After 27 years of reinvention, Kcee is leaning deeper into highlife, heritage and family history, proving that legacy is not just built on hits, but on staying power. 

PULL QUOTE:
“Consistency is the only thing that can make you a legend.” – Kcee

All it took was one hit song. By the summer of 2013, Kingsley Okonkwo, better known as Kcee, had stepped fully back into the limelight with the release of his smash record, Limpopo. Roughly two years after his split from the defunct Afropop duo KC Presh, the Five Star Music frontman reintroduced himself to the scene with a mesmeric run of highlife-leaning pop bangers.

Raised in the bustling streets of Ajegunle, in Lagos, and shaped by the soundscape of a disc jockey father, Kcee’s journey has been a testament to purpose and perseverance.  From travelling across the country, selling music through Alaba-based distributors, performing to new crowds, Kcee has evolved as one of Afrobeats’ most durable hitmakers in the last 27 years. 

In recent times, he has found a renewed centre in highlife. From the viral anthem Ojapiano to the devotional highlife gospel series, Cultural Praise, and now his latest deeply personal album, Okonkwo and Sons Unlimited, he has continued to explore his Igbo heritage with strong ambition.  

Presently, Kcee is still stamping his longevity with confidence. His recent club hit, Idi Bad, featuring Olamide, extends that mission, pairing both Igbo and Yoruba music traditions in one song. From groovy highlife-folk fusions to club-ready pop bangers, Kcee has aged into a versatile crooner reinterpreting heritage with hit songs. 

Catching up with Guardian Life, the father of three welcomes us into his unique world of highlife, heritage and harmonies. In this conversation, he reflects on his evolution from KC Presh to solo stardom, the discipline behind building a sustainable career, the emotional story behind Okonkwo and Sons Unlimited, and the joys of being a family man and business mogul, among others. 

How would you describe your evolution from Kcee Presh till now? 

It has been a long run. I think we have 27 years in the music business. Twenty-seven years of hard work and of experiencing different eras and different genres, and all of that.

When I started, we used to do things differently. You needed to make sure that when you were going to the studio to record your harmonies and your lead, there were no mistakes. That era came and passed. Now, we are in the era of autotune, voice correction and whatever you are doing.

There was no social media then. We had to travel to Calabar, Benin, Port Harcourt, and Kano from Lagos to make sure our songs were being heard in all of those states. Now you just put it out of your house, and everybody is hearing it.

So, it has been a very beautiful experience coming this far. For me, I am kind of privileged to still be very active, because most of the people I started with are no longer active or doing the music business right now. So, I feel blessed and privileged to still experience what the music business is right now.

Also, there is streaming now. Then, we were selling our music through direct sales from us to Alaba marketers and all of that. But today, we have streaming. You just need to sit down and have it come to your doorstep and to your account.

One thing I also miss is that back then, we used to spend a lot of time writing music. We would think of it, write the music, think of what we wanted to say, what message we wanted to pass, before we got into the studio. We would rehearse it and all that. But I think it is the reverse now. Even if you think of the idea of what you want to sing or what you want to say, sometimes you need to be in the studio for the beat to direct you. The beat needs to tell you what to do. That is the age we are in right now.

In the past couple of years, you have been full-on in this high-life direction. What is that drive towards making highlife popular again for you?

When I started my journey, I started with the normal dancehall vibe because I grew up in Ajegunle. That was where we had the dancehall energy, where you had the likes of Daddy Showkey, Baba Fryo, Marvellous Benjy, African China and all of that. We were used to that dancehall energy. That was how I started my musical career.

At some point, when I noticed that the energy back then in Ajegunle was going down, I joined the Afrobeats energy. I switched because I am very, very versatile, and I do different sounds and different genres of sound.

So I was quick to move from that dancehall energy to the Afrobeats sound with my partner, Presh, and we did about 10 years with different hits. Shokori Bobo, Jangolova, name it. From that era to this point, I think I have been able to have different experiences and different sounds.

Now, getting to this era, I told myself in 2017 that I wanted to do highlife because my father was a DJ. Growing up in a home where my father was a DJ, he played a lot of genres of sound to me: highlife, R&B, pop, name it.

So I grew up, and at some point, I found out that there is more to highlife music. I am Igbo. I am from that region, and I felt like there needed to be more highlights on highlife music.

In 2017, I told myself we do not have the likes of Oliver De Coque or Osita Osadebe anymore. Most of those legends who were holding down that highlife sound were gone. They died so quickly, and I felt like it was time for me to highlight more.

I used to do it a little bit. If you hear Limpopo, if you hear Pullover, if you hear some of my records, I like to add highlife rhythm and melodies to my records. But in 2017, I said, no, I have to go deeper and make more highlife sound. I started doing it because there were not a lot of people doing it then.

By the grace of God, it did not take me any time. I was able to establish my presence and my foot on that highlife sound. Today, I think more people recognise me with my highlife sound and highlife image that I am portraying, which is intentional. That does not take away anything from me. It is just that this is what I choose to do as a creative and artistic person.

