“I cried after my first ever endorsement pitch”, Says the co-founder of Calif records, Paul Julius Nunda, popularly known as Jua Cali on Wednesday June 8, 2015 at the Fail Up event that was organized by Tech Sahara. We were in attendance and interacted with the King of Genge music.
Fail Up event is an initiative organized by TechSahara and sponsored by the Nailab incubator, to share the failure and challenges our local entrepreneurs had to endure before they made the big break.
“The first pitch was a flop because I wasn’t driving. ‘I was asked do you drive, and who is Jua Cali?’ it appeared the person I was pitching for did not know me as an artist”. Jua Cali says. The artist despite the failure did not give up on his music. “The only way we would get an audience was to have quality music”, he says. The Calif records duo did a lot of free shows to penetrate the market. They went as far as pirating their own music and distributing it.
Nowadays corporates approach him for endorsements. He has endorsed several brands including Motorola and Coca Cola.
Jua Cali has loved hip-hop music ever since he was a child and this is what birthed Genge music. Hip-hop music was not restrictive. The new genre name Genge, came 3 years after they started their musical journey. “The genre name was Clemo’s idea,” he tells us.
Clement Rapudo (Clemo) who was also in attendance is Jua Cali’s music producer and co-founder of Calif records. He says that the guide to choosing business partners is friendship, similar interest and same higher calling.
He advises artists to develop financial discipline, invest
their money and to remit their taxes. “Clearing with KRA helps in getting endorsement contracts with corporates,” Clemo says.
Recently, a young man broke into State House with intent to have the president listen to his songs and sponsor him with money to record his songs. Fellow musician Juliani, who was in attendance, says that an artist must go through the same process of building their brand and style. “There are no shortcuts to becoming a super musician”, he says.
On challenges, Clemo shares that structures are lacking in the industry. They are forced to create distribution channels for their music because of lack of transparency in the system.
What keeps him grounded? “Family, friends and God, the fact that I go to the studio, write songs and record them instantly is a God given gift”, Jua Cali says. He tells us that he remains relevant because Genge is versatile. “Calif records have also mentored other musicians, so the music will live on”, he says.