YOUNG, talented and brazen are words that do not fully capture the essence of music artiste Adeleke Victor Matanmi, though they come close. The 24-year-old, a graduate of Industrial and Labour Relations from the Olabisi Onabanjo University, who goes by the stage-name Brain, recently released a new single, Ileke. Ileke means beads in Yoruba language.
“The Ileke single is my own way of connecting to the ladies out there and appreciating their keen support all through the beginning of my sojourn into music,” he said.
Signed on to Magikal Entertainment, Brain’s other singles include Gaara, So Crazy, The Bridge (tribute to Nelson Mandela), Salute and Lubadi.
For Brain, the first son in family of four children, growing up in Ketu, Lagos, was fun.
“I came from a very humble family, my dad and mum tried to give us the best life we could have. We had the best elementary education,” he said.
“We went to the best schools around and presently we doing them proud in all ramifications.”
However, Brain said his parents did not allow himself and his siblings to mix with other kids while growing up.
“There was a time my brother and I had the chance to go out, our folks weren’t around, so we mixed with other kids and were rolling tyres on the street. Then on our way back home, we looked up the balcony and saw our grandmother, she was waiting and we knew we were in trouble instantly. So she signalled us to come up. We saw pepper soup that day because she flogged us. She flogged our hands and feet that we were using to roll the tyres and ever since then we dared not try it to go out without permission.”
But how did Brain get into music?
He said it all began in his household, especially through his father.
“My dad plays music a lot. He is a music lover. Unconsciously, I started loving music and in my own spare time I look for the latest song. I listen to it and sing alone. After a while, I started singing in class to popular songs and people actually loved listening to me while singing. So they came around. So, I started loving it. After a while, I started writing my own songs. Then the love just grew from there.”
While in school, he tagged team with some other guys, who rapped, to form a group.
“From that moment,” he said, “I knew I was going to be a musician.”
The artiste, however, realises that being a musician is not a walk-in-the-park. In fact, the rigorous process of creating music informed how he got his stage name.
“I had earlier decided that whenever I was ready to take music fulltime, I would look for a name that is unique and that was how the name (Brain) was born,” he said.
“I am also of the view point that if your brain defines the music and the music defines you, then the brain defines you automatically.”
But having a cerebral name did not stop stage-fright.
“My first experience on stage was very frightening,” he said.
“I had so many things popping up in my brain. I was going to face a huge audience, and would they like my music and stuff like that keeps ringing in my head. When I eventually got on stage, I almost lost my voice because I was totally blank for some moments. But after some minutes, I gained my courage back and the faces I saw was not the angry ones. They loved my performance and I was so much fulfilled that night.”
For the musician, it has not been smooth sailing all through. Initially, his folks did not know he was into music. He was already into it before they noticed. Even then, they didn’t grant their wholehearted blessings.
“They weren’t in objection like that, though there was no support in any way for my music. They didn’t say I shouldn’t do it. It gradually came to their notice. I am a very quiet person, so they usually don’t know what I am doing aside schooling. But after a while, they started noticing me writing in a book; they started noticing me singing to myself and a couple of other people. They knew I was singing but they didn’t object. They didn’t support me financially. As far as I was going to school, there was no objection.”
Brain said his parents have, however, become more supportive since they’ve seen him making progress in his music venture.
Though Brain is still griping with the challenges associated with many up and coming artistes, he describes the reception of his music as ‘wonderful.’
“Everywhere I go and people see me do my thing, the acceptance is always awesome. I know that people love it, so I just keep doing my thing.”
Though he has a degree in Industrial and Labour Relations, Brain believes so much in the talents God has given him – doing music. A talent he does not intend giving up.
“I don’t see myself doing anything else besides music and I am ready to go all the way to touch lives with my music. Life is not a bed of roses and tears of thorns; it is simply a mixture of the good, the bad and the ugly. You can’t eat your cake and have it.”
Brain who eyes beyond the country for his music believes his voice texture and his rap style stand him out from other artistes.
“The way I rap brings out the uniqueness in me,” he said. “I am diversified in the sense that I can do a blend of reggae, RNB and hip-hop and still make a whole lot of sense.”
Becoming popular surely attracts female fans, a fact that Brain appreciates so well. But how does he cope with his female fans?
“I try as much as possible to be nice to everyone,” he said, “because as you know, it’s the female folks that constitute most of male artiste’s fan base, so you can’t ignore them. I only know where and when to draw the lines.”
