Fast rising Afro-pop artiste, Ekene Ijemba,
popularly known as ‘Humblesmith’ recently
released a new single featuring 2nite
entertainment act, Flavour. In this chat with
Showtime Celebrity, the Osinachi crooner
makes shocking revelations about his family
background, childhood, music career, and the
music industry.
Journey so far
I was born and brought up in Ebonyi State.
Music started for me when I was a kid, it
actually runs in the family. My mother is a
good singer; she is a chorister in the church,
most times she sang at home, likewise other
members of my family. Everything my mom
does goes with music, at times, if she wants to
talk to you she talks with music. All these and
more got me inspired.
Also, I usually listened to Bright Chimezie and
his contemporaries, so at a point music just
became a part of me. I started out as a dancer
in 1996; I was part of a group called American
Boys, we used to dance, sing and act. After my
secondary education, I decided to relocate to
Delta State to pursue my music career, my
parents refused but I insisted. Though before
then, I had done some other things that made
them finally support my decision. I partook in
the first-ever Star Quest competition, I came
second and I won a big flat screen TV. When I
got back home with the TV and the crowd that
accompanied me, my parents were overjoyed.
It was at that point they knew that I was really
bent on doing music. So when I insisted I was
relocating to Asaba in Delta state, they just
had to support me.
Parental and family support
Parents usually love their kids to pursue a
career that people will appreciate. As at that
time my parents believed that doing music as
a career was for wayward people, but I didn’t
let that discourage me. I am from a Catholic
background, so they didn’t want anything to
distract me from going to church and probably
become a priest. My mom wanted me to
become a Catholic priest while my dad wanted
me to be a footballer because he is a football
coach. I had to apply wisdom and diplomacy; I
did everything they wanted me to do. I played
ball, I served in church. I didn’t do it to please
them; I did it just to be sure of what was
actually going to work for me. I later
discovered that I was born to do music. I used
to bring people home to convince my parents
to understand that music is what I wanted to
do. As time went on, my parents came to
terms with it, so they had no choice but to
support my choice of career.
Survival after relocating to Delta
After my relocation to Delta State, things were
so rough for me. When I was still with my
parents, I was known as a moi-moi seller. I
and my siblings hawked moi-moi on the
streets, that was how my parents were able to
train eight children through primary and
secondary school. When I first got to Asaba I
had to study the environment to understand
the terrain and know what works and what
doesn’t. I just had to think of a legit way to
fend for myself because I had nobody to help
me out there. I hustled on the streets of
Asaba, I made trending shoes, sandals,
slippers, and belts and sold them to students
and workers just to make some money to
pursue my music career and equally fend for
myself. I remembered that when I was in
secondary school, I was the drama director, so
I formed a drama group, wrote scripts that
portrayed current happenings in the society. I
would then go to discuss with the principal of
various secondary schools to allow us stage
our play for students to watch after paying a
small amount of money. I also used to do
menial jobs like bricklaying, carrying sand and
blocks.
Wherever I see construction work going on, I
will go there and beg to work with them for
daily pay. Also, if I see a bushy compound I
will approach the owner and offer to clear the
grasses for an amount of money. I hustled
seriously on the streets to survive; it got to a
point that I opened a video rental shop in
Asaba. I stole and sold my mom’s gold to pay
for my first studio session, but I later
confessed and apologized to her, promising to
buy her more than what I stole in the nearest
future.
Education or music?
For now I’m fully into music. I stopped
schooling after my secondary school
education, but I hope to continue, but that will
be after I’ve made a lot of money, financially
comfortable and capable of catering for my
family. I don’t want to stress my parents
anymore, they have done a lot already so let
me take it up from where they stopped.
New single with Flavour Na’bania
I have always been a fan of Flavour right from
day one. My manager met Flavor in London,
played my song to his hearing and he liked it.
Though Flavor has always loved my song from
when I did my first single Chairmoo. Jukwese
is a song I’ve done for some time now, even
before Osinachi. I was unable to hook up with
Flavour on time to jump on it so we dropped
Osinachi, but thank God I was later able to get
Flavour to jump on the single with me. I didn’t
pay him a dime to feature on the song, he did
it out of the love he has for my music.
How the stage name ‘Humblesmith’
originated
I used to have a friend that I usually hang out
with; he was popularly known as ‘Humble’.
Whenever I’m with him I’m quiet, I don’t talk,
so his friends usually think I’m a very quiet
and humble person. So they began to call me
‘Humble’ and the name just stuck. So when I
began doing music professionally, I decided to
add ‘Smart’ to the name ‘Humble’ so derive a
‘Humblesmart’ as my stage name. But
something funny happened when I went to
perform at a show, the person who wrote my
name on the list of artistes to perform wrote
‘Humblesmith” instead of ‘Humblesmart’.
When it was my turn to perform and I heard
the MC mention ‘Humblesmith’, I began to
wonder if there was another artiste bearing
the name, but I was the one being called upon
so I just climbed the stage and did my thing.
After the show, I thought the name wasn’t bad
so I adopted it as my new stage name.
Fans abuse on social media
No matter what you do people will always talk,
but I want you to know that the number one
thing I love are my fans. Whether I’m following
you on social media or not has nothing to do
with respect or love, and it doesn’t change me
from being the Humblesmith that I am. In life
it’s a normal thing to try some things when
you get to a certain stage. I un-followed
everybody on Instagram including my sisters,
because my management needed to work on
my page. I don’t own myself, I have a label to
which I am signed and I always need to obey
them. Most fans got angry and abused me
because I un-followed them on Instagram, but
trust me, I don’t hate anybody.
Hardwork has brought me to where I am
today so why would I want to spoil what I’ve
built? To all my fans that are angry, I say I am
sorry. To handle stardom is not easy, there are
a lot of people that just want you to obey
them and it’s not possible to please
everybody. I just want to appeal to my fans
who have believed in me not to stop because
Humblesmith won’t disappoint. I need your
support because there is so much in me that I
am yet to discover so we are doing this music
for ourselves. If you love me for Osinachi or
Jukwuse, keep loving me because a lot is yet to
