Six Questions with musician Le'mmon

Le'mmon may be (just) under-30 but he is already an accomplished vocalist, songwriter, and producer.  With his silky smooth voice, fun-but-mature themes, and classic R&B aesthetic, this Nigeria-based musical artiste may just become one of your favourite.

Twitter: @lemmonchukwu

A brief history of Le'mmon: A true Lagosian, born to an Igbo father and Yoruba mother.  Real name Vincent Osuagwu.  A former church boy, was in the choir at eight.  Won Most Creative Student In Art award in school.  Le'mmon is notable for stubbornly producing different flavours of Rhythm and Blues music throughout the 21st century.  He will make you listen! 

Listen to Vintage Le'mmon.  I love That's All.

Q1: If you couldn't be a musician...
I would still be in the art world. Fine arts.  Or maybe military.

Q2: Best and worst things about your job?
Imagine a world without music!  The best thing is that my work touches people's lives everyday.
Also, music is a profession, so personal growth and career satisfaction are the other best things about my job.

Live at the Civic Center

The worst thing, however, is that in Nigeria there isn't enough support - opportunities, mentoring, management, and resources - for talented artistes.  Nobody wants to build from scratch with a talented nobody... It's different overseas.
Also, instead of perceiving a newcomer as a source of inspiration and fresh ideas, most established and successful artistes who ought to help these newcomers see them as a threat and in turn refuse any call for help.

Past EP projects: Rejected By All, Heart On Paper, and more. I have two dozen Le'mmon tracks and keep discovering more.

Q3: Studio Rat or Stage Bunny?  Lol.
 I consider myself more of a studio rat because it's a world that knows no limit in terms of creativity and production especially in this part of the world where we don't have the best technology for stage/analog production.

Q4: Tell us about the album...
 I have no album for now but I'm putting out a mixtape titled #10,000hours in early or mid 2015 which is a compilation of carefully selected songs showing my prowess as a songwriter, producer and a sound engineer from the start to the present.

Coming soon: #10000HOURS

Q5: Your top 5 artistes? 

John Lennon  

because of how he'd make a song so simple with his lyrics and he was a rule breaker and therefore changed music without knowing he was. 

Fela Kuti  

for stamping it hard on musicians especially from Africa and Nigeria  that music knows no language.

Frank Sinatra 

for his timeless voice and "never give up" spirit through his rejected times coming up as a back up vocalist.

2face idibia 

for being a great source of inspiration to Nigerian artiste who celebrate his longevity and ability to move along trend as they change over the years in the industry.
Robin Thicke 

for his strong will to succeed in a pop-dominated music industry that saw him work hard for 17yrs before he got his big break with the hit song "lost without you"

  

Q6: Three rules you live by? 
Mom, Music, Money and in that order too..it's self explanatory..those are the things I devote my heart to and love as I grow as a person...They keep me grounded...

Listen to Le'mmon Heart On Paper

Preview Le'mmon 10,000 Hours

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Is Japan in trouble? Are we?

Discussions of the population problem have always had the capacity to stir up public sentiment much more than most other problems. - Gunnar Myrdal

I found the above quote on this blog about Japan's "aging population problem."

 In Japan, the average age is 46 years (and rising) and 25 percent of Japan's population is age 65 and up.  (Source: CIA World Factbook.) This fact is thought to imperil the economy and society since it implies a shrinking labour force and high dependency ratio, not to mention contracting demand.

Japan Population Pyramid (2006): Number of people in each five year age range

Compare Nigeria, median age 18, where only 3% of its population is over age 65.  Some people think we have a "growing population problem."  It's hard to push up per-capita income when the denominator (headcount) keeps growing so relentlessly that the NYTimes says "sub-Saharan Africa, which now accounts for 12 percent of the world’s population, [may] account for more than a third by 2100."  This Day presents a more local take in Nigeria's growing population might be a "time bomb."

Nigeria Population Pyramid (2006)

So now we have problematized low population growth rates as in Japan/Ukraine/Scandinavia, and on the other hand lament high population growth rate as in most of Africa.   Reminds one of the phrase "the problematics of government."  It's always something, ain't it? Modern policymaking is a business of solving problems (whereas I like a more "positive" approach, that appreciates and increases what's right - some zen shizzle I picked up in Cali.  For an example of how to do this, study the hopefulness in World Faces Aging Population Time Bomb, says UN - uh oh!)

Another quote from the same (Edward Hugh) Japan blog post: 
The future never resembles the past - as we well know. But, generally speaking, our imagination and our knowledge are too weak to tell us what particular changes to expect. We do not know what the future holds. Nevertheless, as living and moving beings, we are forced to act. - John Maynard Keynes

Our government might not be forced to act, but city-dwellers in Nigeria have already changed their behaviour in response to the strenuous costs of having children.  This is how someone put it: “Children were seen as a kind of insurance for the future; now they are a liability for life.”  Would you put it that way?