By TONY OGAGA
FAST RISING rapper, Uchenna Ejike-Charles Jnr. aka Rockstar, has opened up on the encouraging words American hip hop star, Taleb Kweli gave him when the pair met in South Africa a while ago after he won an MTVbase competition were the American rapper featured as a celebrity guest.
“It was great meeting Taleb Kweli. He was such a nice guy. We shot videos together here in Lagos and he advised that I should make my music global. Working with him was a very exciting and memorable experience,” Rockstar told Entertainer.
Recently he released his latest offering entitled Full Stop. What has been the response? “Since it was released on July 8, the response has been overwhelming. I have been receiving a lot of calls. The inspiration came because I wanted to do something creative. Full Stop is all about dance and having a good time.”
The rapper who discovered his talent at a tender age in the US says that his challenge is that most people are not straight forward: “I have been scammed. I have been through a rough time but I am not giving up and I believe that now is the right time: I have a fantastic team.”
Beyond his single, Rockstar says he would be working on more singles and he would he love to do collabos exclusively with female artistes: “I like to be unique. I want to feature exclusive female artistes. I want to do stuff with Seyi Shey and Cynthia Morgan. My role models are Michael Jackson, Bob Marley and Seyi Shey.”
Born in Urbana County, Illinois, Rockstar hit the industry in 2007 with his debut single entitled Biga Wan and later released his debut album, Live From Within.
However, he says his next album, Free For All would be given out for free: “The album is free because of the piracy problems in Nigeria. The musicians are in a bind with the marketers and are forced to sell off their right to their music and get no returns on CD sales. Apart from that, there are pirates who mass duplicate stolen intellectual property and make all the profit.”