Compared to his usual energetic type of musical vibe, Nigerian Rapper, singer and songwriter, Chimaobi Christmathner Owoh, popularly known as Zoroswagbag, recently released his first ever EP ‘Sound Check’ which is a totally different vibe from what we are used to. He shares the idea behind the creation of this extraordinary masterpiece in this interview with Dom Alonge.
Could you introduce us to the man behind Zoroswagbag?
ZOROSWAGBAG: My real name is Chimaobi. I come from Ituku, in Awgu local government area of Enugu State. I was born in Awka Road, Onitsha, Anambra State. I grew up in Onitsha until my secondary school when I had to go to Enugu to a high school called College of Immaculate Conception (CIC), Enugu. After that, I went to IMT for 2years, got an OND then went to UNIZIK, before I moved to Lagos to start to chase music properly.
What does music mean to you?
ZOROSWAGBAG: You know all those offices you see in skyscrapers when you are driving at night and you start wondering what they do there, that’s what music is to me. It is anything that would have someone wake up early in the morning and rush to go to their office, be it passion, money. It is just whatever drives you to do whatever you continue to do, to stay hungry for what you do, that’s what music is for me. There is passion in there, there is love for it. I have to also make ends meet. There is a medium which I also express myself, a medium which I also teach people, and I also make my mistakes and learn.
How long have you been doing music?
ZOROSWAGBAG: Officially, since 2016. I had been underground just hustling and whiling away time, not taking music seriously until 2016 when I told myself to give it my all and if it works I stay, if it doesn’t I have to do something else.
What is that encounter that you have had that made you certain that you were on the right track as an artiste?
ZOROSWAGBAG: I have had a couple of encounters. The first one was in 2010 when my friends were gassing me up that they thought I was good with rap and that I should take it seriously but to me it was just like cruise. So I went to church, the Blessed Sacrament, because I am Catholic, and I knelt down and said ‘God, if this is this is the path that you want me to be give me a sign. I want a sign that would be very strong for me to know that it is you’ and the next month I got featured on a song called Owusagi by Wizboy. I was in the original version of the song and in December/January the song became the biggest song in the East, at that time, so I was like ‘okay, God actually wants me to do this’.
By 2016, I had already started getting tired because I was at a level where I was known in Onitsha and Enugu, so I was like what’s next? Am I going to continue going for shows where after the performance I would start looking for babes to collect their number? Is that what it is? So I told God that if he didn’t go big, then I would just leave the country. I got my passport, for the first time ready so that if I try this one time and it didn’t work I would leave the country. That was when I did Ogini with Flavour and it blew in 2weeks. Those were two times that I have been convinced that I am on the right path.
When did your first encounter with your talent? When did you discover that you could rap very well?
ZOROSWAGBAG: In secondary school, I spent a lot of time writing. I never rapped or did any freestyle. Even when I did Ogini, I knew I was good, but I wasn’t fully convinced. It was in 2018 when I started recording some songs that I knew where it was coming from. I knew it was coming from a very special place, a place that I have not been able to have myself operate from. It was then I knew that because of where this is coming from I have the power to make it sound anyhow I want. Before that time, I would just wait until I experience something that is related to what I am trying to write about.
Why did you name your new EP Sound Check?
ZOROSWAGBAG: I named it sound check because it is the calm before the storm. I am known to be very energetic even though my music is now a little bit calm but not completely as calm as I made sound check. I also have my high energy songs that I did not put in sound check because I want it to be a different type of Zoro. Like, you know when you do sound check ‘testing 1-2’ then you go back and then do the main performance, my next project is the main performance. Sound check is testing the microphone, and checking if everything is okay for us to proceed. So far so good everything has been okay.
How did it feel creating this work? What do you hope the listeners can get out of this?
ZOROSWAGBAG: I hope that they are able to see that there is a lot more to Zoro than the box that I have been put in, even though I didn’t ask to be put in a box. I feel a lot of people already get it even though it got me critics but more people, more than I expected, got what I was trying to do. When I was creating it I wanted to have a good time, I wanted to do music on my terms, I wanted to do what I like and Sound Check is a good example of the type of music that I like, how I love to do stuff. I love to experiment a lot, so I did it for myself first and then I did it for that fan that has an image of Zoro but still wants to be surprised and I feel like they were surprised because they never guessed I could do stuff like I did on sound check, I can actually do stuff like that a lot. The feedback is beyond my expectations, even though we have not started pushing it, it has been amazing since we released it.
What’s your favorite track on the EP?
ZOROSWAGBAG: It would be Medicine after Death featuring Mohbad because it is a beautiful song, and Mohbad being on it would make me put it above every other song.
Talk to us about your most pleasant experience in your career so far?
ZOROSWAGBAG: I think that it is actually being able to find my feet, to record a project because sound check is like my debut even though I have been around for a while. It has just been this wahala to the other wahala, and being able to find my feet and stamp it on the ground, start a project and finish it, is my most pleasant experience so far in the game. It is so beautiful and so motivating that I don’t think anything can supersede it.
Over the years, we have seen a lot of synergy between Igbo and Yoruba artists, do you have anyone you have found that synergy with?
ZOROSWAGBAG: I feel like there are two people I share very strong relationships with and that’s Falz and Mayorkun. Falz and I were supposed to do an EP but everybody got busy while I and Mayor share the same amount of respect for each other. I am a fan of his talent, he is one of the most flexible artist I know. Falz is a very prolific rapper, he motivates me to continue to do things right.
If you had the unlimited opportunity to feature an artist on a tape or an album, who would it be? Internationally and locally?
ZOROSWAGBAG: I think that given how much finesse that is going to be in the next project, of course Burna Boy is going to be heard on it, and Davido too is going to be solid on it. Internationally, I think that Angélique Kidjo would be also beautiful and there’s this South African artist also.
If you weren’t into music, were do you think you would have ended up? Something related to music or something totally different?
ZOROSWAGBAG: I think I would have probably gone into buying and selling. When I was in Uni I used to go to Aba, buy shirts in Aba and come back to school and sell them. I would go to Onitsha, buy those plastic glasses that they sell cheap. Buy the glasses, buy the packs and sell to babes. So I would have probably just been selling stuff.
Any words for your fans?
ZOROSWAGBAG: I want to say a very big thank you to everyone who has supported me from day one and the new people who just started supporting me, I appreciate the support and the love. I appreciate the spreading of the music. I appreciate all the fights that you guys fight for me. I would also love for them to keep an open mind, an open mind to my personality, an open mind to my music, an open mind to the way I create, I don’t try to be different I just create what comes to me.
I would also advise that in whatever they do they should try to put God first and never try to take the fast way to get stuff and then hurt people because karma is gonna come, and if it doesn’t come to you it is going to come to your kids. I would also advise spending more time on your weakness and less on your strength, in that way you are already becoming a bigger person because your strength would always be there but the things you don’t know how to do would take longer time to learn, so spend more time on it, by doing that you give balance to your strength.
