Encomium
GOSPEL music act, Kenny Saint Brown recently veered into the eatery business. Her outfit is called KSB Foodies, which operates by placing an order and she delivers. The Turn Me Around exponent talked about this and more in this interview with ENCOMIUM Weekly.
What are the basic challenges you are confronted with as a female music act?
A lot. The men are hard working but the girls are more hard working even though when the girls are pregnant they will have to work. Look at Omawumi, she had to ensure she shot that video, men don’t breastfeed, that’s even by the way. The kind of money they put on the women is not the same as the men. For instance, I am engaging Cobhams Asuquo, he charged me $1,000, the same fee he charged Wande Coal. He is not going to lower it because I am a woman. And again DJs hardly play our songs. Listen to the radio stations. So, there’s discrepancies in the way we women are treated. Even in awards they only have two categories for female. Now, if there are not enough categories for female, how will that industry move because we have been given a limited role? Look at the 10 Mic show, they put only one female, Mo’cheddah among nine men, how do I make my money if you don’t celebrate me. That’s why the telecoms companies put their money on Nollywood.
Do you see this changing in future?
It will change because I keep working, I am a hard worker. I keep pushing, I go around delivering my CDs myself, I don’t use any manager or PR. I am on the road because of the training Baba Keke has given me, that was the way we were trained.
Because of all these challenges was that why you diversified into the mobile restaurant business?
It’s a plus, I fall and I rise again and I am rising, I have been blackmailed and I shook it off. It’s a sort of brand merchandising instead of me to do cap, T-shirts, I will rather do food. I love cooking, I think I was born to be a chef, that was an assignment for me.
The KSB Foodies, how does it operate?
It’s a mobile company for now. You order and we deliver, we are going to have a launch very soon. Right now, I have orders already.
What types of food do you cook for supply?
I cook Don Jazzy, Genevieve, Ali Baba, Keke, they are all names of delicacies.
Where did the idea come from?
The idea of not conforming to what everybody is doing, I like to do new things, I like innovation. Why do we eat Chinese food, these is no globally accepted Nigerian food. You can be in Canada and go into KSB Foodies and ask for a Don Jazzy knowing that it’s a kind of sauce. It’s another way of introducing Nigerian foods to the rest of the world.
What’s the level of patronage?
I have orders already.
How do you combine that with music?
I have been doing music for 14 years, I have been cooking since I was 12. If you are a lady working and you can’t cook, it’s not an excuse, you are just lazy.
What drives you?
Pain, challenges, rejection, the more you reject me the more I push harder and you will love me. Rejection, pain, failure, blackmail, misinterpretation of who I am, when such things happen to me, my energy is renewed. I come alive the more, I am challenged the more I come out.
Marriage has challenged you?
Marriage has challenged everybody.
Are you looking at giving it a second shot?
I am not thinking of that now, I am not discussing that now.
With the kind of music you do now, are you not sort of moving away from the gospel many people know you for?
I am not moving away. What I sing is Good News, go and check my song its called good news. Many people believe gospel should be limited to church and then you must carry Jesus, this is 21 century where people can preach from the internet. Christianity is not straight jacketed and people translate that to mean I am not close to God anymore. Oh, she has joined the satanic church.
So, when they accuse you of that, how do you deal with it?
It doesn’t bother me. People call me now and then and bless me. On the Twitter people are blessing me for my song. Most of us came from the church.
Your new single, Live your life, what is it all about?
I just told you about my life story, about challenges. I have not seen the challenge that will swallow me because there is a scripture that will swallow every challenges.
Of all the challenges you have come through in life, which one has really weighed you down?
There is no challenge that is bigger than the other and it’s the longevity of a challenge that determines how you deal with it. Whenever a challenge comes, I pick up my pen and write songs. So, I can’t say it’s this one or that one but everyone of them contributed in making me a better person.
- This story was first published in ENCOMIUM Weekly on Tuesday, March 06, 2012
