Arrested By Jesus

After two albums, hip-hop sensation, Emmanuel Okose, aka Soul E, gets a nudge from the Holy Spirit to become a pastor

By Nehru Odeh

Emmanuel Okose, better known as Soul E loves to spring surprises. At 21 in 2005, he signed a record deal with Colossal Entertainment and released a smash hit , Naija Is Blessed. Two years after in 2007 he dumped the label, for breaching the terms of the contract. He later made his wife, Queen Ure, his personal coach and  head of Dream and Become International Company, his management team.

This drew the ire of his former record label, which secured a court injunction, restraining Soul E from using his stage name. However, that injunction was vacated on 3 December and the artiste was once again free to use his name. “I started using the name, Soul E at 15, when alongside two friends, I started a musical group called the Soul Brothers. We had Soul E, Soul T and Soul D. The name Soul E was derived from the kind of music I make. The letter E was derived from my first name, Emmanuel,” Soul E told TheNEWS.

The dust raised by that court injunction had barely settled when Soul E pulled another stunt by releasing two new albums, Excellency1and Excellency 2 on one day last December. “I had a dream in which I saw people calling me ‘His Excellency Sir’. Then I woke up in the middle of the night and tapped my wife and said: ‘The name of my next album will be His Excellency,’ Soul E explained.

Recently, the artiste sprung another surprise when he turned pastor and converted the ground floor of his Lagos residence to a church. Church? Just that. “We have decided to share with others the principles of success that have worked for us. That is why we formed the church,”  he said excitedly. Not only do they share the gospel with their teeming congregation, they also share a sumptuous meal at the end of every Sunday service.

The church is not exactly an unfamiliar turf. Soul E was both chapel prefect and president of his fellowship at Amuwo-Odofin Secondary School. Even as a child, the artiste planned a crusade with his evangelist father and started them with soul-stirring songs. “My dad always told me I would definitely preach the gospel, whether or not I become a singer like Michael Jackson. I believe it his seed that is growing inside of me,” Soul E said.

For Queen though, her first ‘encounter’ with God was at the age of 10. Her pastoral skills were later developed at Federal Girls’ College, Owerri, where she was the chapel prefect. As a student of the University of Jos, Queen was part of the famous gospel artiste,  Panam Percy Paul’s band. “I was also actively involved in planting the musician’s ministry, Oasis of Love.

But she confessed that they did not know enough  about each other when they started talks about marriage. “Getting together, we now discovered that we are so alike. We love the same things, and we almost have the same kind of dreams,” she noted.

The founding of their church was spontaneous. “We were just here one evening, singing and sharing. Suddenly, it dawned on us that there was a church already. And we said: ‘why don’t we repeat that tomorrow. That is how it all began,” Queen recalled.

Asked why he made his wife his manager, Soul E said: “Because she is competent enough and also because she is my wife. The woman is a helper as well as the bone of my bone. Why shouldn’t she head the management team? Look at the lives of men who delegated authority to their wives, they have never failed. And I am one of such men,” Soul E  said proudly.

The Delta-State born artiste is not far from the truth. Two months after the injunction was vacated, Soul E now boasts of not only the albums, but the Soul E Foundation and the Soul E Fan Club. “As his coach, my duty is to take Soul E from where he is to where he wants to be,” she averred.

The Soul E Foundation was inspired by the couple’s interest in the education of orphans,  in line with one of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals. “We are going to partner with orphanages and schools all around Africa. The orphanages have done so much. But what we noticed is that people always give them food and clothing. They don’t lack food and clothing. Still, there is this yawning gap: education. So we want to bridge that gap by providing them education,” Queen explained.

The couple hopes to achieve this lofty dream by canvassing for tuition-fee space for orphans in schools. “We are expecting that, by September, we would’ve put some orphans in schools,” she said in hope.

Aside providing financial support to the Soul E Foundation, the Soul E Fan club also provides financial and other numerous benefits to members.

Born and raised in Lagos, Soul E is the first of six children. He studied Banking and Finance at the Lagos State Polytechnic. He has won numerous, including Hip-Hop Revolution Award (2007), AMEN Awards for Best New Act (2007), Gbedu Award for Best Male Vocalist (2006) and  Gbedu Award for Best Musical Video (2006)