''American artistes scared to work with me'' – Don Jazzy

Celebrities: Popular Nigerian music producer and singer, Micheal Ajereh Collins, aka Don Jazzy, 33 has said foreign artistes are scared to work with him. Speaking in an interview conducted by Boiler room in collaboration with British Council, Don Jazzy said; “Most of these American artistes would call you, they believe you have something that they like, so they call you to come and try something out.”

“A bunch of people that I have tried to work with or have tried to work with me chicken out at the end of the day because they aren’t really ready for the music change; they want me to tweak it till it gets back to their sound.

“I can give you your sound, but then, you called me for something and then I try to give you my sound and I want you to do your thing on top of it which would give the sound a wider recognition but they say they aren’t ready for this switch drastically. I think they are still scared.”

The Mavin record boss said he started having interest in music during the reign of Kennis Music.

“I would say I started listening more during the Kennis music time because after Storm records, then it was a time for Kennis music and they came with Tuface, Remedies and all.

“At that point, I was still in secondary school and I was like “Yo! They were putting a lot of swags into this my work”. So I started taking note of the music and it started shaping me into what I would like to do but then, there was no way for me to do it.”

The producer said that Nigerian music is designed to make people happy in their struggles.

“Everyone is struggling; we all have a problem in the country but there are sometimes when we need that peace of mind.

“While some people are consciously trying to make you aware of what is going on in the struggle, there should be other people that would keep you happy when you are going through the struggles and that is where we come in.”