Tekno tells Daddy Freeze about health problems, being broke, Ubi Franklin,

After a few years of bubbling under, he finally had his time in the spotlight. He released five hit singles, back-to-back. The best performing single, ‘Pana’ was so huge, American radio host for Hot 97, New York told Davido that the song was big in the United States.

In 2017, he produced ‘IF’ for Davido in 2017, his own single, though with healthy views on YouTube were mildly successful. Singles like ‘Jogodo’ struggled to help him reach the level that he was once at. ‘Woman’ even failed to crack mainstream.

In the latter parts if 2018, he opened up that he had been battling a health condition which impacts his vocal cords. He also discussed how he has had surgery on it.

But on August 2, 2019, a video of him having a chat with popular radio host and activist, Daddy Freeze surfaced on YouTube.

During the emotional chat, Tekno talked about his battles with Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease, going through a surgical procedure called, Esophagogastric dissociation, going broke and a host of other things.

The health condition irritates his vocal cords and affects his ability to talk and sing.

He says, “By this time, I’ve seen like four doctors. I was getting tired, praying, some people go say na Ubi because contract is expiring in December. So like e no wan make I sing again after the contract… someone said it’s a girl, offered me Babalawo… At this time I was already losing my mind it was insane.

“I’ve drank all the medication, they’ve even given me reflux medication that they said I have to drink for two months or at least three months for the acid in your stomach to start to go down because all these time the acid from my stomach was coming up to my throat and irritating my vocal cords.

“So I got tired eventually, went to London, stayed a bit and then I came back to Nigeria…. This is already four months of no work, no recording, no performance, just spending money from hospital to hospital, doctor to doctor … Somebody even tell me say make I buy goat and cutlass (laughs).

“So I called my mom and said, ‘Look, this is what someone told me,’ My mom started to cry, I don’t know, maybe she thought I was going to do it. At this time when I was talking to my mom on the phone, it was extremely hard to talk… I kept studying.

“Through all these time I’ve been doing vocal therapy, speaking to different voice coaches online, just trying to see if there’s a way I can learn to sing from the inside because they said that if you can sing from your bellies… you’ll be able to perform, so I was just trying anything I could do. I was studying and at some point I just thought, maybe I should get some surgeries done.

“In my head, I just felt this is the only option because I’ve been drinking this reflux medicine for so long and the acid keeps boiling my throat. Mind you for the past four to five months I’ve been sleeping with my bed laid down like this (a slope) with my body up and my waist straight down.

“When I sleep, the acid doesn’t come up. But since I sleep crazy, I start my sleep with the recommended position and wake up with all parts of my body in a different dimension.

“Three weeks after that surgery, I had a show in Cameroon. So it was after I go and perform in Cameroon first or I do the surgery first… why this Cameroon came up was because, at this time, there was no money again… I already blew through everything so I needed that Cameroon show because that show was paying me $110,000 for that weekend.”

“It was either I did that surgery, or go and do the Cameroon show, but I was scared because If I did Cameroon and performed with an already irritated voice just because I needed money to balance my bills, I would end up going back to where I started.

“So I did the surgery first and I had three weeks to get fine before I had to go perform in Cameroon but the doctor had told me that I needed at least two months before I can go back on stage because of the kind of surgery that was performed.

“By this time, I didn’t even know how bad it was. They cut me in five different places. The surgery was done by a robot… after the surgery, I woke up and looked at myself… it wasn’t a good feeling at all. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t sneeze, I couldn’t laugh, I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t do nothing at all… at this time now, there’s metal inside of me…”

With the singer now back to health, he is set to release ‘Agege’ which features Nigerian rapper, Zlatan Ibile.

You can watch the full interview below;