Coming
from a background steeped in music, it didn’t come as any surprise that Babatunmida
Kuboye, the middle child of renowned jazz duo, Tunde and Fran Kuboye (Fran died
in 1997), has decided to launch a professional music career. Though Baba, as he
prefers to be called by fans and friends, has always been on the periphery of
the music industry by virtue of his regular sessions at his parents’ popular
Jazz 38 Club with The Extended Family Band, even releasing an album to lukewarm
reception years back; the gangling and gregarious London based RF Engineer is
now musically and mentally enamoured to give established Nigerian music stars a
run for their talent and artistry.
He is
coming to the scene with a banging new single titled, Baba De Baba, accompanied
with a multi-million naira video shot on location in Orlando, Florida, U.S.A. Despite
the fact that he only has one single at the moment, Baba is upbeat about his
chances of scaling through whatever challenges that he may encounter on his
path as a professional musician. He expects people to have same amount of fun
he had when he first listened to his latest single and says that his guiding
principle is to have fun in whatever he ventures into.
“I
have been exposed to some of the good and bad sides of the industry by virtue
of my background. I have also had some experience whilst doing my own music.
Whilst nothing can ever fully prepare one for the wonderful world of the music
industry, I like to think I have a good support system and experience to deal
with what comes my way.” Speaking further, he says, “My guiding principle in
doing music is that it should always be fun! I had fun making the track. From
the composition to the recording in the UK to the video shoot out in Florida, I
think that comes across in the song itself. My hope is that people will have
the same amount of fun I had whilst they watch and listen to it.”
No
doubt, his family’s Afrobeat and Jazz background remains a big influence in his
career however Baba is always receptive to other genres of music. Essentially,
he took a keen interest in hip-hop when he listened to late American gangster
rapper, 2Pac Shakur’s fourth studio album titled All Eyes On Me in the mid- 90’s. His dad bought a CD changer at the
time and 2Pac’s album was among the free CDs given out as part of the package.
“I
was feeling the lyrical content and the beats on 2Pac’s album and that got me
into rapping. I also listened to other rappers such as Nas and before I knew
it, I became more conscious and thoughtful with my lyrics. These days, my
musical taste is more eclectic; I like to hear the collections of sounds. I
will try anything once – but my favourite stuff is urban music.” Hence, he avers,
“I am not bringing anything new or different to the Nigerian music scene, I am
just adding to the selection people have out there to listen to. There are
other artistes like me who compose or produce their own music, rap, play an
instrument and run their own label. I am bringing an alternative. That
alternative is just the music that I compose which I think is distinct. My
music is urban, but you will still hear some Jazz or Afrobeat influences in my
compositions.”
This,
he says, is because, “I grew up listening to the popular music of my
generation, that’s what I am taking to. I like the commercial and trending
style of putting music on wax. My folks always insisted that music be seen as
an expression and nothing more, so I don’t do music out of an expectation or
for any other reason apart from deep interest, burning passion and great desire”
Baba stresses.
Not
surprisingly, as Baba started writing his own songs in his teens he took more
to rap; to the consternation of many who thought he would follow in the
footsteps of his father by doing Afrobeat or Jazz. The drawback, however, he
says, was that he felt his voice was too deep to be a lead singer and that’s
his reason for not taking to Afrobeat or Jazz.
He
says, “One would expect that given my background, I'd be doing Afrobeat or Jazz.
If you put it in terms of genres of music, it is a deviation. But if you put it
in terms of what my parents and uncle did – it’s actually not that different. I
think my parents took to Jazz because it was the popular and cool music in
their time. Fela formed Afrobeat and made it popular music then and even beyond
his time. I grew up listening to these kinds of music as well as what was on
radio and TV. Having been exposed to all these kinds of music as a kid, it allowed
me appreciate music, its composition and instrumentation”.
The
young rapper whose late mother, Fran (nee Ransome-Kuti) was a singer, pianist,
painter, saxophonist and dentist; and his dad a bass guitarist and entrepreneur
says he is not into music for competition but rather to contribute his quota as
a talented artiste.
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