In order to educate, inform, advise and inspire budding entrepreneurs with knowledge and expertise that will enable them build sustainable and successful businesses, Fidelity Bank Plc is sponsoring ‘The Fidelity SME Forum’, a weekly radio programme.
This month, Fidelity Bank is hosting an entertainment series tailored to highlight the business side of entertainment and the opportunities that exist. Starting the series is Don Jazzy, CEO of the Supreme Mavin Dynasty. In this episode, Jazzy insight into ‘Understanding the Business Side of the Nigerian Entertainment Industry’. The episode also features Nnamdi Okonkwo, MD & CEO of Fidelity Bank Plc., as the moderator.
When we started this programme, the whole idea was to bring entrepreneurs to the programme and let them share their life experiences in business in a manner that inspires people and motivates them to achieve the kind of success that they have achieved. I am sure your story has been told multiple times over. However, in terms of business, tell us how it all began as well as your journey in the entertainment business so far.
No matter how many times I get asked this question, I never get tired of answering it, because there is always someone new in the audience who would like to know exactly how we got to where we are now. Before I proceed, I would like to thank and appreciate Fidelity Bank for creating this platform for us to talk to the people. It is really an honour. My name is Michael Collins Ajere Enebeli and I am from Delta State. I was born in my mother’ home town, Umuahia in Abia State. We moved to Lagos at some point and I grew up in Awodiora Estate in Ajegunle, Lagos. This was where all my other siblings also grew up.
My childhood was pretty much about a young boy helping his parents to raise money as well as raise the children. Going to church on weekends to help make music was an opportunity for me to learn how to play the instruments. I did that up until I turned 18 years old and an uncle of mine decided to take me to the UK. He wanted me to go there and teach some of the musicians they had in the church. The church is Cherubim and Seraphim, one which people frown at because we wear white garments.
It is the church I was born in and I have never seen them doing any rituals or anything of the sort. In the UK, there were not many people who were confident enough in wearing the white garment to church. I guess that was the reason why my uncle thought I would be the one to come over and teach the church members over there. After I got there, I got the church running smoothly.
Along the line, I dabbled into playing music with some good fellows I met. I started with a group called Solek Crew, but at some point, we went our separate ways before I moved into another group called JJC & 419 Squad. I worked there for a while and learned the ropes of music production from the guys at JJC & 419 squad. While I was with them, I had become quite good at what I do now before I met D’Banj.
We both decided to work on his album and, by the time were done with it, we thought about where we would sell it. Eventually, we decided to go back to Nigeria, where the people understood what we were doing. D’Banj’s album got released immediately after we got back to Nigeria and the rest is history.
Thinking about your journey, right from the time of “Tongolo”, it appears that someone was definitely behind the scenes handling things in terms of production and business. Using this as an anchor, what would you say were your strategic or deliberate plans concerning how to make money out of music?
When we started at first, it wasn’t really seen as a business to us. We were just guys that had the passion for the music. We knew that if we had good products to sell, we would get popular and then the money would start to come. We were not thinking about the labor or capital initially. Later on, we started looking at it as a viable business before we decided to start structuring things. I actually think we started late in putting together a structure for the business. I got it right a little bit with Mo’Hits Records, but I perfected it with Mavin Records. However, I would say that with the mistakes we made from Mo’Hits Records where we were just learning on the go, we got better at doing things in Mavin where we just put what we had learned to play.
I have had different reasons for signing almost every artiste under the Mavin label. There is no one that has been the same. If I am looking for an artiste, it’s either I put out a word or they contact me. There are others that get to me through someone else that knows me closely. In business nowadays, people always forget to work with the heart. It is not every time that you go for skills. Asides the fact that my people have skills, I also look at the heart before I then look at the long term. It is better for me if we can work longer together instead of us to work for only a short period because you feel you have too much skills. If I see loyalty in the person, I know that he or she is someone I can bring up.
The biggest problem of most businesses in Nigeria today is succession. Of all the big industrialists we have had in this country, only about 10 of them would you see their children running those family businesses successfully today. For your business, do you envision a situation in the future where your grandson is still running Supreme Mavin? What are you doing to perpetuate this business to ensure that once you are gone, your legacy still lives on?
I started planning this since three years ago. I have looked at the music industry and I understand it to the point where I realize that you cannot be perfect forever. I look at people like Mohammed Ali. They say he is the greatest. However, can you imagine what Mohammed Ali would have been if he was the one that found and managed Mike Tyson? I have a bunch of people under me that are going to take over after my time.
