BY NDUMBE BELL JOSEPH GASTON IN DOUALA
One of Cameroon’s young and growing musical talents, simply named KO-C was in Douala under the sponsorship of Orange Cameroon last Friday, March 10 to attend a press conference anticipating the release of his new “Genesis” album.
After a long waiting session, KO-C and his close collaborators during a musically vibrating atmosphere arrived where he and his assistants expressed their beloved gratitude to patient invitees and were sorry for being late.
To Orange Cameroon, he, KO-C expressed his hearty appreciation for the traditional and legendary contributions in promoting young talented Cameroonians across the board of various professions including music production in which they belong.
KO-C introduced himself as a Kumba boy, a town that had always been socially explosive overtime. A guy of humble beginnings, he disclosed that despite his academic achievement in bagging a master’s degree and despite the resistance encountered that music was not that lucrative or dignifying, they challenged themselves and advised others that, to venture in anything, you have to remain focused,prayerful, per severant and patient because it takes a long time for one to become successful.
In some of his anecdotes, he related to very challenging moments in their lives in a group of six where their first-ever FCFA I million francs from Guinness Cameroon instead split them because of greed and cheating.
He and his best friend whom he introduced at the podium made a trip from Buea to Limbe on foot in brief.
KO-C revealed his true targets and vision as one who having known the Cameroonian way of reacting, and as a people, who do not like to venture in very difficult paths and love to have distractions and entertainment in the face of adversity, used this knowledge to produce many of his songs using our popular gastronomy such as “Candana Eru, Candana Achu. He has recently put together “deux oeufs (eggs) spaghetti”, and now, there is “poisson braisé” in the pipeline.
“You have to give back to your people what they like, KO-C explained. He further explained that producing “Genesis” has been a ten-year project. It is a 13-track album that had to be created after being sure of a good fan base which is now in the millions. “This is the force behind your success and it was time to do this. Why genesis? He explained that the peculiarities are strategic. He has been mainly looking at a narrow Cameroonian audience; but Genesis is the beginning of wanting to promote his own contributions to Cameroonian music and culture away from home.
For these and other reasons, genesis was created. In realising this project, KO-C furthered that he invited the participation of Cameroonian and Nigerian icons like Longue Longue who have partnered in many of the pieces. He also identified his best track in “Genesis” as one that he sees his life in the mirror. He disclosed his three top sponsors now as Orange Cameroon, Glory and the whisky brand Ballantines. Other promoters present whom he said have always been supportive and want his success, spoke of the mutual confidence they shared. Donations towards the new vision of going beyond Cameroon attracted contributions of FCFA 500K to over FCFA I million from invited promoters, friends and partners.