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Wait for the true story of my romance tale with Peter Okoye of P-square- Munachi Abii

(Sep 02 2014 at 12:16am)

For most ex-beauty queens, the challenge of sustaining the

tempo after their reign has always been difficult. But the

story is different for Munachi Abii, former Most beautiful girl

in Nigeria.

*Muna

A combination of beauty, brains, and talent has kept her in

the limelight. In this interview, she reveals how Banky W’s

Lagos Party remix helped her gain recognition as a rapper

and other interesting things. Excerpts:

By Kehinde Ajose and Anu Tella

What prompted your decision to do music

professionally?

I have always wanted to do music professionally. My mum

used to sing but she didn’t go too far with it. I come from an

artistic family. I didn’t want to be that person who didn’t go

anywhere with the music. My brothers and sisters are all

into some form of arts. I just found myself there.

If you didn’t win the MBGN, would you have been an

artiste?

Yes, I would have still been doing music. My ride to music

could have taken a different approach. MBGN took me from

level one to level five.

Most people start from level one and begin to climb. In the

Industry, there are a lot of ups and downs.

I had to collaborate with a lot of people so that people

would get to know me. When things become slow some

people can handle it while many others can’t. I couldn’t

handle it because first, there are too many fake people in

this show business that don’t know what they are doing.

Secondly, there are individuals who talk a lot and don’t have

any action to back it up . Thirdly, we don’t have the right

environment and stability, so artistes usually don’t have

something to fall back on.

This thing called music is like a gamble. So, after the

experiences I had, I really had to step back in order to stage

a comeback. It will always be music for me .I am still

climbing .That is how it has been so far.

A lot of people didn’t take you serious when you opted

for music . How were you able to grow the thick skin to

be able to withstand the pressure?

I had a thick skin when I came in. This is the honest truth. If

you are not surrounded by good people insecurity starts to

creep in. That is how everybody here is. They are always

looking at other people instead of focusing on what they are

out there to accomplish .The people around me were not

helping me. I am not blaming them too as well as myself.

When you say people around you, what do you mean?

What I meant was that everybody thought their own craft

was more important than the other person’s craft. Singers

would tell you, “Why are you rapping? You should be

singing” while rappers will tell you :”Why are you trying to

sing? You should stay true to yourself. Be loyal to the rap

game.”

It’s a constant struggle if one doesn’t have people that are

confident and who believe in you even when you don’t

believe in yourself. It’s going to be very hard for you. It’s

similar to what happened to me.

The fact that people didn’t take me serious when I started

they didn’t know what I would be up to .I didn’t care about it

because I knew what to do. The story changed with Lagos

Party remix .People didn’t really know who I was , but they

liked me .They would say, “ That’s Muna? Are you serious?”

So people started paying attention from there.

How did you get on Lagos Party?

Banky W saw me rap somewhere and he said, “what are you

doing?” That was my wake up call .He said:”You should be

doing this, there is so much you can do” So that inspired me.

Banky called me up and told me he wanted me on his

album .I was actually just meant to do the skit. Lagos Party

was played and I was asked to do rap on it. The rest is

history.

How did it help you gain acceptance?

It helped a lot because it was like my show -off period

because people now saw that this girl could rap. She is not

just a pretty face. It’s one thing to do that, and it’s another

thing to follow up with other stuffs. It’s not been easy but I

expect to grow from there.

How where you able to go beyond the ‘Pretty face’

stereotype?

At first I felt like discountenancing the pretty face toga. I

thought I needed to just show off the talent and ignore the

pretty face. At that time I didn’t want to be associated only

with the fact that I have a pretty face. If you asked me then, I

would tell you just call me Muna and don’t attach the MBGN

prefix.

I just wanted people to know me and my music . I later

realized that when I did, it put me on the defensive . This is

something I had to learn along the way. I realized that in

order to break free from anything, you have to accept the

truth. The truth for me is that I am a beautiful lady. I had to

accept the fact that I am beautiful, and use it to my

advantage. So what if I am beautiful? So what if I can rap?

I am a beautiful rapper, I am a beautiful musician. People

want to see that. The first thing they want to see about me

unfortunately is my look. They see the look and they look

into the content.

Would you say your beauty has been a blessing to your

career?

Yes, I will say so.

How has it been a blessing?

I won a pageant and that opened doors

How did you get to the point when you started believing

in your craft?

I nearly reached that point, then I stopped .You lose

confidence in yourself; There are times it happens to great

people. I am a woman, I happen to be my mum’s heaven

and earth so I take care of her.

There is so much politics in the industry. It’s not as easy as

one thought it would be, secondly there are a lot of people

in there that don’t make it easier for you and there are a lot

of people that won’t believe in your music so you have to be

strong .I wanted to know what exactly I wanted to talk about

in my music .I have talked about owning Benz and Porsche

that I don’t have which everybody talks about.

That’s good for the club, but the question is can everybody

relate to that? If I tell you about my struggles, somebody will

relate to that. I am sure there is a young budding female

rapper somewhere writing her rap and hoping that someday

she will get noticed by someone .There will be a time when

she will not believe in herself .There will be a time when she

will say :”You know what? Forget everything. “

When you say there is politics in the industry what do

you mean?

You see, there is politics everywhere .When I say politics I

mean biases. Take for instance sports, everybody focuses on

football, these days. It’s difficult for you to find a child that

would say I want to represent Nigeria in gymnastics at the

Olympics. Soccer is it for them.

But on the flip-side there is so much more that can be

leveraged on. You can show that there is a market for these

sports by focusing on them , but when the focus isn’t there

people will think there is no market for it .

It’s a challenge when you are a high jumper but there are no

platforms to show your

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