wept and fasted before God gave him his hit song, Osinachi, which has
become a sort of national anthem.
Humblesmith told TheSun in a new interview:
Before Osinachi, I had about four singles. I had a feeling that I was
going to be a star because I have worked hard. Nothing was actually
working for me after those singles. I even had to
travel to London to shoot two music videos. So, at a stage, I was
confused if the thing I have been doing was the right thing for me.
One day, I went to church; I fasted and prayed but it was as if nothing
was happening. Some people advised me to go back to the east, to go back
to the village that there was no room for me in Lagos; and that music
wasn’t my career. So, I went to church on this fateful day, I went to
pray but ended up not praying. I was just thinking.
At a point, I began to cry and then something just came to my mind, that
‘young man, you are here crying, wasting your time. When you are
supposed to be out there hustling, creating good songs, you are here
crying and complaining, when you have hands, legs, brain and everything.
Stop complaining and appreciate God for the little He has done for you,
let Him know you still appreciate Him and use what He has blessed you
with to encourage people’. It was good news to me.
So, I thought about doing something different from what I have been
doing. I wrote the song, Osinachi, there in the church, came back home
and told my producer, who produced the song featuring Phyno. The song
went viral. Thank God for that. I never knew God had bigger plans.
At the beginning of the year, Davido called me to do a remix of the
song. But meanwhile, last year when I dropped the song, I personally
took it to Davido. I gave him my CD and he said that he has been seeing
my work and that the song was going to be a hit, and finally the song
became a hit. So, he called for the remix. God bless Davido. Today,
Osinachi is one of the biggest songs in Africa if not the biggest.
- In the song, you talked about your ‘loving daughter’; do you have a child?
I don’t sing for myself, my music is for everybody. I sing songs that
when you listening to them, you can also sing them to yourself as if
they are your songs. I don’t have any child. I said ‘I go name my first
daughter, Osinachi’. So, for those of you who have kids out there, you
can name your first daughter Osinachi. But if you don’t have and you
plan to have, you can say ‘I go’ which is what I said. Maybe, my first
daughter would be named Osinachi by God’s grace.
- What do you think about Davido bringing his personal issues into the song?
That’s music for you, that is the way I understand music. For example, I
told you about my story, what I went through that gave me inspiration
for Osinachi, and how I poured out my anger, my experience, and my
feelings into the song. I told you that I fasted and prayed, went to
church crying and something came to my mind, telling me that I was
wasting my time, when I was even better than many people in the street.
That is being creative. It is not easy to recreate what is happening
around you into music. Music is not all about I can sing, music is
business; you need to make it commercial, something that would make
people talk about it. That’s how you make your money. So, in essence,
Davido did justice to his part in the song.