Cutting Edge
There had been much hype prior to October 1st about the unveiling of Edge, the quintessential afro-soul singer signed on to the Black Palms Records a few months before. The day was significant, not only in the history of Nigeria whose Independence Day it was, but to the CEO of the record label, lawyer and […]
There had been much hype prior to October 1st about the unveiling of Edge, the quintessential afro-soul singer signed on to the Black Palms Records a few months before.
The day was significant, not only in the history of Nigeria whose Independence Day it was, but to the CEO of the record label, lawyer and entrepreneur Redzie Jugo as it coincided with his birthday. The idea was to unveil the first artiste on the label and also to launch his first single under the label, a break out track titled “Bad boy” and the groovy Club Magnum provided the setting for this colourful event.
The invite-only event had some 30 of the most prolific music maestros, entertainment pundits, journalists, bloggers, on air personalities and celebrity radio DJs in attendance and kicked of at about 3 pm, with guests ushered unto a black carpet and its attendant glitz with the paparazzi clicking away.
There were excitement and great expectations as the guests were ushered into the hall and the compeer for the evening, Vicoco, the music and entertainment pundit-cum-media Consultant, a former Radio DJ with 16 years under his belt took the microphone and cracked up the guests with some jokes and anecdotes from his deejaying days.
The preliminaries done with, he went into the business of the day, mentioning that he had listened to over a million songs during his days as a radio DJ and he was very critical of music generally. He told the gathering that he was taken to euphoria the first time he heard the Edge single in his car stereo.
What he heard, he said, convinced him that the afro-soul singer would go great places in his life and music. He also congratulated his friend and CEO of Black Palms Records for a job well-done in harnessing the resources and man power to ensure that the Label and the artiste soared high even from a modest beginning.
He then called on Redzie Jugo, CEO Black Palms Records to make his official statement. Dressed in a two button electric blue suit with black suede lapels, Redzie welcomed everyone, and thanked everyone for coming to the event. He then gave a brief history of the label and stated that though he is a lawyer by profession, he had always been a writer with a musical background (being a published poet and playwright and music promoter). He said this fact made all the difference, where making business decision such as this was concerned.
He asked for partnership between the label and all lovers of good music, for the progress and the growth of good music in Nigeria and Africa.
Vicoco, then came back to the microphone and took his time dishing out another round of jokes before ushering in the next session.
In his dramatic manner, Vicoco asked that love should be shown as Edge was ushered onto the stage. This was greeted with enthusiastic applause, a well orchestrated standing ovation with several people lunging to hold and hug him as he came up to the stage.
After the ovation had died down Vicoco asked him a few questions like the true media person that he is to the delight of the audience. The roof raiser answer that drew applause from the audience was to the question, what he would probably be doing if he was not doing music. Edges’ answer was that ‘there is nothing I can or would rather do, as music is the oxygen that I breathe, if I stop doing music I will die”.
Indeed whether he was speaking metaphorically or in the real sense of the word it was a bit hard to determine, however the next segment of the unveiling did not leave anyone in doubt as to why Edge should do little less more than music.
Edge thanked everyone for coming and thanked Black Palms Records for the opportunity to breathe the air of creativity again and promised to do his best under the Label for the good of all involved.
At that point and on cue, Edge with his friend and backup singer, (Joe Gigins) took their box guitars, sat down on tall stools by the bar, and drew the microphone stands closer to themselves and the unplugged magic began.
At the first plucking of the strings, the crowd fell into silence apart from the low whirl of the air conditioning. He started the session by singing “Seven” an expressive love song about the length he would go to get the woman of his dreams to be with him. He followed this rendition with that of “African Woman”, dedicating it to his single mother and all women who were in attendance that day. Barely after the loud hooting and applause had died down, he again plucked his guitar strings to “Good Loving”, his version of the Bob Marley classic, “I wanna Give You Love.”
When he was done, he took a few seconds breather and then introduced the audience to the single “Bad Boy” and stated that it was about his decision to choose music or a relationship and what the outcome was. Before the song was half way, the audiences were clapping and tapping their feet and singing the very catchy hook, “dey go, dey go dey go” filled the air. When he was done, there was an immediate clamour for encore, several people almost losing their cool in their demand. This wish was met by the ever cool and smiling Edge, only pleased to be giving pleasure through his music. When the session was done the anchor for the evening came up and ushered in the autograph session, those who were in attendance were given promotion copies containing three songs each.
Life returned to the black carpet once again and interviews were held, thus bringing the evening to a close.