The release of ‘Ojapiano’ saw it go viral the minute it hit the airwaves. With ‘Ojapiano’, Kcee has proven that music is ever evolving, with the fusion of Amapiano and Igbo traditional flute, creating a sound so captivating, it has the whole nation on its feet. The remarkable success of the single has resulted in an eventful few weeks for Kcee on the charts.

So far, ‘Ojapiano’ has tallied 3.51 million in streams and 72.2 million in radio reach, making it Kcee’s first single to hit No. 1 on the Official Nigeria Top 100. It is also the second song on the traditional chart to get to that number.

“…Then he released ‘Cultural Praise’ which was a mixture of gospel, organic and Igbo cultural music and laid down the foundation for ‘Ojapiano’ because after it, we kept looking for a way to project African instruments across the  country.  What made it click into place was the advent of Amapiano in the music industry. It inspired Kcee because he has always wanted his music to be something people could dance to. So we tried and experimented for over 3 months until we created ‘Ojapiano’…”

Stephen Chibuzor, his manager reflects. 

‘Ojapiano’ has proved once again that Kcee is one to look to, when it comes to reinventing music in Nigeria.

This week on Executive of the Week, we caught up with Stephen Chibuzor, Kcee’s manager, to discuss the creative process that birthed ‘Ojapiano’, how he intends to promote the sound, and what to expect from the artiste going further. 

TTC: Can you please tell us about yourself?

STEPHEN: Hi, my name is Stephen Chibuzor Princewill but I also go by ‘King Stephen the fourth’. I’m a music executive, a PR consultant, and a music marketer. I’ve been working in the music industry for about 8 years and in that time, I have worked in several roles which includes being the head of PR for Boomplay, then as a manager to artistes and producers. Right now, I work as the manager for Kcee and Major Bangz. 

TTC: What is your role specifically in Kcee’s team and in the release of “Ojapiano”?  

STEPHEN: Basically, I manage Kcee and I also happen to be in charge of the A&R team that curated the sound for “Ojapiano.” 

TTC: Kcee as an artist has been a force in the music industry for years. So, how important was it for him to remind his fans that he still made great music?  

STEPHEN: Kcee is one of those artistes that never give up. He is always ready to reinvent himself. He believes that music is fluid and is always trying to make new ways for people to enjoy and listen to music. This has always been his trademark and that’s why you see he always transcends what people call the norm, for example, when he made ‘Limpopo’ it was a hit in different markets throughout  Nigeria and South Africa. He was also one of the first artistes to shoot his music video outside Nigeria and the first to infuse the products he was endorsing into his music, like he did with Tecno Phones. 

So it’s really important for him to let people see how much work he puts into his music. We are just as happy as he is to see that his hard work is paying off. 

TTC: How were you able to fuse two distinct sounds together to make the song “Ojapiano”?  

STEPHEN: Kcee insisted on using traditional instruments as the base for whatever sound we made. Amapiano was the rage then, so after a lot of sampling and experimenting, we came up with the sound base for ‘Ojapiano’. But it wasn’t enough so we kept on working on it. We sampled it at parties and clubs and even got feedback from DJs. 

For the name, since we used Oja, a local flute instrument in lieu of the whistle used in Amapiano, it felt fitting to name the song “Ojapiano.”  

TTC: The song is no doubt a hit, but should the fans be expecting more songs with the same sound?  

STEPHEN: “Ojapiano” is a unique sound and since its release, we have seen people trying to do the same thing and it’s something we are happy about because we have finally released a sound out of the norms. With Kcee pioneering this new sub-genre of Amapiano, it is clear that we have created a new path for music artistes to play and while that is great, we are already looking forward to the next thing. We already have a couple of songs that makes part of our upcoming EP and we can’t wait until when we release it to the public

TTC: Should we be expecting more projects from Kcee in 2023? 

STEPHEN: Definitely, like I stated earlier, we are already working on a new EP and we already have a couple of songs down. And a couple of other songs on the EP would be featuring Skibii.