Agboola Segun Babawale popularly known as Wale 123 is a music promoter, showbiz entrepreneur, artistes manager, and the Chief Executive Officer of Purified Entertainment Company, a registered record label coy that specializes in signing the young up and coming artistes in the industry, in this interview with Kazeem Awojoodu, the music producer revealed his commitment to work with other stakeholders in projecting Ibadan as the next entertainment hub after Lagos, how he rise from being a clef player at the church to a music promoter, among others. Excerpts.
Can you share how your journey into entertainment industry started?
Agboola Segun Babawale is my name but people do call me Wale 123, I’m a Nigerian, a native of Ibadan, here in Oyo state.
I love music from my childhood days, I started music from the Church, because I was raised and brought up inside the Church, so music is part of me, I was once a choir, starting as a clef player, before migrating to a keyboard, then to a tenor bass, before I finally started singing, so the whole stuff started from the church. But now have started doing music by promoting the young, up and coming artistes, so today to the glory of God, I am the Chief Executive Officer of the Purified Entertainment, a record label with passion to nurture the young artistes to stardom.
What informed your decision into entertainment business and why did you decided to be promoting the up and coming artistes instead of the big artistes?
So many years back when we were so young then, myself and my friend David Preye Konwei we love doing music together, the zeal is there, the passion is there, we are like 5 and 6, and we so much believed in ourselves that we can do it, though later we all went into separate ways in order to find a greener pastures, I delved into business, I’m a good chef, and a tourist guide, so I left Nigeria shore for Kenya, in Kenya I started hustling as a Chef cum tourists guide, if any Nigerian visit Kenya I will arrange apartment for them, get them a nice accommodations, get them nice food and things like that.
So, on one particular day, I got an accommodations for one Nigerian and he told me that Wizkid is in Kenya to perform live at a show, and being a fan of Wizard I decided to go to the show, it was when I meet with the Wizkid that ignited the music in me passion again, I then called my friends in Nigeria, I was so excited, I told them about my encounter with Wizkid and I to go back into music fully, that’s why I came back to Nigeria and upon my arrival I called my childhood friend, David Konwei popularly known as Davidainojadu who is still active in music, I told him about my decision about promoting artistes and we started from afresh.
To the glory of today we have three singles that are doing well on Audio Mac, and other sites that you can download music, we still have more tracks that we are yet to launch, we also have a video that is currently trending.
Can you tell us more about your record label, the Purified Entertainment?
Purified Entertainment Company is a registered record label and apart from being a record label, we are also into all forms of entertainment business such as video documentary, skit making, artistes management, showbiz management, with our well kitted studio in Lekki axis of Lagos state any upcoming artistes that believe so much in himself can reach out to me, my door is open, that Lekki studio is a very nice studio, well equiped with state of the art musical instruments that will bring the best out of our signees, we equally have a wonderful mobile studio that was set up for our artistes, it’s a moveable studio, it can be use in anywhere, because we are always on the move.
We are into different genres of music be it hip-hop, Juju, Gospel, Afro hip-hop among others, this is a CAC registered company, so we have our competent team on ground and in the nearest future we are seeing ourselves at the top of the game.Right now, I have an hip-hop/Afro artist on our record label his name is David Preye Konwei and his stage name is Davidainojadu and this is someone that has been doing music for long, we are set to give our best in terms of music and entertainment to Nigerians, they should watch out for our brand. We are unveiling our new signees in couples of days.
What is your advise for the young coming artistes?
They should focus on their set goals, they must believe in themselves and be very hard working, and they must not forget God in everything they do.
Who are you role models in the industry?
I like Clever J and Danny Young, if I have the opportunity I like to have them in my studio cook a beat and nice tunes for them, their music then Konikoni Love really gave me some kind of feelings back then, I really enjoyed listening to that track a lot. But Wizkid is my Idol, I like Wizkid so much, he gave us courage that afro music can be a global phenomenon and today Afro music is a global phenomenon, so if I have the opportunity to have Wizkid in my Studio I will cook a nice beat for him.
Why are you always in Ibadan and what is your perception about the city in terms of entertainment?
Though Lagos entertainment hub in Nigeria but Ibadan is the next destination after Lagos, so Ibadan is also on the map when we talk about entertainment, tourism and all stuffs like that, we are getting there, and we will surely get there, my advise for the stakeholder in the industry is that they should come up and let’s make Ibadan city an entertainment hub just like Lagos, I’m ready to team up with any stakeholders to achieve this, I’m from Ibadan, I was born and bred in Ibadan North East local government, so Ibadan is our own.