His voice flows out. Smooth, endearing…sexy. And we hear the words roll. “Ogbanje” he calls out, brooding strings stirring us all. We are captured, enamored, mesmerized. We are his!

Alabai is the man behind the song. Standing at 6’5, he’s a fine specimen. A hulk, He’s not just tall. He looms, like a colossus, to be loved and regarded in awe.

We saw this live when he made the trip to our office and of course with you in mind we grilled him a bit. Holding him hostage at Microphone-point (which was a damn good feeling), he bared his heart to us. Here’s what we got from him. This is your one window into the soul of Alabai, the man behind “Ogbanje. So enjoy the experience.

Hi Big guy, we know you’ve been around the music scene for quite a long while. You even started a famous band, DEF O CLAN, that featured smashing talents like Azadus, Buzman, CYCLONE,

We actually started the in the 90’s. We actually wanted to metamorphose our talent from what it used to be to what it is right now. We had this passion, we had the perfect time and we kind of came together for it. I thought that if I bring together the best of talents to form a group, to form a clan, we could create something strong, and worthy of reckoning. We became kinda big, made some waves in the country, this actually was cool, we had we actually came together and decided to form a group. I named the band Def O clan, it’s a concept of having the a defined clan. Everybody had to be there, I mean everybody. The name was actually more like a statement, it wasn’t just to name the group, it was about the statement. Def o clan, means everybody has to be in the whole clan. I just coined the name from that statement.

Nice Vision. But the the clan got cracked. What broke the clan?

Yeah right, as with all other groups, it happens a lot. I actually believe that we had to leave because a lot of issues came up (you know), Azadus actually went solo in 2001, when he had a record deal with . Okay, it was a lovely deal for him. I was happy for him, but the crew did not understand that he had to pursue his own dream, like everybody else want to pursue their own dreams. It was more like a platform for us to start with and move on from there, but a lot of people did not understand that. We actually wanted to do it like the . Go solo, come back to the group. I wanted to make the group understand that it wasn’t really easy for him, Azadus had a fair deal, they just wanted to be like, and kept pushing their own. It affected us psychologically and ego friction came into play, you know, certain things came into play, misunderstandings, not being able to understand each other, they came into play.

I would frankly say to you that the group disintegrated based on misunderstanding.

Misunderstandings, not good. So do the members still roll? Are they on good terms?

We’re still in good terms. We speak, we talk a lot of times, sometimes I get some stuff from them, we call ourselves, they call me if they like. Buzman worked with me on some of my stuff. They’re so happy that they have one of the men who’s actually done good. You know they’re not disappointed. The rest of them they feel happy about how Ogbanje is doing right now. It’s a great feeling. We don’t have beef with anybody, nobody’s got beef with anybody, we just could not go forward with ourselves and I think we got to understand that fact and we’re living with it. Nobody has any grudge with anybody. We’re all happy. We’re all succeeding, Alabai is succeeding. We’re all happy.

After Def O Clan, you kinda went into the pipeline, you did some time in Calabar, and some other engagements and collaborations. How did the pipeline feel?

Yeah, yeah. While I was in the university I was actually an OAP at the state-owned radio station, CRBC, I anchored the morning program in Calabar. And when I came down to Lagos I was an OAP with Brila FM. I enjoyed every bit of it. I actually liked the bit that I was on radio and a lot of people listened to my show, play some good music, and supported everyone. After that, I had a couple of collaboration after I left the radio sometime in 2005, I got involved in a couple of hit collaborations. First of all with ’s ‘Hard Life’, which was a big hit. And the one I did with , ‘forever’ which was good song in 2007, later that year I had another collaboration with ‘without your love’. Then I had collaboration with , and , and a couple of other songs with big acts. Then in 2008 I dropped my first single, my very first major hit single. All praise to God. It was a good song, it had very great reviews. The pipeline has been hard (laughs), the pipeline has been very hard for me.

Now to the rave of the moment (some laugh), Ogbanje. I listened to Ogbanje and I never could place it into any genre, It was more like promethean. It keeps changing forms. What exactly inspired Ogbanje?

Yeah. I expected that question, that’s what I hear everytime. Ogbanje was actually inspired by a relationship I was in. Sometime in the late 2000’s. I can’t really remember the year. Maybe 2005 or 2006, I was actually in love with a pretty girl, and she had this really disturbing characteristics. She had a whole lot of disturbing characteristics. I tried everything I could to change her. She was more of a kamikaze, like some self-destructive kind of person. She just had this Kamikaze. I had plans of a great future with her, but none of that came good. She just had this kamikaze. RE Phel We, disturbed me so many times. I tried everything I could to change her like I said, but it was of no use. I had to move away from her and move on with my life. You know how it is. I don’t want to go through my life trying to save somebody who doesn’t want to help herself. It was disturbing for me, and disturbing for her parents. She was a beautiful girl, really talented, but self-destructive. Sometime last year, I was thinking about writing a new song, and my relationships came into my mind. That relationship actually flashed by, and coincidentally it fit in with what I had in mind.

Well at least you got a hit song for all your trouble, and not only that, a rocking video as well (laughs). How about the video?

I didn’t tell you this story about the video. Before I shot the video, I had an accident, I wasn’t feeling cool, and then I had a terrible headache, lots of terrible headaches, but by God Almighty we did it. Before we travelled, on the eve of my departure, it wasn’t exactly all cool. I couldn’t swallow, I had a very terrible sore throat, even while there, while we were shooting the video the director understood that I was in pain. I was tasking myself with the pain. It was painful during the video shoot because I could not even sing. I had the worst sore throat that I could never have imagined that a man could ever have. But all the same we thank God everything went well.

Now with you riding on the success of the Ogbanje, I guess an album should be in the pipeline, right?

Yes I am. I’m working on it right now.

Give us a define timeline for its release.

Yeah, a lot of people would ask me that. When is it coming out? Is the album coming out anytime soon? But in the way I go about my business, I try my best to perfect anything I do. I go the extra mile to perfect everything I do. I wouldn’t wanna rush into anything. I recorded about 3 songs last week and my director was like “Ah! Let’s bring out this one.” And when he hears another one, he’s like “No no let’s bring out this one.” And when he hears another one he says,”Let’s go for this one.” And I’m like, ‘No. we have to take out time to bring out the best. If bringing out a single is so hard, then how about an album. I think it’s definitely going to take some time and hard work.

I have an obligation to my record label, I’m not reallyin a rush right now to record an album, but I can say that before the end of the year, my album will be ready.

Away From The Profession. Give us something else. What’s a fun fact about you?

Fun? I’m a movie junkie. I’m a movie freak, I’m a freak for Al Pacino. I love movies. I play chess, I fight Karate. I have a black belt in Karate. (laughs). I trained in Akido. I’m an actor, and a model as well.

Any pretty lady you’ll want us to meet?

For now, my music is my woman. I’m just too deep into my music right now, pushing my career forward and there’s no time for that right now.

Now give us some singing…

(More laughter and then some singing)..

The End...