Q: Can you tell us about yourself ?
Ans: Yes please, my name is Mobolaji Fasasi. G popularly known as Da Emperor with the in-sigma “Etiemelo?! ????????” , I’m an indigenous rapper , actor and architect. I am also the C.E.O.of Etiemelo Empire Entertainment,
Born on 5th October in alagbado, lagos state.
I’m a native of ijebu imushin, the only ijebu that has a branch in Lagos (lol).
I’m the author of hits albums such as “para mode” , “I’m a sinner”, “Aganran” which features small doctor , “Firewood” which features Oritsefemi , “my Lagos our Lagos” , “So shall it be” which features isolate Arafada, “street is strict” featuring Gabriel Afolayan and so much more. I also debuted my album (R.I.V) Royalty in-my veins which contains 24 tracks of which most of the aforementioned are tracks tracks off the album.
Q: For how long have you been in music industry and what really inspired you??
Ans: I’ve been around since I was a little boy , Memories of me wearing short pants popularly called bonfo and grooving and imitating Michael Jackson still lingers in my head till date. I later joined the church choir in All saints Anglican Church, Eriwu Apunren, Ogun state at a very tender age. Where I lived with my guardians those years. I was later tagged the choir master in no time . However, during these times I was busy writing my own lyrics to start my recordings , in 2009/10. I recorded my first singles titled “am ah rapper “ and “Facebook prediction” featuring Don D King.
In 2014, I decided to rebrand, in 2018 I floated my own record label “Etiemelo Empire Entertainment”.
My inspirations are culled from daily life happenings, I’m inspired all the time basically because it comes naturally.
Q: For how long have you been in music industry and what really inspired you??
Ans: I’ve been around since I was a little boy , Memories of me wearing short pants popularly called bonfo and grooving and imitating Michael Jackson still lingers in my head till date. I later joined the church choir in All saints Anglican Church, Eriwu Apunren, Ogun state at a very tender age. Where I lived with my guardians those years. I was later tagged the choir master in no time . However, during these times I was busy writing my own lyrics to start my recordings , in 2009/10. I recorded my first singles titled “am ah rapper “ and “Facebook prediction” featuring Don D King.
In 2014, I decided to rebrand, in 2018 I floated my own record label “Etiemelo Empire Entertainment”.
My inspirations are culled from daily life happenings, I’m inspired all the time basically because it comes naturally.
Q: How can you define your Genre?
My genre of music is indigenous rap, which is a fusion of my Mother’s dialect (Yoruba) and English , mixed with pidgin and a lil bit of other languages sometimes.
Sometimes hardcore , sometimes I go with the flow but all in all , it’s indigenous rap.
Q: In the next five years to this time
where do you expect to see yourself?
Ans: Only God Almighty can determine that but nonetheless Global hits , Global domination, Grammies, multi million dollar endorsements and so on and so forth with the brand Da Emperor being a blessing to the world at large.
Q: If you have the opportunity to feature foreign artist who do you prefer to work it?
Ans: Foreign artistes?, hmmmmm Justin Bieber is perfect for me.
Q: Who is your favorite foreign artist?
Ans: I really do not have any favorite at the moment. I’m a fan of good music all day any day . So once you do good music , you are automatically my favorite.
However, it used to be Michael Jackson (M.J), Lilwayne , RickRoss, Chris Brown , T.I and a host of others fan.
Q: Are you under label presently?
Ans: I own my label, Etiemelo Empire Entertainment. That is where I belong. I’m open to partnership deals with other labels but the music industry and business has changed drastically so now it’s go hard or go home.
So let’s just say I’m signed to my own label Etiemelo Empire Entertainment which I double as an act under my label and my label ceo.
Q: Can you tell us a bit about your educational background?
I’m a graduate of urban and regional planning from Abraham Adesanya polytechnic, a Cisco graduate , and also a graduate of architecture from Olabisi Onabanjo university.
I’ll stop at those details for now.
Q: What are your bitter experience so far in industry ?
Ans: Bitter experiences can also be likened to challenges right ?
So for me, I do not see challenges as challenges. I have always seen challenges as a stepping stone to Greater heights, that is it for me all day any day.
The more the challenge, the more the movement.
Q: Did you get a full support from your parents when you started music?
Ans: From my mom, YES. Even though there were times she was either indifferent or not so sure about what’s going to happen next but for my dad, it was a NO. Until he saw I was way too deep into it and his difference won’t change my opinion or passion for music.
This took a while but we all are on the same page now and I’m very Grateful , I give God Almighty all the Glory.
Q: How was your growing up like ?
Ans: Growing up for me was intriguing , I grew up with my guardians and they were disciplinarians but it was what made me strong .
I remember i used to wash pig pens and fish ponds , fed them , worked on the farm and so on everyday amidst schooling .
Q: Tell us about Etiemelo Empire Entertainment
Like i said earlier, Etiemelo Empire Entertainment is a record label owned solely by Da Emperor. It was floated in 2018 officially. No other musical artiste is signed to Etiemelo Empire Entertainment at the moment but Etiemelo Empire Entertainment has been a pillar of support to artistes that are friends to the label.
Etiemelo Empire Entertainment also has an arm that manages and provides Dj’s and vdjs for events and private entities.
Q: Which is your favorite track off your debut album ?
Ans: Errrmmm, my favorite track off R.I.V would be all the songs on the album. I.e the 24 tracks (lol). They were all written by me, except for lyrics from featured artistes. So it’s safe to say it’s more of an embodiment of me pouring out my mind on the album.
