Songstress "Keffe" Reveals Past And Present

Kefee  a prolific songwriter,skilled dancer,a passionate singer and a UN Young Ambassador for Peace as of today.When her marriage crashed a few years ago, many thought that Sapele, Delta State-born singing sensation, Irikefe Obareki popularly known as Kefee would never survive the negative publicity and its attendant trauma.  

But surprisingly, the Branama Queen as she is fondly called by fans, has continued to soar like an eagle that is truly destined for the top.  

During a recent courtesy visit to the Isolo, Okota, corporate head office of Entertainment Express, the rebranded entertainer who’s still basking in the euphoria of her multiple world tours painfully spoke about her failed marriage and other interesting things germane to her life and career.

What is the next thing Kefee is currently working on for her numerous fans, especially this Yuletide season?

I am working on another album and I have some videos off the album already, we have Dan Maliyo. It is a lively play song, a play song from the north. I just felt like doing something about play, you know all work and no play actually makes one a dull person. I featured Becca from Ghana. She brought a song from Ghana as well and we did a play song and it came out well I’m working on a video as well, we started promoting recently. I am definitely going to release the album, by the grace of God next year.

After your last album that contained the hit song, Kokoroko, many have said that you have abandoned gospel music for hip hop, how true is this?

(Laughs) No matter how it is, I am still a gospel ambassador, I love hip hop and dance hall that is why Kokoroko was like that. So anything I do in my album, my work is actually the kind of things I like listening to. I get bored listening to a particular genre of music, I can’t listen to jazz all through, and I can’t listen to hip hop all through, and I can’t listen to reggae all through. As far as I like the music, as well, but Kokoroko was more of a dance hall track.

You mentioned listening to different genre of music, what inspires your type of music?

For instance, I like Kenny G, Tracy Chapman among others. Tracy Chapman sings about life, about herself and other people experiences. It inspires me a lot, because I still think sometimes, the only avenue and the only way I can actually talk about them is through my music. I am not a motivational speaker, neither am I a teacher, but I can sing and people will listen to me. I use that as a gateway to pass the message that I have to make my little contribution to the society through my songs.

You recently performed alongside Grammy Award-winning artiste, India Arie, when you met her what did you say to her?

All I told her was that I am a big fan of her works and apparently she heard about me from her manager before I met her. So I went and told her that I am a big fan of her works, I listen to her music and I can tell you that she actually inspires me from her very first album. Then we started talking about other things. It was like I have known her for a long time and because of my familiarity with her music, so it was easy for us to bond.

So for you, how did you discover music was what you wanted to do or did music find you?

I have this uncle who operated a record store and he had this big speaker outside. So we always hear a variety of music while growing up. We don’t have that kind of music these days then, there was Fela, Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff etc. For my uncle, playing music was marketing things because he plays any album on high demand. I just grew up listening and singing along to those kind of music. Like I told you, I can sing a lot of songs that I did not take time to really learn. Even traditional music was not left out of the kind I listened to then like Sunny Ade, Sir Shina Peters among others at a time. Also my mum loves music too; I grew up watching them go for competition and during rehearsals too. So I was always listening to different type of songs, I think that got me exposed to different genres of music. I am not into a particular genre of music, I love different types of music. I just love music generally.

What kind of a child were you while growing up?

I was very lively and everybody said I was gentle and hardworking, but I think that I get restless some times; I wanted to know how everything was working. I was that kind of child that will want to know how people appeared on the television, when everybody is in the house I would want to go back and work. Maybe I get to spoil items in the house along the way and when my dad comes back, I get smacked. I was the kind of person that will go just to see how the clock was working; sometimes I break it, just to see how it works. As a child, I hate doing something over and over again. I was always smart, climbing trees and playing, so just like that, I was a lovely kid, everybody loved me because they said whenever I walked by I greet those around me. Mi Gwo, Mi Gwo (Urhobo traditional greeting). I see old people coming from the market I will help them carry their loads. I was just like that.

