Illbliss AKA Odogwu Malay on #EsplashOnTVC and he talked about his experience working with Kemi Adetiba and other industry legends on the movie, King Of Boys!
After his amazing work in King Of Boys, it is only right to call this musical sensation, Illbliss Oga Boss an actor.
How Were You Called To Act
Kemi Adetiba is a fantastic woman, she called me for King Of Boys 1 and said she needed me for a role but i knew that wasn’t part of my plan. I wanted to shoot and invest in a couple of films but act, it wasn’t my thing.
Kemi and I started talking and after much dodging she stopped calling me and I still didn’t read the script.
Around June 2018, i was just going through my email and i saw KOB pdf and i was like what’s this file from Kemi Adetiba? I opened it and it was the script, i was like wow.
First three four pages, I liked the guy’s character, so i picked up my phone and gave her a call of shame. She was like she wasn’t going to talk to me. lol… So i asked her if the movie was out and she was like no, they haven’t casted the guy, they’ve been looking for that character so i told her to bring the contract and i signed off.
The character’s name wasn’t always Odogwu Malay, it had another name so i told Kemi we needed to change the name. The character’s name wasn’t that dope enough. i needed something more powerful.
I am from the South East and i was born in Enugu and there’s a way we have names, Like, Obi Cyprus, Hojay Barcelona, Honey Indonesia etc. and that’s was how it happened.
I asked Kemi to give me some hours let me call my guys in the east. I called my guys and requested for the hard guys names because Kemi showed me a production bible which had everything down to the way the character talks, mannerism etc from from that call, i settled with Odogwu Malay. And i had to step in as Illbliss, it was a bit close to what i am as a rapper because i have a lot of culture and eastern vibes and i am always on my Oga level so it just gelled
We got on set a met the cast. Reminisce and I were the first time actors and Kemi never made it stressful. She eased us into the process, made us believe the characters and let us rock and owned the characters and interpret it the way that made us feel comfortable.
When You Found Out That There Was Going To Be A Second Part And It Was Going To Be Series, How Did You Feel About That?
It was more work, because for the second part they had to stretch me emotionally, sometimes Odogwu was confused, sometimes was angry, sometimes mean, sometimes happy etc and I was always turning off and they wanted that lively part of Odogwu and it was five years later.
I Had to incorporate the new changes and when i heard the extra people that were joining the second part, my liver just cut. They were legends. But Kemi gave me confidence.
Looking At What It Is Now, What Would You Say About The Growth In The Nigeria Music Industry?
We are in a beautiful place. There’s so much dominance globally. The footballers are playing our songs in the premiership etc. It’s everywhere. We are on the proper charts NOW. We are no longer just on African Music Charts. We seat on the billboard charts as well.
Shout out to dudes like Fireboy, he’s no1 everywhere now, no1 on Apple etc. Look at Wizkid shutting down the 02 back to back for three days. I don’t even think the biggest most legendary UK artist have been able to pull that and that’s just a boy from Ojuelegba.
Our music is so global. We have grown internationally, I only wish we could grow locally. By locally i mean, a system that help and support legendary artist that helped build the industry. Most of them are forgotten, broke, sick, slept on etc. And when they’re sick they kind of raise money because they have no sought of health insurance or trust funds to say, ‘we take care of the veterans’ so they start raising money from the younger artist.
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