I don’t believe my father raped his lady friend –Lekan, Obesere’s son...

     Obesere                                                Lekan Akande (son)

Lekan Akande is the son of fuji musician, Obesere. He recently established his record label and tells Saturday Beats about his father, career and love life

• What influenced you to float a record label?

I have an event that I host every Friday in Dublin. I had been doing it for about a year when I met Breezy and we started working together. We began doing various shows but I was also collaborating with other promoters in Dublin to bring Nigerian musicians to perform over there. I was mainly into entertainment promotion but I felt it would make more sense to have my label and sign artistes. I really love music but I did not want to become a singer or do something my father has already done. I started my entertainment business in 2013 and when I established my record label, R- Entertainment, I signed two artistes, Beezy and Sajan. We are popular in Dublin but we decided to retrace our steps and come back to our roots to see what we can deliver to the community.

• But your father is a popular fuji musician, why didn’t you sign on any fuji artiste?

I did not want to be involved with Fuji music because my great-grand father was a Fuji musician same as my father. Two of my father’s younger brothers are also Fuji musicians. I did not toe that path because I wanted to be different and I always think outside the box. I do not want to repeat the things that my father has done, I want to do things my own way. I think it makes a lot of sense to do things my way with the knowledge I have.

• What did your father say when you told him about owning a label?

The first time I told my father, he began to laugh because he thought I was joking. When he saw that I was serious, he asked if I could handle it and I told him that I could. I also told him about my plans of coming to Nigeria and he agreed. When he came to Dublin last year, I sat him down and played some of my artistes’ songs for him to listen and he was impressed. He told me that it made more sense to come to Nigeria because in Dublin, we seem to be producing the same kind of music. We wanted to be out of the box and go global, so we decided to come to Nigeria.

• Do you have plans of relocating to Nigeria?

Yes, I am planning to relocate to Nigeria this year, maybe in July.

• How about your mother, what was her reaction to your choice of career?

My mother is in Dublin. She is happy with my plans. We started in Dublin and we have done virtually everything there is to be done there. We are part of the top artistes in Dublin and we felt we should do the same thing in Nigeria. My mother is very proud.

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