Sometimes you need to define where you are going or what you want to do, and that is what I decided to do. I think I am enjoying it, and I am not stopping anytime soon. I am even going deeper into it to project that highlife sound, because I think there is more to the sound than what people think or what people see.

Sometimes, when they generalise highlife music as Afrobeats, it hurts, because I think it is different. Highlife is different from Afrobeats. It is more musical. It is more melodious. It is sweeter. It is just like Makossa music. You cannot merge it with anything. Makossa is Makossa. It is different, and that is how highlife music is.

For me, I think I am enjoying my lane, and I am not getting any younger, by the way. So, I think with the highlife music, it is going to position me more to still be relevant and do music that suits me. Imagine if I were still doing Afrobeats at 50, at 60. It is not going to look good on me. So I decided early enough to make sure I move my tent to the highlife music that will also look good on me, because I am not intending to stop music anytime soon.

Let us go back to Okonkwo and Sons. That is an interesting statement name for an album. What story were you trying to tell with Okonkwo and Sons?

It was personal to me. As I said earlier, my father was a DJ, and he sold records. It was me, E-Money, my brother, and my elder brother. He is a pastor now. He is in Abuja right now.

My father had about three record stores. My brother was running one, I was running one, and E-Money was running one. My father was supervising us, and we would go to parties, DJ, go to events and all of that, and sell records. So that was where the love for music started for me.

At the point last year when I was doing that project, I just remembered that most of the songs there were on the highlife energy, and most of the inspiration was drawn from what I gathered back then as a DJ, as someone whose father was a DJ.

My father and I were in the music business, so it came to me like Okonkwo and Sons Unlimited. That was the title of the album. Unlimited means the music journey, the music business that I found myself in as a little boy, is not ending. It is not stopping, and it is not going to stop now.

So it was a personal thing that reminded me of where I started from and where I was coming from. I tried to put it out there, to register it, and in future, to remind people and tell people how my journey started.

Your latest record, Idi Bad (with Olamide), is very iconic because it has been a long time since we have seen two major cultural voices like this come together. What was the inspiration behind it? 

Last year, when I finished dropping the project, I told myself that this year I was going to go hard with collaborations. I was also going to bridge gaps, trying to see how I can merge the highlife sound, specifically, with other tribes, even with the Hausa sound, with the Yoruba sound, name it.

When I did the song Idi Bad, it sounded so real to me, so original. There was a sample of that song from Celestine Ukwu. It is also a very old highlife sound that I remembered back then, when I used to sell records with my father. Immediately I made that record, I sent it to Olamide. Olamide heard it and was like, no way, he is jumping on it. He loved it, and in less than 24 hours, he gave me a verse. I want to appreciate Olamide for jumping on an iconic song like that easily and giving me that wonderful verse.

Right now, with all your achievements, what does fulfilment still look like to you?

If I want to be honest with you, at this point in my career, I think I am fulfilled to a very large extent. Music has given me everything I own today: fame, money, family, everything. So I think I am fulfilled. I am not putting too much pressure on myself anymore.

I do not think there is anything I have not done. I have done a couple of albums. I have done a lot of singles. I have done collaborations with big acts and small acts in and out of the country. So I do not think there is anything. The legacy is there already. Even if I die today, people already know what I have done. They have seen my contribution to the music industry. So I think I am fulfilled. I am excited, and I am grateful to God. I am grateful to Kingsley Okonkwo, who is like me, for being true to the game and being hardworking. So I think I am fulfilled, and fulfilment to me feels like the way I feel right now: relaxed, comfortable. 

What advice would you give to emerging artistes looking to build a sustainable career in the industry today?

It is tough, and there are a lot of distractions out there. If you want to build a sustainable career, and you want to be a proper, proper legend and successful, I would just say, cut off all the noise. Do not pay attention to what anybody is saying. Do not forget that consistency is the only thing that can make you a legend. Also, stay true to the game. There are ethics of the job that you need to keep. Be honest. Be truthful. When you have an event, be there on time. Perform on time. Do not form too big for your customer, for your client and all of that. If you do all that, I think the sky will be your limit, and you will definitely get to your destination of being a legend.

Lastly, what is the vision for Kcee now, going forward? 

I think I have done it all. Trust me, I cannot lie to you. I want to be remembered for my good works, which is my music. Especially, that is what I have done all my life. I do not want to get it twisted or paint something else. I want people to sit back and say, “There was a guy called Kcee. He gave us some good records.” In my catalogue, I have inspirational songs. I have party songs. I have wedding songs. I have a lot of genres. I am a happy guy, so all of this has been reflected in my genres of sound and kind of music. So I want people to remember me for who I am, because everything I am inside is what I have exhibited and showcased in my music. Even with all the people I started music with 27 years ago, I put it to you that you cannot tell me if you find two people still doing music. So I want people to remember me for that. This guy was very passionate. This guy was so hardworking. He kept on going, because when people think it is over, I come up with another banger. That takes consistency and focus. That is who I am.