HERO
Wait for the true story of my romance tale with Peter Okoye of P-square- Munachi Abii
(Sep 02 2014 at 12:16am)For most ex-beauty queens, the challenge of sustaining the
tempo after their reign has always been difficult. But the
story is different for Munachi Abii, former Most beautiful girl
in Nigeria.
*Muna
A combination of beauty, brains, and talent has kept her in
the limelight. In this interview, she reveals how Banky W’s
Lagos Party remix helped her gain recognition as a rapper
and other interesting things. Excerpts:
By Kehinde Ajose and Anu Tella
What prompted your decision to do music
professionally?
I have always wanted to do music professionally. My mum
used to sing but she didn’t go too far with it. I come from an
artistic family. I didn’t want to be that person who didn’t go
anywhere with the music. My brothers and sisters are all
into some form of arts. I just found myself there.
If you didn’t win the MBGN, would you have been an
artiste?
Yes, I would have still been doing music. My ride to music
could have taken a different approach. MBGN took me from
level one to level five.
Most people start from level one and begin to climb. In the
Industry, there are a lot of ups and downs.
I had to collaborate with a lot of people so that people
would get to know me. When things become slow some
people can handle it while many others can’t. I couldn’t
handle it because first, there are too many fake people in
this show business that don’t know what they are doing.
Secondly, there are individuals who talk a lot and don’t have
any action to back it up . Thirdly, we don’t have the right
environment and stability, so artistes usually don’t have
something to fall back on.
This thing called music is like a gamble. So, after the
experiences I had, I really had to step back in order to stage
a comeback. It will always be music for me .I am still
climbing .That is how it has been so far.
A lot of people didn’t take you serious when you opted
for music . How were you able to grow the thick skin to
be able to withstand the pressure?
I had a thick skin when I came in. This is the honest truth. If
you are not surrounded by good people insecurity starts to
creep in. That is how everybody here is. They are always
looking at other people instead of focusing on what they are
out there to accomplish .The people around me were not
helping me. I am not blaming them too as well as myself.
When you say people around you, what do you mean?
What I meant was that everybody thought their own craft
was more important than the other person’s craft. Singers
would tell you, “Why are you rapping? You should be
singing” while rappers will tell you :”Why are you trying to
sing? You should stay true to yourself. Be loyal to the rap
game.”
It’s a constant struggle if one doesn’t have people that are
confident and who believe in you even when you don’t
believe in yourself. It’s going to be very hard for you. It’s
similar to what happened to me.
The fact that people didn’t take me serious when I started
they didn’t know what I would be up to .I didn’t care about it
because I knew what to do. The story changed with Lagos
Party remix .People didn’t really know who I was , but they
liked me .They would say, “ That’s Muna? Are you serious?”
So people started paying attention from there.
How did you get on Lagos Party?
Banky W saw me rap somewhere and he said, “what are you
doing?” That was my wake up call .He said:”You should be
doing this, there is so much you can do” So that inspired me.
Banky called me up and told me he wanted me on his
album .I was actually just meant to do the skit. Lagos Party
was played and I was asked to do rap on it. The rest is
history.
How did it help you gain acceptance?
It helped a lot because it was like my show -off period
because people now saw that this girl could rap. She is not
just a pretty face. It’s one thing to do that, and it’s another
thing to follow up with other stuffs. It’s not been easy but I
expect to grow from there.
How where you able to go beyond the ‘Pretty face’
stereotype?
At first I felt like discountenancing the pretty face toga. I
thought I needed to just show off the talent and ignore the
pretty face. At that time I didn’t want to be associated only
with the fact that I have a pretty face. If you asked me then, I
would tell you just call me Muna and don’t attach the MBGN
prefix.
I just wanted people to know me and my music . I later
realized that when I did, it put me on the defensive . This is
something I had to learn along the way. I realized that in
order to break free from anything, you have to accept the
truth. The truth for me is that I am a beautiful lady. I had to
accept the fact that I am beautiful, and use it to my
advantage. So what if I am beautiful? So what if I can rap?
I am a beautiful rapper, I am a beautiful musician. People
want to see that. The first thing they want to see about me
unfortunately is my look. They see the look and they look
into the content.
Would you say your beauty has been a blessing to your
career?
Yes, I will say so.
How has it been a blessing?
I won a pageant and that opened doors
How did you get to the point when you started believing
in your craft?
I nearly reached that point, then I stopped .You lose
confidence in yourself; There are times it happens to great
people. I am a woman, I happen to be my mum’s heaven
and earth so I take care of her.
There is so much politics in the industry. It’s not as easy as
one thought it would be, secondly there are a lot of people
in there that don’t make it easier for you and there are a lot
of people that won’t believe in your music so you have to be
strong .I wanted to know what exactly I wanted to talk about
in my music .I have talked about owning Benz and Porsche
that I don’t have which everybody talks about.
That’s good for the club, but the question is can everybody
relate to that? If I tell you about my struggles, somebody will
relate to that. I am sure there is a young budding female
rapper somewhere writing her rap and hoping that someday
she will get noticed by someone .There will be a time when
she will not believe in herself .There will be a time when she
will say :”You know what? Forget everything. “
When you say there is politics in the industry what do
you mean?
You see, there is politics everywhere .When I say politics I
mean biases. Take for instance sports, everybody focuses on
football, these days. It’s difficult for you to find a child that
would say I want to represent Nigeria in gymnastics at the
Olympics. Soccer is it for them.
But on the flip-side there is so much more that can be
leveraged on. You can show that there is a market for these
sports by focusing on them , but when the focus isn’t there
people will think there is no market for it .
It’s a challenge when you are a high jumper but there are no
platforms to show your
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