Humblesmith first studio session- Check it out

Fast rising Afro-pop artiste, Ekene Ijemba,
popularly known as ‘Humblesmith’ recently
released a new single featuring 2nite
entertainment act, Flavour. In this chat with
Showtime Celebrity, the Osinachi crooner makes
shocking revelations about his family
background, childhood, music career, and the
music industry.

Journey so far
I was born and brought up in Ebonyi State. Music
started for me when I was a kid, it actually runs
in the family. My mother is a good singer; she is
a chorister in the church, most times she sang at
home, likewise other members of my family.

Everything my mom does goes with music, at
times, if she wants to talk to you she talks with
music. All these and more got me inspired.
Also, I usually listened to Bright Chimezie and
his contemporaries, so at a point music just
became a part of me. I started out as a dancer in
1996; I was part of a group called American
Boys, we used to dance, sing and act. After my
secondary education, I decided to relocate to
Delta State to pursue my music career, my
parents refused but I insisted. Though before
then, I had done some other things that made
them finally support my decision. I partook in
the first-ever Star Quest competition, I came
second and I won a big flat screen TV. When I got
back home with the TV and the crowd that
accompanied me, my parents were overjoyed. It
was at that point they knew that I was really bent
on doing music. So when I insisted I was
relocating to Asaba in Delta state, they just had
to support me.

Parental and family support
Parents usually love their kids to pursue a career
that people will appreciate. As at that time my
parents believed that doing music as a career
was for wayward people, but I didn’t let that
discourage me. I am from a Catholic background,
so they didn’t want anything to distract me from
going to church and probably become a priest.

My mom wanted me to become a Catholic priest
while my dad wanted me to be a footballer
because he is a football coach. I had to apply
wisdom and diplomacy; I did everything they
wanted me to do. I played ball, I served in
church. I didn’t do it to please them; I did it just
to be sure of what was actually going to work for
me. I later discovered that I was born to do
music. I used to bring people home to convince
my parents to understand that music is what I
wanted to do. As time went on, my parents came
to terms with it, so they had no choice but to
support my choice of career.

Survival after relocating to Delta
After my relocation to Delta State, things were
so rough for me. When I was still with my
parents, I was known as a moi-moi seller. I and
my siblings hawked moi-moi on the streets, that
was how my parents were able to train eight
children through primary and secondary school.

When I first got to Asaba I had to study the
environment to understand the terrain and know
what works and what doesn’t. I just had to think
of a legit way to fend for myself because I had
nobody to help me out there. I hustled on the
streets of Asaba, I made trending shoes, sandals,
slippers, and belts and sold them to students and
workers just to make some money to pursue my
music career and equally fend for myself. I
remembered that when I was in secondary
school, I was the drama director, so I formed a
drama group, wrote scripts that portrayed
current happenings in the society. I would then
go to discuss with the principal of various
secondary schools to allow us stage our play for
students to watch after paying a small amount of
money. I also used to do menial jobs like
bricklaying, carrying sand and blocks.

Wherever I see construction work going on, I will
go there and beg to work with them for daily
pay. Also, if I see a bushy compound I will
approach the owner and offer to clear the
grasses for an amount of money. I hustled
seriously on the streets to survive; it got to a
point that I opened a video rental shop in Asaba.
I stole and sold my mom’s gold to pay for my
first studio session, but I later confessed and
apologized to her, promising to buy her more
than what I stole in the nearest future.

Education or music?
For now I’m fully into music. I stopped schooling
after my secondary school education, but I hope
to continue, but that will be after I’ve made a lot
of money, financially comfortable and capable of
catering for my family. I don’t want to stress my
parents anymore, they have done a lot already
so let me take it up from where they stopped.

New single with Flavour Na’bania
I have always been a fan of Flavour right from
day one. My manager met Flavor in London,
played my song to his hearing and he liked it.
Though Flavor has always loved my song from
when I did my first single Chairmoo. Jukwese is a
song I’ve done for some time now, even before
Osinachi. I was unable to hook up with Flavour on
time to jump on it so we dropped Osinachi, but
thank God I was later able to get Flavour to jump
on the single with me. I didn’t pay him a dime to
feature on the song, he did it out of the love he
has for my music.

How the stage name ‘Humblesmith’
originated
I used to have a friend that I usually hang out
with; he was popularly known as ‘Humble’.
Whenever I’m with him I’m quiet, I don’t talk, so
his friends usually think I’m a very quiet and
humble person. So they began to call me
‘Humble’ and the name just stuck. So when I
began doing music professionally, I decided to
add ‘Smart’ to the name ‘Humble’ so derive a
‘Humblesmart’ as my stage name. But something
funny happened when I went to perform at a
show, the person who wrote my name on the list
of artistes to perform wrote ‘Humblesmith”
instead of ‘Humblesmart’. When it was my turn
to perform and I heard the MC mention
‘Humblesmith’, I began to wonder if there was
another artiste bearing the name, but I was the
one being called upon so I just climbed the stage
and did my thing. After the show, I thought the
name wasn’t bad so I adopted it as my new stage
name.

Fans abuse on social media
No matter what you do people will always talk,
but I want you to know that the number one
thing I love are my fans. Whether I’m following
you on social media or not has nothing to do with
respect or love, and it doesn’t change me from
being the Humblesmith that I am. In life it’s a
normal thing to try some things when you get to
a certain stage. I un-followed everybody on
Instagram including my sisters, because my
management needed to work on my page. I don’t
own myself, I have a label to which I am signed
and I always need to obey them. Most fans got
angry and abused me because I un-followed
them on Instagram, but trust me, I don’t hate
anybody.

Hardwork has brought me to where I am today
so why would I want to spoil what I’ve built? To
all my fans that are angry, I say I am sorry. To
handle stardom is not easy, there are a lot of
people that just want you to obey them and it’s
not possible to please everybody. I just want to
appeal to my fans who have believed in me not
to stop because Humblesmith won’t disappoint. I
need your support because there is so much in
me that I am yet to discover so we are doing this
music for ourselves. If you love me for Osinachi
or Jukwuse, keep loving me because a lot is yet
to come.