Tell us about your family, you are not the only child, are you?

No, I am not I have three brothers and two sisters, I’m the number three, the second girl, I have a sister and a brother ahead of me. I was born in Sapele, Delta State, even though we were six in the house. At a time we had a lot of cousins, living with us, so people were always coming around, coming to stay with us, my dad was seen as a disciplinarian. So people brought their kids to come and stay with us, believing that after staying in our house, they will become better persons, it actually worked for everybody that did that. It was fun growing up in that neighbourhood, actually it was a small town in Delta State. It was a town that wakes you up in the morning with an alarm and we called it E&A alarm. It is from a company in Sapele. They just did an alarm that woke people up by 5a.m., and it goes on again by 6a.m., and again by 7a.m. I think it actually worked for the working class living in the community. It was fun growing in Sapele. Sapele is a musical town too, and the alarm that wakes us up is still musical. I was in Sapele recently and I heard it, I was like this people are still doing all these things again. I thought they stopped, anywhere you go in that town you hear music, and it was a nice place to grow up.

Was your dad working in that company? Tell us about your father?

No, my dad was a business man, the alarm was for everybody. My dad was a trader in electronics. He sold electronics while my mum worked in NEPA, Sapele, but she resigned later. Well, it was a challenge, because we were not rich, but we had almost everything we wanted. My dad is over 50 now, so he still has a lot of years ahead of him and he has a lot of white hairs too. The white hairs has been there before my birth though, but he is young, not that old.

What school did you attended?

I attended High Emmanuel Primary School, Sapele, and then Ayomanor Mixed Secondary School. Then I attended University of Benin, where I studied Public Administration for two years, it was a diploma programme and now I do music.

Listening to those songs while growing, did it ever cross your mind that your breakthrough would come through music?

It looked like a dream, then when I was growing up in church I use to sing, and it was the same thing in school and at end of the year party. I sang with a friend, Hannah, I don’t know where she is right now. But then in the church while I was in the children department we were told to present a song and I did very well. Then I always hoped that people will listen to me someday. But it wasn’t like I was sure of anything, but like everybody who goes to school expect to be something great tomorrow. At that young age, when one sang and people are eager to hear one sing, one is expected to make something out of it, but it wasn’t like I actually had a clear vision of anything.

What were your childhood ambitions?

Hmmm...to become a great person, to become a great philanthropist, to be a force to reckon with I had always wanted to help people, so I want to render what I had to give. No, I never really thought and dreamt of working in the bank, when I grew up, I always wanted to be a lawyer. In fact, my dad thought I would be a good lawyer, but right now, I think if I want to be a good lawyer, I can be a good one because whenever something happens, the way I present the case, the way I talk about it, and the way I analyse the issue, you’d think a lawyer is talking.

Did you get support for your music career from your parents?

Interestingly, the very first encouragement I got was from my dad. After singing that day, he gave me money that he was very proud of me. The money was not what encouraged me because it was just five naira, it was him smiling and being happy that encouraged me. So it was like ok Papa was very happy, so I started singing in church and home, because by the end of the day, he will be happy and give me money. So that was how I started in 2003, when I released Branama. But before then, I had released an album in Delta State, I was in Lagos when I did Branama. I was in Delta State when I did my first album with a friend, Esthee. Esthee travelled abroad in 2003, then I decided to go solo, and that album was an interesting one. Esthee’s father is the general overseer of our church, my dad was a deacon in the church when we released that album.

At what point in your career did you make the decision to come to Lagos?

At about that time, like I said my dad was not very happy, about me putting on trousers, he was like, is that my daughter? It was generating a lot of talk from our church people, so at the end of the day, my uncle in Lagos, said come to Lagos, when you finish from your school, take a bus straight to Lagos. That was how I came to Lagos. I was in Lagos when Esthee travelled and I decided to go solo, I did Branama. When I did the video for Branama, I still wore trousers (laughs), when my dad saw it, he was very happy. He called me to tell me that he was very happy; he told me he was very proud of me, that the song was very good. At this time trouser was no longer an issue again for him.

