Not yet ready to leave advertising for poetry – Ndukwe Onuoha

Ndukweonuoha,inthe advertising industry, is not a small fry. But in the entertainment industry, especially the poetry genre, the young man is fast becoming a big name. With the release of his sophomore album titled Nwachukwu, the Abia State born poet is cementing his feet in the arts and not ready to leave any time soon.

In a recent chat with Bliss during the album launch, the artiste said poetry came natural to him many years ago.

“Growing up, I was surrounded by books and TV and all of that. Part of the books that caught my attention in the house was some collections of poetry. I loved the play of words and for me, I kept reading and reading. I just wanted to try my hands at writing some of the stuff I had been reading for a long times.

“Sometime in 2008, I went to Anthill where I met Toni Kan and Steve Babaeko. They encouraged me to share some of my poetry and moving on to other spaces and being under some communities of poets helped me to hone my skills and to finally take a leap into producing a body of work. I did that in 2017. I have an album called ‘Revolutionary Verses’. Two years later I came up with this ‘Nwachukwu’”.

Ndukwe’s work is infused with music and he readily admitted that he is not a slam poet.

“I have never been a slam poet. I see that music helps to open the door for those who may not be into mainstream poetry.”

He said he had to infuse music because, “Music helps those who would rather listen to other forms of arts to appreciate this poetry before they even start listening to the words. For me, I found out early that if I have to make people listen, I need a device that would help me

do that. That’s how I decided to infuse music.”

However, Ndukwe said he doesn’t have anything against those who are slam poets.

“That I am not into R&B and pop doesn’t mean that I have an issue with those genres. It is just that being a performance poet works better for me. I am more comfortable with it. I would call my kind of poetry ‘performance poetry’. It is not as if I am trying to create a new genre. It is just poetry laced with music. I just try to be very casual with my performance.”

Getting some artiste to feature in his album wasn’t that difficult, he said. According to him, the artistes, whoincludedmakaandpraiz,were his friends and they readily agreed to be a part of his album.

“I have known them for a long while. Some time, you would listen to a track and you would know that a particular artiste would fit in very well. It was just something I shared with friends and they were gracious to say yes and be a part of it.”

As much as his genre of art is not so commercial in this part of the world yet, Ndukwe said it is not a problem for him.

“I think the problem a lot of people have is when they try to make everything for everyone. If you should be honest with yourself, it is not everyone that would appreciate poetry but then, it is still not everyone that appreciates commercial music. It is just for you to stay true to your lane. Don’t have the expectation that all Nigerians would wake up one morning and start rhyming along with you. You just know that there are some that would appreciate your work more than the others. If you are okay with that then it should suffice.”

“However, I think this genre is being appreciated here. Some brands now use spoken words as part of their campaigns. I have done stuff for a few brands. We need to give it time. It is just a matter of time, a lot of poets have paved the way and some are still paving the way. I believe in the future, it would be a career path for some people and not just for people who just dabbled into it.”

Even as Ndukwe has rose through the ranks to become creative director for one of the leading advertising agencies in the country, the poet said it has not been difficult juggling the two.

“It is one of the perks of being a creative director; you do more of overseeing rather than the day to day grind of the work. But I still take my job very seriously. I wouldn’t want to do a disservice to my career while pursuing another. If I have to do something, I make sure I put in proper paperwork. I always make sure I don’t make one thing suffer for the other.

At the moment, Ndukwe said choosingoneoutofthetwoprofessions might be a difficult thing to do.

“It is like asking which of your kids you prefer. I absolutely love advertisingbutilovespokenwords and where it is taking me. I will leave it hanging until I have to make a hard decision. Right now, I can juggle the two.”