have moved on pretty well and have a new album…

It is an African thing for you to stop and praise yourself but for me and the team, this album is actually our first album and we are just starting. The name of the album is ‘Thy nation comes’ and it has 18 songs.

 Did you feature any artistes from your former label?

I did not because I did not feature any rapper. I made it a point of duty not to have any rapper; I wanted to do it myself. Also, since I had just left, I wanted to put out music for me only and not involve anybody from that side.

 Is it that you feel threatened by them?

I don’t. I was already through with the album without MI or Ice. The album was done before I even left Chocolate City.

 Do we foresee reconciliation?

I don’t think there needs to be reconciliation. Instead, the lines of the business just need to be properly disabled; just the same way they were put together.

 It was rumoured that you were very broke and held a concert at the African Shrine and not at some posh venue on the Island?

That is one of the top echelon performance venues we have in Nigeria. It is a fantastic performance stage and well set up. Femi, Fela’s son, plays there weekly. They already have that tradition for a musician and not an artiste. I also chose that place for historical reasons and it’s a way of paying homage to Fela. Moreover, people on the mainland have been cut off from music. Most shows take place on the island. I wanted to do something for those who don’t have the N5000 or N10000. It was for them to come and enjoy good music for free. I can’t be broke and put up that kind of show.

 Your songs are rebellious in nature, is this reflection of your person?

Aren’t all youths rebellious in some way? All youths are rebellious to some older person and I am being youthful. When I am 35, I might not have this energy again. I am 29 and this is the time I can correct the government through my music. I also get criticised.

 You rarely socialise. Is this deliberate?

It is deliberate. I have always been that quiet and introverted person. With the Internet, television and radio, you are already in the faces of fans whether you want to be or not. I am just living as I have always lived.  I hate being put under the pressure of fame; therefore, I stay at home and make music which fundamentally is my job.

 Do you regret not completing your degree in law?

No.  Though I did not finish, I read a lot and that was the reason why I left. For some, school does not help the mind to grow, it stifles it. For such minds, they need the freedom to learn more.

 Your current physical looks has attracted a lot of distasteful comments

I don’t even know what they are saying.  Anybody who has known me will tell you I have always been a skinny boy. I added weight for a year and people were abusing me. I took time out to go back to my old weight and they are saying there is a problem.  I had a weight problem and I was getting obese. I had a lot of pimples on my face because of the fat in my body. Losing weight was something I had to do actively regardless of what people think.

 You have a daughter. Is she taking after you?

My daughter is nine but she schools in Jos. I see her as often as I can and we have a relationship. But I don’t like to talk about her. I want her to have a life. She is taking after me and featured in several tracks on my latest album. She is three times better than I am.

 Why did you not marry her mother?

We had her when I was 19. At that age, it was a lot more logical to allow the two of us grow and have a life instead of being together. We are still friends but we were too young to define anything. We can both love this child individually as opposed to getting married because we have a child.

'I've earned the right to be me': Beyoncé opens up about being vulnerable and stripping off for her sexy song Rocket

Beyoncé's been in show business almost her entire life – starting out at nine and putting out her first album as a part of Destiny’s Child at age 15. 

She always felt she could not quite venture out on a limb and express the full breadth of her soul – so mindful of her audiences. 

‘Now I'm in my 30s, and those children that grew up listening to me have grown up, and I always felt like it was my responsibility to be aware of kids and their parents and all these generations,’ the 32-year-old singer says in the fifth installment of her documentary, entitled Self-Titled Part 5. Honesty.

‘And I felt like, in a sense, I could not express everything. I've done so many things in my life, in my career, that I feel like at this point I've earned the right to be me and to express any and every side of myself.’

Thus in her latest album, ‘The glue that ties this record together is honesty,’ the Crazy in Love singer, who wears a simple white T-shirt and denim shorts, states at the beginning of the video. 

Her rawness and passion shine through in clips from her black and white video for Rocket, featuring a lingerie clad Beyoncé lying down, then standing tall at the edge of her bed, relaxing by a kitchen sink, and then lying atop a car, lighting up a cigarette.

What I love about this song is, it takes you through this journey,' she says, as clips of the racy video are shown. ‘You're flirting and you're talking all of your arrogant s***. Then you climax, and then you have your cigarette.’

But it’s got a deeper meaning for her. 

‘This song actually is about singing from the heart, and harmonies and adlibs and arrangement,’ Beyoncé says. 

The Houston native relished the collaborative process that her latest album entailed.

‘How willing all these incredible artists were to write together,’ she says, as the featurette cuts to her working at the piano.

The Single Ladies singer’s vulnerability has definitely paid off – selling 1.3 million copies of her latest self-titled album in its first 17 days of release in the United States and remaining at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for the third week in a row, according to Billboard. 

