{"id":93071,"date":"2021-11-26T13:39:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-26T11:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/?p=93071"},"modified":"2021-11-26T15:46:15","modified_gmt":"2021-11-26T13:46:15","slug":"dj-neptune-greatness-2-0-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/dj-neptune-greatness-2-0-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"DJ Neptune, the stars spell Greatness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

DJ Neptune<\/a> is appropriately one of the largest celestial bodies in the Nigerian music solar system. He\u2019s been around multiple epochs in a country that has seen much evolution, and carries planetary gravity that pulls superstars past and present into his orbit. An award winning disc jockey, and hailed as \u201cNigeria\u2019s answer to DJ Khaled<\/em>\u201d, DJ Neptune has had his fair share of accolades. Whether it\u2019s his breakout hip hop collaboration with M.I<\/a>, Naeto C, and Dagrin back in 2015 or the more recent \u201cNobody<\/a>\u201d with Joeboy<\/a> and Mr Eazi<\/a> which was Nigeria\u2019s #1 single in 2020, DJ Neptune has an ear for success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been in the industry for two decades now. I started very early and I\u2019ve seen some stellar artists come, I\u2019ve seen some not make it. I\u2019ve seen other emerging generations come and some didn\u2019t really make it that long and now this new generation. You know what they say, \u2018You can\u2019t buy experience. You must earn it.<\/em>\u2019” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though it wasn\u2019t always that way. Even stardust has an origin story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Birth of a DJ <\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI always wanted to be an entertainer.\u201d <\/em>says Imohiosen Patrick aka DJ Neptune during our call. \u201cMusic for me started as a kid. When I was growing up I always loved to listen to music and play the drums when I would go to church.\u201d<\/em> However it was on the eve of the 21st Century that DJ Neptune found his true calling. \u201cAll of this started in 1999 when I had the opportunity to attend a friend’s house party. That was when I had an encounter with a DJ for the first time. I saw this guy behind two decks. They were huge because then it was strictly turntables. He was flipping his hands and all that just felt like my dream.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

DJing in those days wasn\u2019t the star symbol that it is today. \u201cI would go to parties and basically play for free just to get people to understand. Because DJs back then nobody really got it. People thought it was just a bunch of dropouts who didn\u2019t know what to do with their lives.\u201d<\/em> Luckily, DJ Neptune had some help along the way. \u201cShout out to DJ Douglas who helped me get started,\u201d<\/em> Neptune says, speaking about his come up. \u201cI didn\u2019t have money to buy my own equipment. Equipment was mad expensive back then. I kinda already had an idea of what it was to be a DJ… good knowledge of music, understanding the different tempos, the BPM, and all that. I just needed someone to put me through the technical part of it. And that\u2019s what DJ Douglas gave me.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was also inspiration. Neptune remembers looking up to DJ Jimmy Jatt who was an early day maverick for Nigerian hip hop. \u201cDJ Jimmy Jatt who is like one of the pioneers in terms of Djing in Nigeria and Africa. He\u2019s one of them guys that when everyone didn\u2019t understand what it was to be a DJ he was pushing hard, pushing the narrative to where the game has gotten too.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The power of names<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Every great DJ also needs a name. That\u2019s something a mentor can\u2019t give you. However, like much of DJ Neptune’s celestial mechanics, things follow the unwritten flow of the cosmos. \u201cI was already a DJ, I wanted a name that would stand out. I tried messing around with different names that was related to my name because my name is Patrick so I tried DJ P Mix, DJ Master P Boy, it just wasn\u2019t sitting well.<\/em>\u201d Then, providence, \u201cwhile all that was happening, I was always playing a particular record when doing my set. It\u2019s a song by Busta Rhymes that was produced by the Neptunes, Pharrell and his band. There\u2019s a part on the record where Busta Rhymes gives the Neptunes a shoutout so I just grabbed that part of the record to do my spin, double record scratch. I didn\u2019t know that people already figured out that when this DJ is at a party, there\u2019s a tendency that that\u2019s gonna happen. And then, luckily for me, some guys who were at my previous parties saw me and they were excited like, \u2018Oh man this party is gonna be lit, this Neptune guy is here again!<\/em>\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rest is history. \u201cLuckily, for me, that worked. I just took off the \u2019s\u2019 and that\u2019s how I came up with DJ Neptune. And now the name just goes with the flow, everything, trying to work hard with this beat, that DJ that you could throw in front of any crowd at any festival and know for a fact he can deliver.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Riding the Nigerian airwaves<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Fast forward a few years and DJ Neptune found himself in the hot seat of Nigeria\u2019s premier radio station Ray Power FM. \u201cRay Power FM was the biggest station in Nigeria back then,<\/em>\u201d DJ Neptune explains, \u201cLiterally everyone around the country was plugged into what was being broadcasted out of Lagos State.<\/em>\u201d This put DJ Neptune in the precarious position of gatekeeper, deciding who to make and break on a daily basis. \u201cIt was crazy, a lot of people would try to be a friend.<\/em>\u201d Though this never went to his head as the center of gravity always remained a love and respect for music, \u201cFor me it was all about good music. If your music was good, I would definitely jam it. Because playing good music makes my job easy.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Easy or not, it wasn\u2019t long before DJ Neptune was wanting more. Maybe it’s his admiration of the infamous DJ Khaled, or maybe it\u2019s the pull of passion, but Neptune soon capitalized on his status as Nigeria\u2019s musical voice to branch out into new DJ arenas. \u201cGradually I started building my career. Naeto C, who was a rapper in Nigeria, signed me up to be his official DJ in 2008,<\/em>\u201d he explains. \u201cI got to travel around the world. Africa, Europe, UK, North America, and I did that for a couple of time. Then 2010 I started releasing my own music. I told myself, \u2018Okay, there\u2019s always been that music side of you, now as a DJ there are different ways to win.\u2019\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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