Esegine Orezi Allen, known by his stage name ‘Orezi’ is celebrating his 10 years in music with grateful heart, appreciating people who have contributed immensely to growth of his career since he started in 2009.
The ‘Rihanna’ singer narrated how his journey started, how he met the key players who gave his music prominence and how they showed him love. Part of the people he showered praises on included, Banky W, Wizkid, Davido and Timaya.
The multiple award winning singer explained how Banky W’s tweet led to his big break in the industry. He said; “Shout out to Banky W (I know you’ll not remember this), in 2013 when I released my song ‘Rihanna’, people naturally gravitated towards the jam, and the tweet from Banky W changed everything, it changed my life. As at that time I was just a struggling artiste.
“I didn’t have money to shoot the video, it took me like eight months, when the video came out it changed my life,” Orezi added.
On Wizkid; he said getting the singer wasn’t easy for him, but when they connected, the ‘Ojuelegba’ singer accommodated him more than he expected. “When I was about to make a song with Wizkid, ‘Ogede’, that time I had You Garrit, which he liked.
“To get wizkid to feature on ‘Ogede’ wasn’t easy, I was in Wizkid’s house for two days, I slept on his couch for two days, leaving all my big boy outside. We did two songs, after we did ‘You Garrit Remix’, we now recorded ‘Ogede’. Smash hit… shout out to wizkid.”
Recalling how he met Timaya, Orezi noted that he initially thought he was going to be strict in person but they had instant connection when they eventually met.
“Timaya, that’s my big bro, you are an awesome human being, you’re a great guy. Timaya didn’t know me; before I met Timaya, I used to think of him differently, but when I met him, he asked ‘Na you be Orezi’ and we just connected. Great guy, we recorded the song, did the video, no stress. Tiaya came, Wizkid came. God bless you guys.”
On Davido; aside from collaborating with OBO, Orezi recounted a major event that won his heart and made him more grateful to the DMW boss. He said “We did Shuperu remix together, I reached out to him and he asked me to come, I went to him with my producer, Popito.”
Narrating how Davido helped him, he said; “I was supposed to sign a deal with Davido’s former record label, HKN, and I’ve been reaching out to him. On seeing Davido one day, he just gave me his Blackberry Porsche phone because my phone wasn’t presentable, the phone he gave me was sold for about N400k then. As a street boy, I held the phone, made a few calls to asked the worth of its second hand and I sold the phone for about 240k, bought another phone worth 100k and held the remaining 140k. Thank you for coming thru for me Davido, you are a blessing to the industry.”
The singer also commended Olamide, Ice Prince, 9ice, Flavour, M.I, Vannessa Mdee and Tekno for showing him love when he needed it the most.
Before signing out of the video, Orezi announced he’s rebranding as well as coming with a new track, scheduled to release soon.
