Chinedu Ejiogu
A dancehall reggae artiste who rocked the Nigerian airwaves in the early 2000s, Chinedu Ejiogu had courted thousands of followers with his songs such as ‘Experiment One,’ ‘Omo Naija’ and ‘Larimo’ before migrating to America where he studied Electronics Engineering, specialising in telecommunication. After years of performances in the United States of America, Ejiogu, a.k.a. Jimmy Sugar Cane returned to Nigeria recently to launch his latest album ‘Oya.’ With his full swag activated, Ejiogu’s presence in Lagos and his new music offerings at the listening party in Lekki attested to his continuing intimacy with African culture, writes Funke Olaode
Chinedu Ejiogu, popularly known as Jimmy Sugar Cane was one of the raves-of-the moment in the early 2000s before he migrated to the United States of America where he continued to combine music with education and later, the corporate world.
Music does not run in his family. His father was a successful businessman while his mother worked in the aviation industry. Ejiogu’s self-discovery happened in 2002 when he released his first album, ‘Experiment One.’ That was 20 years ago. He has since moved beyond his past achievements to continue to do more exploits and break boundaries.
It was a homecoming for the US-based Ejiogu when he launched his latest album, ‘Oya’ at a listening party held at Balcony Club tucked inside Elegushi Beach, Ikate Lagos recently. The crowd was overwhelming as established artists, many on-air personalities were in attendance. His music promoter, Olabanji Adelana was on his toes to ensure he had a successful outing.
Still basking in the euphoria of the album launch, Ejiogu smiled as he expressed his delight at being back in Lagos. Tracing his roots and parentage, he is proud to be from Orlu heritage in Imo state.
“My case is destiny because I wasn’t planning to be born in England. The economy was good and the environment was comfortable. So, it wasn’t a ‘japa’ season. My late father was a contractor dealing in newsprint while my mother was working for the Nigerian Airways. While she was pregnant, the teaching hospital was on strike and she just took the next available flight to London and had me there. I am the only one among my siblings that was born abroad,” he recalled.
Like many families in the 60s, the elder Ejiogus also experienced the destruction and disruption of that era and when the Nigerian Civil War ended, the family came back and settled down on number 13, Saka Street, Shogunle, Lagos, which was then under Ikeja Local Government.
Recounting his childhood years in Lagos, he said, “I am a Lagos boy. I am a Shogunle boy. Lagos has always been huge. I remembered in primary school when our teacher would talk about geography and the population of Lagos being bigger than the population of the whole of Angola. Lagos has always been a populated city that was growing then. But today, it is over-populated.”
Though now based in America, it is with a sense of pride that Ejiogu recalled the memories of his Shogunle roots and how they shaped his values and character.
“I wouldn’t say Lagos moulded me. I will say Shogunle influenced me. It was not an economically privileged community, but we had self-respect, we were taught to respect our elders, and value ourselves. You can’t love somebody if you don’t love yourself, so we were taught to love ourselves and we were raised by the whole community. My parents went to the United States before us, so my last five years in Nigeria before I migrated to the United States, I was actually raised by Shogunle.”
Today, Ejiogu is a citizen of the world. He is a Nigerian by blood, British by birth and currently an American resident.
“I went to a public school where I met pupils from different backgrounds. I went to Maryland Comprehensive Private Primary School in Mende, Maryland, Lagos. And when my parents said I was going to attend Ikeja High School I protested that I didn’t want to go there. But it was really a blessing in disguise, now I see what they saw before they made that decision.”
Ikeja High School later became a training ground that exposed Ejiogu to the world of the haves and the have-nots.
“It was a learning process. I met pupils from different backgrounds and religions such as Oliver Jane, Morgan, and the likes of Gladys Nwachukwu. It really made us respect different people and religions,” he recalled.
He continued: “There is so much more you can be and it all starts with the school. God bless Mr. Olasoji, our teacher. We still love him, we just celebrated his birthday not too long ago. A bunch of my setmates went to visit him. He set a standard. Mr. Olasoji would sit in his office and watch the gate and won’t let pupils out. You could hear his loud voice from there saying ‘where are you going, are you not supposed to be in your science class now?’ So that kept a lot of our teachers on their toes, there was no room to mess up.”
It was in Ikeja High School that he began his musical trajectory.
By the time he left Nigeria, he noticed that parents were actually paying for ‘expo’, that is, leaked exam questions for their children, rather than making the kids earn their grades on merit.
“And that is where I argue with people: You can’t pluck an apple from a mango tree and expect orange juice. So, if we have bad governance, it comes from the people, the people produced the bad government. And that culture from being proud as a kid, clearing the papers in one sitting, paying for your kids so that you can brag about it has been on from time immemorial.”