 At that point in your nascent career, why did you decide to do music that has to do with culture and tradition?

It was because I loved my culture and it is what I have that I can give, I can’t give what I don’t have. I have always seen myself as somebody who will promote my culture outside Nigeria, which is what I am doing now. I am grateful to God for giving me the opportunity to do that. I love my culture, the arts, the costumes, the outfit, the materials and everything. It is good to copy other people, but what is going to happen to our own. We have a lot from our culture to sell, so why not copy and sell to the world culture, instead of copying what is already there? So that was basically why I decided to come out with my own costumes, African costumes. These outfits, I didn’t get to wear them when I was growing up, unless we had a special occasion like when you are going for a thanksgiving, wedding, Christmas or New Year celebration. On a normal day I get something casual to wear. So to me my African costumes were special that is why I decided to use them in my videos, to model for Africa.

You know Lagos is a cosmopolitan city; did you have any fear that your songs won’t be well accepted here when you first arrived?

I never had any fear; I knew that what I had was good. I listened to Brenda Fassie, I don’t understand what she is saying, but I liked her songs. Kidjo too from Benin Republic, I like her songs, Miriam Makeba too. People sing in Spanish, no need to understand what they are saying, if I have an idea about what you are saying, good, if I don’t have, good also. I made mine easier for my listeners by adding Pidgin English, so that at the end of the day, If you really listen to my songs, the choruses will make you happy and dance along.

When talking about your music career, one would expect to hear Alex music, your boss and ex hubby?

 I owe a lot to a lot of people, starting from my father, Deacon Andrew Obareki. There was a point in my life I was rejected by the adult choir, I begged him to talk to them, he did and then they allowed me. I owe a lot to my uncle Mr. Christopher Obareki, who actually put down money to push the Branama project. I realized that there are a lot of talented artistes out there, but no money to push them. So for somebody like my uncle I owe him a lot because he put down money to say okay, Alex push this thing, do the videos, whatever it takes. You know, the Branama video was actually shot in his house. I owe a lot of people big thank you. Alex, was there too. You see the Esthee, I spoke about, she is Alex’s younger sister, so we were working together. He was just there to help us, direct us, we wanted to do something, we needed somebody to guide us, as an artiste you don’t have to do many things yourself, you need a manger, you need somebody who will stand for you, especially when you are new in the game. So, yeah, Alex was there, he tried and somebody like Asu Ekiye, who allowed me to stay in his house. I was in his house when I recorded Branama,  he accommodated me in Port Harcort, I was living in Lagos and travelled to Port Harcourt, so somebody like him too, I owe a lot too and many other people. If Alex was not there, another person could have helped me also, God could have used another person that is how God works. So it just happened that it was Alex, he tried his best and I did my best also as an artiste, I contributed the most.

Competition is very high in the gospel music industry now, how are you coping, and what has been your challenges so far?

For me, I just do what I need to do, I do what I can do, I don’t go out of my way to try and impress people, so if I do a song and you like it, gospel or not, fine. For instance the food song, when I go to some weddings, people beg me to perform it. I have love songs too I do when the couples are stepping out. You know, for me, I do not put myself in a box, that as a gospel artiste I cannot do other type of songs. The type of music I do, I think affects a lot of people. I have a lot of friends who are Muslims, but they still listen to my songs. So that is it, but no matter what kind of music I do, I represent Jesus, because he has been good to me. It is a personal thing, I love Jesus and I represent Him, anywhere and anytime I have the opportunity. I am not going to tie myself to one style. It depends on the inspiration I get. Like I told you about the food song, I can talk about women marginalisation, children, I can talk about peace.