Every track on the album has something unique it touches or preaches, as I do not produce nor record songs without a message.
Q: Any video out there from the album?
Ans: There are couple of music videos off the album out there, such as para mode , I’m a sinner, I love you which features Laj.
More videos will be put out in due time, work don’t stop.
Q: Any recent shows you were headlined for ?
Ans: Last December I was headlined for Greater lagos fiesta hosted by The Lagos state government, I am grateful to the government for still believing in entertainment and entertainers. For Greater lagos fiesta 2022 i performed in Agege zone, Victoria island zone and ikorodu zone. I have also performed in previous Greater Lagos events and One Lagos fiesta events put together by the former Governor of Lagos state Ambode Akinwumi amongst many others.
Q: Should we expect your annual show this year as you’ve not done another since the year 2020?
Ans: Da Emperor live in concert 1 was done in 2022, ambience cafe roof top, ikeja. Lagos although it had to be delayed and postponed from the early party of the year to a later date in the same year, due to the covid 19 pandemic and end SARS protest. I am grateful that it was successful. A big shout out to The re-elected Governor of Lagos state, Mr Babajide Sanwoolu for supporting the event, Lagos state ministry of Tourism, arts and culture, Ijaiye-Ojokoro local government Chairman and development council, purple, dignitaries, colleagues, family, fans and well wishers that bought tickets and came through, I cannot but be extremely grateful to you all .
In the past I’ve done events like A Date With Da Emperor, Para mode video priemere @ silverbird cinemas, ikeja Lagos in 2014, where I was the first indigenous rapper to premiere a music video in the cinema and also the first indigenous rapper to perform alongside a live band and so much more.
Putting together an event or concert doesn’t come cheap, so I’ll say for my event this year, I pledge the 5th for now. Fingers crossed.
Q: What was the promotion of your debut Album R.I.V like?
Ans: Well R.I.V is another experience on its own for me. First off, it started with some Alaba international marketers asking me to pay them to pirate the album which means I’ll pay and get no profit off the multi million naira project.
So I just resulted into using the already printed album physical copies as a means of empowerment to road side cd sellers…. Whenever I drive by any cd seller, especially in traffic, I had copies to them and ask them to sell them and keep the money for themselves. Each time I drove past any of the cd sellers I gave, they always asked for more stating that the ones I gave them were exhausted. I just smile , so if I got more copies handy, I gave them. If not , I let them know.
R.I.V (Royalty in-my veins) album by Da Emperor is on all distribution platforms for fans consumption.
Q: why haven’t you worked with any female artist?
Ans; Haha, not that I do not want to. I love females, infact I’m surrounded by females as I’m the only son of my mom. However, I think it’s a bit more easier to get the ball rolling with male artistes sometimes than the opposite sex.
I tried putting simi and falz on a song sometimes ago, produced by Dy Grillo and the title was “Yoruba Demon” but all effort proved abortive, so I just let it slide.
I cannot wait to see who the first female artiste I’ll work with would be, as I patiently anticipate.
Q: You were the talk of the town when rapper Olamide baddoo dropped “who u epp” single. What happened ?
Ans: For who u epp project, it was to my utmost amazement I discovered that I was on number 3 spot of all Olamide’s ever released songs and albums as at then. Unfortunately, his management reached out to my distribution company to take down the song from all music distribution platforms worldwide. It came at a cost to me because that was the agreement I signed with the distribution company then besides the cost of loosing streaming and downloading continuity and the cost of recording and so on but I took it at good fate since Olamide owns all copyright to his music and knows best for his projects.
Although, we reached out to his team but they insisted that the song be removed so we did just that.
I got to record my own cover of the song because a friend of mine was adamant about me jumping on the cover, infact, he was the one who told me about the song and project prior to my recording. I remembered I was under the weather when I recorded my own cover of the song. The idea was coined out of the fact that Olamide asked rappers to make their own version and the jest would be on the final release.
We’ve all moved pass that as it’s in the past now. Thank God for life.
Q: Do you still act?
Ans: Well for acting, yes I still do but only on special occasions (lol), it’s a whole lot of work our actors and creative industry professionals are putting in. Although for now, I only act in movies of friends of mine…. Since my last experience at my big brother’s movie location “Skulboy” now (Oba) King Omogoriola Hassan. I was recently featured in a movie by Shebaby too which also features Oritsefemi, Lanre Teriba and so on, likewise on another soap opera which featured Alhaji Pk1 Obesere, Seriki Omowo and myself etc.
Q: Any new project?
Ans: Yes! Etiemelo Empire Entertainment has floated an arm of the label that produces and manages music & video disk jockeys (Deejays and vdj’s) for events and all. So the public can book deejays for their events through Etiemelo Empire Entertainment. I am particularly excited about this new development and project as it is a means to keep the entertainment spirit alive and to get good music across to fans and the good people who still believe in Good music.
There are also new music and videos coming up in the pipeline. The show must go on..
Q: Any word to upcoming artistes ?
Ans: Keep your head up always, don’t sink. Impossible is nothing . Tomorrow will always be better than today with these keywords in mind. #Etiemelo?!????????
Q: Word for fans?
Ans: Thank you for your unflinching support, prayers and encouragement over the years. I am extremely grateful and do not take it for granted. I won’t let you all down. #Etiemelo?! ????????
Q: Social media handles?
Ans: Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat , YouTube : @DaEmperor01
Let’s just say once anyone types : Da Emperor … as a search word on any search engine it’ll pop up all they might be inquisitive about. Thank you .
