Timaya, a Top Nigerian artist, has opened up about his grass-to-grace story and how he struggled with his debut album.
In a recent interview on the Afrobeats Intelligence podcast, the singer recounted how he tirelessly shuttled between Lagos and Port Harcourt, searching for a marketer for his debut album ‘True Story’ (2007).
Timaya revealed that his big break came unexpectedly through a roadside CD vendor in Port Harcourt who connected him to an Alaba-based marketer.
The 44-year-old disclosed that upon arriving at the marketer’s shop, he played his demo, which included the hit ‘Ogologoma’.
The Port Harcourt-born music star said the song immediately caught attention, with customers asking to buy it on the spot, even though it wasn’t yet released.
Timaya said the marketer, impressed by the demand, offered him N500,000 for the album, an amount which was a far cry from the N3.5 million he had hoped for.
The ‘Dem Mama’s hitmaker, however, admitted that the money was a massive leap from the N45,000 outright sale offers he had received earlier.
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“He said ‘go and look for my brother now, he is in Alaba’. I called the guy, the guy said ‘who is this?’ and I said ‘it’s Timaya, your brother said I should call you’. He was like I should I bring the demo to his shop the following morning,” he said.
“So I went there with all the songs I have been doing in the studio, and immediately I gave him the CD, he slotted it in and we sat down. He was not a big marketer at that time, but he was the one who marketed them, Sky B and some other guys.
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“He was concentrating more on the East. So when I gave him the demo, he played it while cleaning his shop. When he played ‘Ogologoma’, people were coming in to ask him that they wanted the song. He told them that it was not yet out.
“Different people came. He carried me to go eat and while eating, he asked me how much I was going to sell the album. I told him N3.5 million and he looked and smiled, saying no one is going to give me that amount. I asked why and he told me the last money he was going to give was N500 thousand.
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“He also told me that if I did not come back to him by Monday, I should not call his phone again and this was Friday. Mind you, the first day I went to look for a marketer, they priced me N45,000 outright sale. As I was going back that day, I heard other upcoming artistes talking about how they were priced N25,000, N40,000.
“When I told them they priced me N500,000, they did not believe me. As I got down from the bus, I called him and told him I was ready. Then he told me to come to the market on Monday and take my money and that was it.”
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He added that the same marketer bought him a car, paid him N7 million and also covered the cost of the video shoots for the album.
Timaya revealed that he initially wanted to sell his second album to him but he was not satisfied with his asking price. He said he however, he got a better offer for N24 million.
“I blew from that album and started doing so many collaborations. The marketer wanted me to do a video for the album, and he bought it for N7 million. He paid for the videos, paid me the N7 million and bought me a car,” he said.
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“After the first album, I wanted to do the second album, he now called me and was pricing me N10 million. I was like I am above this now. So I went to see 2Face, Odogwu at Comfort Suite one night. I was done with the album, I was still bidding. Was still going to give him anyways but I wanted him to up the money.
“I just saw Abu Ventures, who them told Odogwu that he wanted to work with me. He initially wanted to give me N18 million but I argued that he should give me N25 million. We eventually agreed on N24 million. The next morning Abu Ventures wired N11 million to me.”