Ejiogu had always been science inclined and didn’t hesitate to toe that path, and when he migrated to the United States in 1995, he embraced it fully. “After JSS 3, we went to trial for either Commercial, Art or Science. I knew I could not remember all these theories because I wasn’t good at art. Science for me was natural, my physics used to tell me, you drop the ball, that is deceleration, if you keep it, that is acceleration. So, science is practical and I continued in college.”
Ejiogu would later pursue a degree in electrical engineering at DeVry University Chicago, United States. While pursuing his degree, he did an internship with Legend Technologies, a big company with global recognition in his final year, which later opened tons of opportunities for him in the world of telecoms. He later worked with AT&T, one of the biggest telecommunication companies in the world, for about seven years. There, he learnt installation, commissioning, project management and how to build a network from start to finish. It was a big plus for him while pursuing his music career simply because he used his degree certificate to fund showbiz.
Ejiogu has since metamorphosed from being an ordinary musician to a crowd puller. He is a showstopper: tall and strong. His vibrating deep voice betrays his lean figure.
At what stage did he embrace music? “It was purely a self-discovery. It began in JSS2 when I was asked to raise the public address system in my school during some of our performances. I think I am pretty good at soccer but when there is a crowd, I freeze. I am not so good, my passes are not so accurate and my decisions are not so great. I got on stage in school, in front of the whole school, it was like I was on cloud nine.”
Speaking further, “Music has always been in my DNA. I have always embraced music and whenever I have the opportunity to actually do music I plunge myself into it. I graduated from college at the age of 21, and that gave me the opportunity to satisfy my parents and also pursue my dreams. I was very, very ripe for my choice then and that was what made me happy.”
Ejiogu released his first album ‘Experiment One’ in 2002, ‘Omo Naija’ in 2005, and ‘Larimo’ in 2006. He continued with his act in America. He did a couple of mixed-tapes/singles such as proud Naija. “I have never been excited about that song. We also had ‘metunaka’ when we went to the east.”
The musician had a long break from the industry. He explained the reason for his long absence. “The industry changed totally. It wasn’t what it used to be. You have to be fully prepared if you want to come in because it is not a child’s play and it is not bread and butter. Things are changing, music is changing, and there are new producers, so it is a new trend. To break even, one has to learn to blend and flow with the movement.”
How would he categorise his genre of music? “I am a Nigerian but I am a dancehall reggae artiste. As you can tell I have been doing this before the whole Afrobeats sensation came in. I get to blend my natural dancehall skills with Afrobeats, Afro hip-hop and Afro reggae.
“When you are talking of reggae, you are talking of Peter Tosh, Bob Marley, or Crowders and everything centres on these people by keeping it simple and easy. But no matter how the song is ultimately you need to be able to hold the microphone and control more of the crowd. That is how it works.”
His stage name, Jimmy Sugar Cane alludes to his stature. “As you can see, I am slim, strong and tall. My very first album was released under the name Wisdom. I have had these aliases and I will shout them out ‘I am Jimmy Sugar Cane’ and the fans took to Jimmy. Nobody called me Wisdom, they called me Jimmy and that is how Jimmy came to be.”
The world seems to have moved on from Ejiogu’s genre of music. It is fast embracing Afrobeats music. He is confident that he still has a place. “I have my place and I believe my place is intact. Asians are doing Afrobeats. When you compare Nigeria to Jamaica and what dancehall has done, you will believe him. Reggae has evolved but it is still a dance hall. Reggae has evolved but it is still reggae, it is their culture. We have a culture of survival and I believe I will survive.”
No doubt some of his hit songs would be great for remixing by some of the new generation of artistes. Is he contemplating collaborating? “I hope so, but if I had my choice I am a fan of certain artists. Yes, there is a consideration for collaboration with some artists and we have started talking to them. I like Oritsefemi, Omawumi, Simi, and 2Baba.”
For Ejiogu, there is no place like home and he is excited to be back. “I have always come back to Nigeria. I think my longest stay outside of Nigeria was when I first left in 1995. In 2000 I came. Actually I love Nigeria so much so I came to Nigeria in 2000 with just $500. I said I have been away too long, I just wanted to come home. That was all I had, so I just came home for like a week then I went back. In 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, and 2012 I stayed for a year. In 2016 I came, 2018 I came with the whole family. Unfortunately, in 2021 I came to bury my dad and I am back again. So I have not really left Nigeria that is why I am able to survive.”
Ejiogu is married to an African-American lady, Kameelah and blessed with two boys. Talking about his wife, he said, “My wife is African-American but she is too Nigerian for me. She is actually very Igbo (laughing). A lot of times she is able to come home and blend. If she talks you just think she is another Igbo girl. She is actually more Nigerian than me. She came in 2019 with my cousin for a wedding. She also bears Sade.”
You may wonder how his wife came about the name, Sade? It is because of the British-Nigerian singer, Sade Adu.
