‘Igwe’ Has Made Us Rich

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More than one year after the release of their hit song, Igwe, the popular gospel music group, Midnight Crew, made up of Mike Abdul, Gbenga Oyebola, Patricia Uwaje-King, and Odunayo Ojo, is still waxing strong. In this interview with NEHRU ODEH and OLAITAN OLU-OYINLOLA, they speak about their music career and the hit song

Q: How did the Midnight Crew start?

A: We started as a music group. We were all members of the mass choir in Yaba College of Technology. So that was what ignited our interest. And you know in every choir, you have the clique. We were like a clique and we were always upfront. So when we were about leaving school, we just knew that music was too good to stop now; and we had to just push it. So that’s how we started.

Q: Is the hit album Igwe, your first?

A: The first album was titled Fusion. Igwe is our second album, and it was released January last year. The album is titled after the hit track. It contains nine tracks.

Q: How did you come about your name, Midnight Crew?

A: We are a gospel group, a fact which everybody knows. When we were about to start, there was this Bible passage that struck us. And that was Judges Chapter 6. That passage says that God called Gideon and gave him an assignment. Now Gideon needed men to work with him. So he gathered ten men to join him, making 11. Initially we started with 11 people. The Bible has it that those 11 men went in the midnight to carry out that assignment. So we likened ourselves to those people because we were always available for everything, unlike the other members of the choir. So we now saw ourselves as Gideon with the ten guys who went in the midnight. And that makes us the midnight crew.

Q: What do you think made your hit song so popular?

A: We know it’s God. We had actually been doing the song on campus back in those days. Some years ago when we went for programmes in the school fellowship, we did the song. Though the song had been there, I think it was time for it to impact on people. So when we released the song, people were all saying: ‘So this song is still around. But why is it coming out in a different way?’ We actually went back to the studio to work on the song again and again and it came out well. I think God was just up to something with that song. He wanted to reach the people. You know God inhabits the praise of his people. When praises go up, blessings come down . So maybe when he heard that song, God was like: “Wow! these are my children giving me the praise that I have always looked forward to.” I think God took pleasure in that very song and decided to spread the song himself.

Q: What inspired the song?

A: It’s the understanding of who God is. God has blessed us. He has given us the opportunity to do the things that we are doing. We see him in the lives of people. When people say God did this or that, we always exclaim, ‘Wow! God can do this!’ So we’ve been seeing Him move in the lives of people. We know God reigns. We know he’s the King. And we know when a King is coming to town, what people do is that they go spread the message, telling everybody that the King is coming, even though he is not even in their neighbourhood yet. But the awareness that he is coming alone is enough. So with that knowledge and understanding, without hesitating, you will just start praising Him because you know he is around. Just like the way we jubilate and prepare our house when a King is coming. So that understanding that God is king and that He reigns brought out that passion. And it’s a privilege.

Q: Did you compose that song from experience?

A: I wouldn’t say there’s any form of experience that prompted that song. Even if you’re going through many trials or challenges, and people keep telling you that despite all odds God is still king, you would rather just praise Him. So what happened was that we gave God our all. We didn’t reserve anything. We praised Him like never before. We gave Him our hearts. And perhaps it was this thing that God saw that made Him bless us. Maybe that was what happened.We gave God our all, He took the glory and gave us His blessings.

Q: What is the title track Igwe about?

A: The song is about God’s majesty. And when we talk about God’s majesty, we talk about how great He is, how beautiful He is, how awesome He is. And at the end of the day if you ask the people they will tell you that we’re talking about the King of kings, the Lord of lords. The word Igwe is an Igbo way of calling the king. It’s just an Igbo expression. So we just decided to use that very word to acknowledge God as king. So that’s how we came about that. The song is just about His Majesty, using Yoruba and Igbo to describe His majesty. How great He is in our own way and understanding.

Q: Are you under any record label?

A: Midnight Crew is under a management team. And the management team is called Midnight Crew Music Limited. The management team actually assigned a marketer to produce and distribute that album. So we are not particularly under any label. We are independent.

Q: You must all be smiling to the bank now?

A: Yeah, we’ve been smiling to the bank. Still, we don’t think we’re smiling enough. It’s just that pirates are dealing with us. Before our video came out, pirates had packaged a video for us already. And they had been selling it, making huge money from it. Not just the single. They also added a stage performance we did in the U.K to it. That notwithstanding, we are smiling. But it can be better.

Q: For how long have you been together as a group?

A: We left school in 2001, and that was the year Midnight Crew was formed. We’ve been on these past eight years. And it’s been like a trial and error kind of thing. The funny thing is that we are just very close to what we really love doing. It’s been interesting. It is like digging a well. You’ve dug miles, yet no water. In such a situation, it’s most likely you will give up. However, right now, maybe we’ve been able to dig the well to a point where water comes out. Still we want to dig more so that we can have enough. So we’re still digging. We’ve not stopped yet. We still want to dig more.

