Kush was one of the greatest group ever to come out of Nigeria! It consisted of Lara George, TY Bello and Emem O. Emma and Dapo Torimiro. They went on to do great things with their careers and remained relevant till date with Emem birthing another Gospel legend in the person of One Management’s Provabs, Lara George released some of the best albums Gospel music can boast of today including “Ijoba Orun” amongst others, TY Bello is a singer with great albums to her credit and has a thriving career in photography while Dapo is into music production.
Before all these achievements, these ladies had to pull through the rough terraces of the music industry in Nigeria when it was tougher than these days, read and view pictures as Lara George tells the story from the scratch:
1999. This was us at the beginning. Before the record deal with DKG Music that took everything up a million notches. I remember how many meetings we had, how many proposals we wrote. How much time we spent trying to raise funds. This was when we had just released the “Angels’ single. Awesome stuff. #KUSH #TellingTheKushStory #HistoryMakers #Trailblazers
This photoshoot was in Surulere with a genius called Don Barber. This, if i recall clearly, is also where Ty’s journey with photography began. The goodwill the group had was unbelievable. This particular photographer had been friends with Emem’s late dad – the legendary Inyang Ema. I recall that Uncle Don cried when he found out that Emem was his friend’s daughter. He did the entire photoshoot for free. #KUSH #TellingTheKushStory #HistoryMakers #Trailblazers
Year 2000. The New Millenium .It had all started like a dream. There we were just doing our thing in naija and then all of a sudden, this record label called DKG Music wanted to sign us up. Ha! We couldn’t believe it! Neva hesperrerrit! Next thing we knew, we were in london for the initial meeting, next thing, we were in Los Angeles. This was how we rolled way back when, before boys became men. #KUSH #TellingTheKushStory #HistoryMakers #Trailblazers
We always prayed. Even at the highest heights of the group’s achievements, our relationship with God was one we knew never to make second place. So yes, even in that limo ride, we prayed . #KUSH was the first Nigerian group that I knew whose music was tagged INSPIRATIONAL. We were spiritual and yet contemporary. And still we managed to create music that was classic and crossover. Music you can still play 15 years on. #TellingTheKushStory #HistoryMakers #Trailblazers
She submitted;
“How is it that today, when the history of contemporary nigerian music is being told, #KUSH is not mentioned? In this male-dominated industry, how is it even possible that my media friends forget to talk about Kush? Is it because we are mostly women? If we were to have been men, would we have been referred to as more than just recording artistes?
You don’t need to admit that the work we did then spurred you on to do what you do today. I’m not asking that you tell the world that you secretly scored all of the #KUSH songs way back then. I wouldn’t even make you concede to the fact that you were in awe when you saw that first billboard of KUSH up in lights as you drive by that major road. All I’m asking is , when you remember to speak of Plantashun Boiz, and the Remedies, and then skip to Trybesmen or even Styl-Plus, pray tell, why do you all never ever mention #KUSH ? #Justsayin #TellingTheKushStory#HistoryMakers #Trailblazers”
Follow @LaraGeorge on Instagram with the harshtags #TellingTheKushStory#HistoryMakers #Trailblazers for more on the Kush story.
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