You featured Timaya in Kokoroko; did you feature him because of his popularity or what?

The thing is, I did not feature him because he was popular or because he is from Niger Delta. I have worked with Paul Play before, music is an art, if I feel a Chinese man is going to be good in a song, I will feature the Chinese man. When I was writing the song and recording it initially, I had Timaya in mind, he is a dance hall person. Then Timaya was like he had somebody who can produce the song and make it better, that was how K-Solo came on board, and the song feature came out and it did well. So I just thought it would be nice to put him, and it did well, people are still talking about that song till today.

How do you respond to fact that you featured a secular artiste, in a pure gospel work?

 Music is an art, if I feel something is going to work, I won’t look at anything; I just get it done at once. You know you cannot please everybody in this world. Like in my first album, not everybody liked Branama, some people preferred the one I did with Sunny Nneji to Branama. So everybody cannot like my songs. Likewise me, I cannot like all works. I won’t have to go out of my way to make everybody like what I do. When I featured Timaya in Kokoroko, was he praising the devil? He did not spoil the song, if he spoilt the song, you wouldn’t have heard the song and liked it. The song came out and was good and many people liked it.

How do you respond to the accusations that Kefee started as a gospel artiste, but now going secular?

Well, what makes a secular artiste? Do you have my first album? If you do, then you will know I am still doing the same thing. When I recorded my first album, I did Branama, I was enjoying myself, I had reason to because of what God did for me, and inside that album I recorded a unity song, in that album also I recorded “Everything is Gonna Be Ok”. That song was to inspire people, to encourage them, that no matter what they are going through, things will still be okay. I am not aiming to please anybody with my songs. I am not going to say, this set of people will not like it, so I am not recording it. Anyone saying I changed does not have a copy of Kefee’s first album.

Looking back, do you have any regret about your past?

I don’t have any regrets. I think challenges in life actually add something to your life, if they don’t come, life would be boring. I grew up not liking to do something over and over again; I always tried out new things. So not having challenges would make life so boring. So no matter what has come my way, it has actually made me stronger. It has actually taken me where I am today, so I am grateful to God for that.

How about your marriage and separation from your ex-husband, Alex?

I just told you whatever happened made me stronger, I don’t want to talk about that, it is a plus to me, an added experience to me. It was just one of those things in life. My story is different from your story, but you still have your issues, and I am not interested, because it is your life, unless I can help.

It has been how many years now since your marriage crashed?

 I am no longer saying anything; you will use it as headline.

Are you afraid of headline?

Yes o.

But your fans will like to know about your crashed marriage?

All my fans should know about me is just that I love them, and I will continue bringing out good music for them. That is all.

Are you on speaking terms with your ex?

I am not answering anything about that again. It is no big deal though, if you know me very well, you will know that I forgive and forget easily.

So you have forgiven your ex-husband?

Don’t put words in my mouth, I don’t have anything against anybody; let us just leave it at that.

You are looking so beautiful; I don’t want to believe that somebody is not behind it.

Baba God is behind it o (laughs).

On a more serious note, you are a young lady, full of life, at this stage, how has it been with overtures from men?

I am not alone (singing). I don talk finish.

What has been your driving force, your motivation?

I have this passion to succeed; I want to be remembered for my success. I have that zeal to succeed.

You were in the news recently for leading a peace campaign to Jos, how do you fund such projects?

I have been doing this Kefee’s Peace Foundation thing since 2007. If you want people to help you do certain things, you will never get it done. I have never said I was soliciting for fund from people. I have never done that so I thank God. When I see people in Jos, they need clothes, bed sheets, shoes. So the little I can give, I give. I know that little can actually make a difference, it will not change everything, but it will go a long way to help. That is it for me.

Before I wrote that peace song, I was in Mekoyo’s studio, and we were doing a track with him, when I saw some pictures of some people suffering from war and clashes, I was just heartbroken that day, and that was how I changed the song to a peace song.