Beyoncé is the first album by a woman to notch three weeks at number one since Taylor Swift’s Red claimed seven weeks at the top (non-consecutively) in late 2012 and early 2013.

It is the first album since 2009 to sell more than 300,000 copies in each of its first three weeks. 

‘I don't think I would've done it, you know, back then,' Beyoncé says of putting out such a personal project. 

‘I don't think I would've been confident enough. I would've been too afraid of what other people thought, but I kinda dropped that fourth wall and I did it.

‘I feel like I'm having to tap into a lot of my life experiences to pull inspiration,' Jay Z's other half continues, ‘and I feel like I'm opening up a lot in these videos and showing a lot of sides to me that only a few people have ever seen.

She’s finally letting the world get a feel for the all the dimensions of who she is. 

‘At the end of the day, I think all of us want happiness and joy and we want to be able to be ourselves and our best selves,’ Beyoncé says.

‘And sometimes you have to take the good with the bad. Sometimes you have to take the insecurities to get to the secure place. And all of those things I feel happy to express and share.

Inside the Palm Springs Gala: Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts Charm Crowd of Thousands

The film festival event honored a slew of Hollywood stars including Sandra Bullock, Matthew McConaughey, Bruce Dern and U2 on Saturday.

Hollywood invaded sunny Palm Springs on Saturday for the 25th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival's star-studded awards gala.

Considered a major stop on the awards circuit, the festival honored a slew of contenders including Thomas Newman,Lupita Nyong’o, Sandra Bullock, Bruce Dern, Tom Hanks, Matthew McConaughey, Steve McQueen, Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep and the cast of American Hustle. For the first time, a musical act -- U2 -- was also honored with theSonny Bono Visionary Award.

More than 2,100 attendees packed the Palm Springs Convention Center for the event, which featured plenty of standing ovations as the A-list stars were honored, often introduced by a co-star or close actor friend.

Streep received the Icon Award, which had only been given out one other time -- to Michael Douglas in 2011.

"I feel like I'm an example now in my dotage that you can't put those old gals out to pasture -- we've got a lot to say," the August: Osage County actress said, getting a hearty laugh from the crowd.

Streep's co-star from August: Osage County Roberts was also honored earlier in the night, receiving the Spotlight Award. She credited her cast and crew for her success over the years and in her latest film: "I learned in high school ... It is a scientific fact that all birds fly finer and faster in formation than any bird that flies alone."

Roberts did double-duty by also presenting an award to Hanks, who was honored with the Chairman's Award.

The actor, who starred in both Disney's Saving Mr. Banks and Sony's Captain Phillips, charmed the room with stories of working on both the contender films, as different as they were. "I think it's fascinating that so many of the films you've chosen to honor are based on a true story," he told the crowd, naming his own films, 12 Years a Slave and Dallas Buyers Club as examples.

"And if you ever start to doubt the power of what you do here," he told the crowd, "just know that tonight at table 607, the executives of the Walt Disney Company and Sony have gotten along just fine."

Also getting hearty laughs from the crowd was Bullock, who was honored for her work in Gravity. She told the crowd that she had gone on the internet and Googled herself while preparing her speech for this awards event. "Sidenote: No human being should ever read the comments section or Google oneself at any time," she joked.

Among the many comments she read were plenty about her age, and several about a supposed feud between herself and Roberts over George Clooney. "We talked about this, right? It's shared custody and we're fine with it," she said.

In the spacious convention hall -- which was adorned with red tablecloths, 18,500 roses and featured a live orchestra -- Roberts ended her acceptance speech by getting serious about the collection of strong films that debuted in 2013. "I was watching heartbreaking stories about our past that made me so proud to be in this business," she said, getting slightly emotional.

Also showing strong emotion during her acceptance speech was 12 Years a Slave star Nyong'o who told the crowd, "I'm a bit lost for words. I think I need tear duct surgery to stop crying so much." She added that the event was especially meaningful because her younger brother was in the audience.

12 Years a Slave director McQueen was also honored with the director of the year award, introduced by his star Chiwetel Ejiofor. "What's been most important about the cast and crew is that we made this film out of love," McQueen said.

Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom stars Idris Elba and Naomie Harris were both on-hand to introduce U2, who received the award that had previously only been given to directors. The band's song -- "Ordinary Love" -- is dedicated to the late Nelson Mandela and featured on the film's soundtrack.

Bono gave an impassioned speech about the work that is being done as part of the campaign against AIDS in Africa, calling Mandela a leader in that movement.

"Our one simple belief is that where you live should not decide whether you live," he said, adding: "We are within reach of declaring the first AIDS-free generation."

The Palm Springs International Film Festival runs Jan. 3-13 in Palm Springs, Calif.