I’m proud to be part of afrobeat’s history – Ruggedman

Born Michael Ugochukwu Stephens but known professionally as Ruggedman, the veteran Nigerian rapper from Ohafia, Abia State, speaks about his career and journey in activism, especially as regards police brutality in the country.

What has Ruggedman been up to recently?

I will say that I took time off music for a while to do some humanitarian work. I have been doing that for some time; helping people seek justice when it comes to abuse of power or police brutality. I also started a 30-minute radio show where I speak about police brutality. It is called ‘Wetin Dey With Ruggedman’. People call to tell me about their issues and I help them in any way I can. If they need the assistance of police, lawyers, or human rights organizations, I help them out. I connect them to the right people to give them the assistance they need.

I also have another radio show which creates a platform for budding artiste to showcase their talent called ‘Rap, Sing and Win with Ruggedman’. I bring about six people to the studio to rap or sing. I film it, post it on my social media platform and ask people to vote. The last person who won, Jayyoung, got a N100,000 cash prize and asides from that, I also got one of Nigeria’s top producers to produce for him. Basically, I do more of humanitarian work and support young talents.

• Life term inmate bags NOUN postgraduate degree from prison
• Meet Benue priest who feeds IDPs, destitutes

I am working on an album that would feature the likes of Tuface, Mr Real and other Nigerian superstars.

You are also an exco of the Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria. Shed some light on your role in the association

We are doing a rebranding of PMAN. Unfortunately, when some people hear about PMAN, they think about fighting; especially who is the president or not. Luckily for the music industry, Pretty Okafor has been able to curb all of that and we recently bought a property for PMAN to build the PMAN headquarters which would be situated in Chevron, Lekki, Lagos. This is the first time in 40 years that PMAN is owning a property. It does not belong to Pretty Okafor but PMAN. We are also working on PMAN radio; this is why I agreed to join him on this PMAN movement because just like most people back then, I had a lot of negative thoughts about PMAN.

I am the chairman of the media when it comes to PMAN, so any information that gets to the public space must reach my desk before it is published. We are trying to let the young entertainers know that PMAN is becoming what it is supposed to be which is the entertainers’ protection body. We are giving health insurance, life insurance, legal representation, among other things. A lot of entertainers are making so much money these days but what of those who don’t have enough?

People know you more as a rap artiste, but with all these on your desk, are your creativity process and music not being affected?

Already, I have about 10 songs recorded. It is not affecting my music. It is affecting me. However, the way it is affecting me is in a positive manner because if not for some of these things that I am doing, people would not remember Ruggedman if it was just about music.

During the #EndSARS movement, if there was any issue of police brutality, all you see on social media was people tagging Ruggedman. So, that got me out there. All these things I have been doing are keeping me out there. I don’t have shows every day so it does not affect anything.

I have been able to carve out time for every aspect of what I do in my life. For instance, I also do skits. I have a character I created called Mazi Kalu. All I do have not been affecting me, instead they make me relevant. There were a lot of musicians that came out during my time but I’m sure people cannot mention three of them that are still relevant.

You have always been vocal about abuse of power, especially when it comes to police brutality. Are you comfortable with the police reforms especially now that there’s a new Inspector General of Police?

I will say that the bad eggs in the Nigeria Police Force have learnt. They have learnt that if they push the people to the wall, the people would push back. You cannot end police brutality or corruption; you cannot end it 100 per cent at once. We still see it but the only difference is that it is not as rampant as before. The bad eggs are not as brazen as before.

At that time, we were hearing comments like, ‘I will kill you and nothing would happen.’ Now, no police officer would dare say that because he knows there is a camera somewhere. They have learnt that they need to do their jobs well. I would not say the harassment has stopped because recently a young guy was picked after his birthday and taken to a police station just because of N3,000. It is basically kidnapping. I hope the IGP and those in charge clamp down on the bad eggs.

What are your thoughts about the new Inspector General of Police?

I do not care about who they pick, just do the work. An alien can be the IGP for all I care as long as the alien respects the citizens’ right. I don’t have a problem and that has always been my take. I don’t care if the person is qualified or not but what I care about is that the person should do the job well.

You speak about police brutality passionately. Have you experienced it at any point in your life?

The only time I would say it ever happened was about 30 years ago. It was the time the internet just emerged in Nigeria. My friend and I were coming from the University of Lagos where we went to browse at a cybercafé on campus.

We were trekking home around 12am because the school was very close to my home – about 15 minutes’ walk. The next thing, we saw some policemen who stopped us, handcuffed us together and threw us into their bus.

We looked at each other and we were laughing. We asked them what police station they were taking us to, lo and behold, it was just a street from my house and two streets from my friend’s house. We told them that we were going home so if they want to take us to the station they should. Ten minutes after we were put behind the counter, my father’s friend came with anger and we were released. Basically, we just had free ride and police escort home. That is the only experience I ever had and it shows that I do not have any bias against the police.

What’s your thought on afrobeat at the moment; being at the world stage as one of the contemporary pioneers of the genres?

I am very proud and happy about the reception afrobeat is getting in the world right now. I am one of the pioneers of Nigerian contemporary music, especially when it comes to the rap genre. Whenever discussions like this come up, one of the things that comes to my mind is my Ruggedy Baba album. I specifically stated that we should speak more in our mother tongue. You have to let them know where you belong and where you come from. I preached about using our mother tongue and langue. If you check from that 2006, not that it was not happening before, but I helped to project it. Almost every song that has been a hit since then has infusion of Nigerian dialects. I am very proud to be part of those who are mentioned when it comes to the history of afrobeat.

What were some of the challenges you faced during your career that you would never forget?

It might sound funny when I mention piracy because that was something that ate into the pockets of most of us back then. A lot of us were making more name than money. We had fame but we did not have that much money

For someone like me, my ‘Thy Album Come’, record came out in 2002 but I did not know about iTunes until about a year later. I went there to upload it on iTunes only to find out that someone had already done that. Imagine I did not get any money from songs like ‘Baraje’ and the likes. People upload your materials without your consent because they have the technical know-how. Then they reap where they did not sow.

Is Ruggedman married or in a relationship as you hardly talk about your private life?

All I would say is that I am unavailable (Referring to Davido’s song). ‘I’m unavailable, dem no dey see me.’ That is what I can say to the ladies interested in me right now.