Iledare Oluwajuwonlo, better known by his stage name Jaywon, is a Nigerian singer, songwriter, performer, producer and actor. He launched his record label named Next World Music in 2013 after his exit from Kennis Music. Jaywon was honoured with the Best New Artist award at the Nigerian Music Video Awards in 2009. In his interview with IBRANDTV, he talked about what it takes to manage a label, he spoke about his love life. The singer further disclosed that marriage is over rated as he feels it’s not something to be rushed into, he disclosed that artistes needs to be careful when signing a deal. Excerpts:
The year is gradually coming to an end, do you still have any plans as regards music before the year runs out?
Audio songs no, but I have a couple of videos I have been working on so I’m still looking to drop like two videos before the end of the year. This year is just going to be about videos from the Aje mixtape.
After you left Kennis music, you set up your record label. How has it been managing a label?
Managing a label takes a lot so I won’t say it has been easy, it’s been crazy but when you believe in what you do and you don’t allow any negative opinion of the people distrupt tour plans, you’ll definitely grow so we’ve been working and then we thank God. We just released Aje the mixtape from same platform Nextword music and it’s doing amazingly well and we just thank God and everyone who’s been supporting us from day one.
Most signed artistes believe record label rips them
off some privileges when signed under them, we hear about disputes everyday. Now that you own a record label, what can you say as regards this issue?
Yes, I feel like it’s the ignorant ones that sounds like that because if you actually know what you are getting into before getting into it, you won’t have any problems, you won’t have any cause to raise alarm or complain. You just need to be very careful when signing a deal, there’s no way a label would sign an artiste and won’t want to make money and when you are making money from other people, some people always see it as rip off, they don’t see it as the work, all the efforts involved in making an artiste popular or in bringing an artiste into the industry, so it’s a lot of work and you just need to be careful with the contract you are signing even before getting into it. Yes, we know that some labels can be funny but not all are like that. Some labels are actually putting in the work and its only the artiste that don’t understand the business and do not check the content of the contract before signing that complains.
How many artiste(s) have you signed so far and how far have they gone musically?
It takes a lot, the first artiste I signed was Chucks The Foreman, he woke up one day and said he’s done, he wanted to leave and I allowed him to go because I was not ready for any drama. I spent over 10 million of my money but we had to let him go bacause that was what he wanted but since he left, we haven’t heard much from him, it’s all good we wish him luck. The other artiste is Safim and my platform is not like every other one. I see my label as a way of supporting other artiste from one point to another. As far as I am concerned, Safim is under my label and we don’t even have a contract, we are just using the platform to push him. If he blows up today and decide he wants to leave, fine and good as we are not about to tie anybody down to the label.
There has been no news concerning marriage from your end, when will that happen?
Everybody talks about marriage but don’t think about other things involved. Marriage is like you deciding you want to spend the rest of your life with someone, you need to be careful with whom you want to choose. You can’t just jump into marriage because everyone is jumping into it, but I have seen people get married and in less than three months, their marriage is off. I have seen people who grow together as best friends ending up spending a lot of time together in marriage. So for me, I think marriage is overrated, I don’t have anything against it but you need to be careful and make sure whoever you decide to marry is someone that you’ve taken your time to study. I think one year courtship is not enough, that’s my opinion.
The music industry is now very competitive with new artistes coming on board each passing day, how do you intend to remain relevant in this competitive game?
The music industry has always been competitive, it has a lot to do with the artiste, if you decide you want to quit, then quit, but if you decide you want to stay in the industry and want to do your music for you to be relevant, you need to do something different from every other person. You can’t be in the Industry and be doing the same music the younger artistes are doing. You need to be creative, you must do something different, unique with your sounds, you must explore other sounds and whenever you are bringing out the records, your music is different and everyone will accept you for who you are, and that’s me. I have been able to stay relevant because I know what I’m doing and I understand the people who are my fans, what they always expect me to do and expect from me.
What was the inspiration behind the song “Aje”?
Actually, the original song Aje was for people who gives up easily. People who think they have gotten to the end of the road and want to commit suicide, people who have given up on their lives, on their families, their jobs, the hopeless ones who feels they have gotten to the end of the road and just want to give up, that’s the whole idea of the first version of Aje. The remix talks more about the struggle, what people go through to achieve their aims and be successful. I have different parts of the songs and different message from every part of it, so you just need to listen to it to understand.
What has been your biggest challenge in life?
Of course everybody has a challenge but one of my biggest challenges in life is making people understand that I am not into music just because of the money, I am in the industry because I love it and I feel I have gotten to that part where I don’t need to explain myself to anyone. I just give my fans the music that they want.
Have you ever fallen in love? If yes, was it love at first sight?
Of course I have fallen in love many times, I won’t say it was love at first sight, I met a pretty lady and we became friends for months before we finally hanged out and from there, we became best of friends and we dates for a while.