Q: How did you feel when you came together to form a band?

A: Just the same way anybody could have felt. But just because of the vision we kept on. And we know that our meeting in that school was ordained by God. Everyone of us had one thing or the other to do with music. If I was not in Midnight Crew, I would still be singing, Mike Abdul would have become a music marketer and Ayo Ojo would have been dealing in costumes. And I know Gbenga Oyebola would have been financing people that are into music. I’m sure we would have been doing the same thing, but maybe on another platform. But our coming together is unique, it’s a meeting of great minds; people coming together to achieve a single purpose. And the vision is, tearing down the altar of Baal and putting the praise of God on the lips of everyone. So with that in mind, we discovered that we had not yet put the praise of God in the mouth of everybody. Though we had the vision, we were looking for the song with which to do it. And we said, why don’t we put together that same song we’ve been doing for a while now? That will put God’s praise on the lips of people; and we did it, it worked out.

Q: How have you been able to survive as a group these past eight years?

A: I don’t want to sound too spiritual. But I think it’s God, the place of God in our hearts and the assignment He has given us. To be able to succeed in the assignment He had given us, we had to put up one or two policies that would help us achieve that. And that is the way we operate, like an organisation. If I am employed in an organisation as a creative director, what is expected of me? If he’s employed as a marketer, what is expected of him? And this applies to everybody. So that’s the way we operate: the place of God in our lives, the principles in place, and the vision in mind. I think these three major points have really kept us. So we’re just moving on.

Q: Are you working on another album yet?

A: We’ll do more albums. But aside that, we want to create a zero mass choir where we can have young people who want to express themselves. We would have them come in there and express themselves. We are willing to invest our money in it and make sure that we help them out so that they can express themselves, even if they don’t have the money to do their own albums. There’s also this project we’re into. It’s called Koma Hills Project. Two years ago, we were in Koma hills, where people still walk naked and are scared of visitors. We went there with various items they don’t have such as clothes, soap, salt etc. We just created that project to sensitise people, to tell people that those people still need help. Some people have taken up the initiative. They’ve built schools there. But they really need money to push a lot of things. These children get sick, they have malaria, so we just need some malaria vaccines.

Q: How do you think gospel music can hold its ground among other popular genres?

A: I think every messenger has a message. And most of the time, his environment determines how he passes the message across. If I live in Mushin and I want to reach the people in Mushin, it will not be fair to start singing R & B. It’s best for me to sing Fuji or Apala. That’s the language they understand. Even when Christ came he didn’t speak in tongues; rather, he spoke the language of the place he was born. They were not speaking English there. Every music cannot go the same way. So far, I’ve been able to classify gospel music into two – Church music and gospel music which is taking the good news to the nations. Church music may not do it. Church music is only relevant in church. And those of us who are Christians enjoy them, we use them to worship God because we have an understanding of God. Some people do not have an understanding of God yet, so you may not be able to use church music to reach out to them. In that case you have to rap. You may have to be like another Roof Top MC and sing Ori Mi Wu O. That’s what they would understand. It’s going to attract them and they will dance to it at first. But by the time they listen to the lyrics, it could just touch them. Nobody actually changes anybody; it is the spirit of God that moves whatever we do to change souls. We don’t change souls, we only create an atmosphere for God to do His thing.

Q: Since you became celebrities, have you in any way been embarrassed by your fans?

A: It has happened. Well, for me, I love my privacy so much but I still have a heart for the fans and people that love us. But sometimes people call you at 2am and say: “Hello, this is Dada. I am a fan.” And I would say, “Oh, I’m so happy but I am sleeping.” When they walk up to you at the end of a programme and you don’t give them your number, they will say, “They are proud.” Even if you give everybody your number, how do you want to survive it? For instance I am married. When you receive such calls, your wife would ask who called you. And if you reply that she is a fan, she would then ask, “What kind of fan is that, is it ceiling or wall?” But we love our fans. They just want to show their love.

Q: Aside singing, what else do you think you can do to help the youths become what they want to be?

A: We are creating different initiatives. We discover music just creates this kind of influence. Everybody likes music. And we discover that if people like your music, if you are talking they will listen. People want to be like you; they want to know how you got to where you are. They want to learn from you. So we’re trying to create such an atmosphere so that apart from singing we can actually organise seminars and really talk to young people about their talents. You don’t have to start big. You have to start small because big things start small. We really want to create such avenues through seminars.

Q: What vision drives you?

A: We have a vision and that is to tear down the walls of religion. And we are already on our way to achieving it. Whether you are in this or that church, everybody is singing Igwe. On a certain day, as we were doing a programme on Superscreen a guy called us and asked some questions. We answered. He called again and asked, “Where is superscreen?” And we said it was at Onipanu. No sooner had we finished the programme and stepped out than we saw him. And he said, “Guess what? I’m a Muslim. You guys just blessed me.” In fact, we were very happy to hear that at least our vision is getting fulfilled.

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