“How a night in Timaya’s house changed my life” – Skales opens up in an interesting interview

Hip hop artiste, Raoul John Njeng-Njeng, popularly known as Skales, in this interview with ADENIYI ADEWOYIN, speaks about how he became homeless after leaving Banky W’s E.M.E records and how Timaya and Olamide delivered him from homelessness and gave.

Baseline is getting all the hype now but you became popular under EME records. What happened at EME?

Of course, everyone knows EME was a big success story. Big shout out to Banky W. He kind of opened everybody’s eyes to know that you can sign teenagers and make them superstars. They signed me at the age of 16 when all I knew was to just make music. During my stay there, Banky also taught us about the music business. He didn’t hide anything from us. He taught us how to make money from music and you can tell by the success of Wizkid and I that we had a very good mentor.

How has life as an entertainer been?

Honestly, I am used to it because I have been signed since I was 16 years old. Everybody knows the Skales’ story has been told over and over again. I have been through a lot of backlashes but it’s all love, most especially from the media. They’ve shown me so much love and support regardless. My main goal is to touch somebody’s life with my story. I came from a very poor home but now look at my life. I can afford to buy a Range Rover, I can afford to buy a car and dash somebody, I can afford to do a lot of thing and sometimes I am still shocked how I got here. I am just 27years old and I have travelled to a lot of countries and have worked with lots of top artistes I never believed I would work with.

Do you believe in the saying that what will be will be?

Yes, trust me it truly works. I would say when I first left E.M.E a lot of people were pitying me and I was wondering why. I believe so much in God as a Christian. So, I believe that whatever happens, happens for a reason. It didn’t even take so long after E.M.E that God gave me a song that turned my life around and that song is evergreen and after ‘Shake Body’ it has been hits back to back. I just want to tell my story so other kids out there won’t give up. Don’t stop, your time will come because everything has its timing.

You once revealed that Olamide paid for your hit single ‘Shake Body’ video…

Yes, after E.M.E I was a broke boy, I was homeless, sleeping from one studio to the other but I had a car. I wasn’t a friend of Olamide but he just liked me since when I was in E.M.E. I never told anybody that I didn’t have anywhere to stay.

One day I went to Timaya’s house and it got late at night. I didn’t have anywhere to go. I was sleeping in the car outside Timaya’s house and the gateman told him “Skales is outside sleeping in the car.” Timaya came and asked me what’s going on? He looked at the back of the car and saw my bags which means practically I was living in a mobile house. Timaya asked me to move into his house and gave me his pent house which was really big. And that was where I recorded ‘Shake Body.’ When I released ‘Shake Body,’ I didn’t have money for promo. I just had one manager (Osagie) that believed in me. The song was everywhere but I didn’t have money to shoot the video and I wasn’t getting shows. People didn’t really know it was me that sang the song.

One day, Olamide found out it was me who sang the song and asked where I was and we spoke at length. He asked what was going on with me and why I hadn’t shot the video and I told him I didn’t have money. He said I should send him my account number which I did and like five minutes later, I got an alert. And that’s how it happened. When I tweeted it, he wasn’t happy with me because he begged me not to ever tell anybody about it. But I wanted to just tell the world how good of a guy he is and big shout out to Davido also. He was always checking up on me. There are lots of people who were checking up on me. The list is endless.

How is your relationship with Wizkid now?

Honestly, it’s all love. We are grownups now and we have a lot of people that are looking up to us and we cannot be messy out there. So, we have to keep winning and help grow this industry. Wiz has done greatly in the industry. That’s why I call him a legend. He is a legend.

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Source: The Nation