Chukwuemeka Edward Maduka: was a maestro, and social crusader popularly known as Emeka Morocco is unassuming and down to earth. Despite his larger-than-life image, the Ekpili music legend, today, might be pursuing a different career path if his father’s wish had prevailed. Morocco loved and played football skills before music took over him.
It was while displaying his football skills
that the name Morocco stuck. Ekpili music is both life and passion to Morocco.
He waxes strong on this career path that offered him fame and fortune despite
advancing in age.
Regarded as the King of Ekpili, Morocco music
did not invent Ekpili music but is acclaimed as the innovator of modern-day
Ekpili music. He is a bridge between the old guide and the new breed.
The Ukwulu, Anambra State-born music legend
is the first Ekpili musician to perform outside the shores of Nigeria. That Ekpili
music has stood the test of time is because Morocco was involved. His tireless
effort to promote and preserve the music wass notable. For his perseverance,
people now identify with Ekpili across the borders of the Southeast zone.
Morocco is not against music collaboration.
He made it clear that he did not like collaboration. He noted that he turned
down requests from musicians who wanted him to collaborate with them. A young
artist whose music did not sell once approached Morocco to remix his songs, but
Morocco declined. “I want my music to remain mine. So, let other musicians
compose theirs. Many young artists copy our pattern, refine it and do hip-hop.
For example, the late MC Loph sang Osita
Osadebe’s
music, Osondi Owendi with a different concept and changed the concept.”
Morocco started music in 1962 when he left
secondary school. Then people accorded less regard to musicians. He was
regarded as a vagabond (Akogheli). Morocco’s father was disappointed in him for
going into music, “After my secondary school education, my father saw it as the
height of madness that I deemed fit to go into music.” Back in the day,
secondary school education had more value than today’s university education.
Then, when you see someone taking to football or music, most people in society
see them as never doing well; people without a future. My father felt
disappointed with my change of career.
“Then, nobody believed that I would be
successful. By God’s providence, I became a success story. Since I started
music, I never regretted what I did. Nothing has impeded my music career. It
has always been a progressive movement. It shows God’s involvement in it. I
wish my father was alive to see and taste my success story.”
The ace musician recalled how the name originated from his secondary day, “The name Morocco came about in my secondary days at Eastern Commercial Secondary School Aba, Abia State. I played football then. On the pitch, I often told my teammates that I would dribble them from Nigeria to Morocco. From there other students started calling me Morocco Boy. That was how the name stuck. I later looked up the word in the dictionary. And you know what I discovered. That it was hide, (skin whose meat had been consumed), thinking that the skin was useless. It serves as raw materials for other products.
But looking at it from a moral perspective –
the message is that that person who people thought won’t amount to being
somebody has now made it and that told my story. From then I decided it would
be my name.”
For every chart-topping artist, a song brought them to the limelight. For Morocco, it was the song ‘Mgboye and Dominic’, from the Egu Ngbedike album released in 1979. According to Morocco, “It tells the story of how Dominic was reduced to a pauper; his wife abandoned him and ran to Aba. Dominic then won a lottery and became rich. The wife unknowingly lodged at Dominic’s hotel. When Dominic came to the hotel, he was told of a beautiful lady then lodged in his hotel. He requested to see her so that he could ask her out but discovered the lady was his wife. He asked her to leave the hotel.
She threatened to send him to jail if he
assaulted her. She discovered the man she was pouring invectives on was her
husband and begged for forgiveness. Dominic insisted that she leaves. She left
for Enugu, got pregnant, and delivered a baby boy. Thereafter, she
left for Aba with the baby for Dominic’s place to ask for forgiveness for the
sake of the baby. Dominic collected the baby from her stating he has forgiven
her. “The album was a hit. It announced my arrival on the music scene.”
One incident that remains indelible in
Morocco’s life, which initially appeared as a sad chapter, but projected his
career to a new height, was his rumoured death. While on a music tour of
Northern Nigeria in 1998, Morocco was rumored to have died in an auto accident.
In 1998, I was on a tour of Northern Nigeria, which kicked off in Abuja. He was
performing in Maiduguri when he heard about his supposed death.
“I received messages from the East while
performing in Maiduguri that I was dead. They asked me to come back home,
probably, to dispel the rumour. I told them I wouldn’t return until I was
through with the tour. Let the gossip mill grow stronger, I won’t return until
the end of my tour. I told them when I'm performing in Maiduguri that I would
leave for Gombe in continuation of my tour. I told them that after performing
in Gombe, I would go to Yola, and then I would return home. Anyone that claimed
that I was dead should come and see me there.”
Morocco returned to Ukwulu to a tumultuous
welcome. Before then en route to the East, he had to be stopped at Makurdi,
Oturkpo, Obollo Afor, and every other city he had performed after the rumour
broke out, to make people believe that he was alive. People trooped in, even
from neighbouring towns to jubilate with him.
The incident resulted in the ‘Asili 98’
album; it turned out to be a smash hit, one of his best-selling albums. He
described the song, which also bears the name of the album as his favourite
song. “This storey building where I reside was built from the proceeds of Asili
98. The song rained me money. With the rate at which money was coming, I
decided to erect a building. I bought land and started building immediately.
Besides, the money it fetched me, it was an interesting song.”
Morocco recalls no incident as the worst moment in his life but takes life as he sees it unfold, that whatever that happens, he took it like that. Comparing Egwu Ekpili then and now, “one thing with music is that as a town or society grows, people tend to adapt to changes that come with it. Back in the day, the music content was the message or moral lesson you want people to learn. Today, there is much praise singing in our music that happens to fetch easy money. Most of today’s musicians are into praise singing. You hardly get a message from them. That is just the difference.”
When it comes to Ekpili music Morocco is
known for introducing certain elements. “I was the first person to introduce
the guitar into the genre, the keyboard, and the first to use a microphone to
sing in Ekpili music. I was the first Ekpili musician to perform outside the
shores of Nigeria. I have performed in the US, London, South Africa, and
Malaysia. And by next March, I will perform in London and Hong Kong.”
As a veteran in the music industry, he has
groomed many and his influence rubbed off on some budding acts in the Ekpili
genre. Some go by his name, “We have Morocco Junior, Francis by name; he is
from Anam, popularly known as Nwa Morocco. There is Young Morocco, from my
hometown, Ukwulu. There is also Morocco Mbaise. He does my music but with a
touch of highlife. We also have Morocco Agwu in Enugu State. So, you can see,
we have lots of Moroccos.”
Post a Comment