Doing Life With… is a BellaNaija Features series that showcases how people live, work, travel, care for their families and… everything in between. We are documenting the lives of all people and ensuring everyone is well-represented at BN.
Our last conversation was with Director Pink. Did you miss it? You can catch up here.
This week, we are doing life with Cobhams Asuquo, a renowned Nigerian musician, producer, and songwriter known for his incredible talent and inspiring journey. His work has shaped the Nigerian music industry, and his perspective on resilience and creativity is widely respected. Enjoy the conversation!
Hello Cobhams. How are you feeling today?
I’m feeling pretty good thank you. How about you?
You’ve shared this a lot, but briefly tell us about your background and aspects of your childhood prepared you for who you are today
You’re right, I have shared this a lot. That’s how you know someone is telling the truth and you can pick out inconsistencies (laughs). As a child, I did everything I was big and bad enough to do. My life was filled with love and sunshine. I made music with everything around me including metal barrels my mom used for storing water, forks, knives, and everything around me. I played around, jumped over open gutters, raced friends to buy stuff, just about everything. I also listened to a lot of music. My parents played a lot of music at home and I feel like that helped me prepare for who I am today.
You’re always ready to talk about yourself and even use yourself as an example of resilience. In one of your TED talks, you said “Sometimes, sight is a distraction.” I wrote about it here. How important is it for you to use yourself as an example for possible feats?
Well, experience is the best teacher and the most vivid experience I’m aware of is the one I have. I’m an authority when it comes to myself; successes, failures and all. I know my own history and I can draw important lessons that I believe can help someone walking a similar path. My story adds to the pool of experience that affirms the school of thought that life repeats itself in varying dynamics.
You’ve achieved a lot of incredible things but what is that “intangible” thing that you’re so proud to have achieved? Intangible because they might be personal and not known to the public yet?
I think for me one of my greatest achievements is being able to keep my joy and my happiness. It’s been threatened more than a few times but I find that as people grow older, that’s something they lose. I often wonder if one day I will become one of those people. It’s a terrible thing to lose one’s happiness, and I’m acutely conscious of protecting it.
Is there a life philosophy that you live by and an unconventional thought that people might not agree with?
There are quite a few; in fact, some of them I cannot share here because you may lose like half of your readers (laughs!). But the overarching philosophy is, to weigh everything on the scales of love and intention; let it come from a place of love and teach yourself to always mean well so, let the intentions be good, that way you can always forgive yourself and others even when mistakes are made, cause mistakes will be made.
One fun fact that people will be amazed to know about you?
I suck my thumb when I sleep (laughs)! I was only joking! Fun fact, I’m very country at heart. I’m not talking about my songs cause I imagine people know that already. I’m talking, I like dirt roads, big trucks, a house on a farm, whiskey, guns, Jesus and barbecue! The full production. It all appeals to me naturally.
What’s a typical day in your life? That is, what you’d do from morning till night
Let’s see: I wake up early or late depending on when I sleep. I say my prayers, grab breakfast, and spend a lot of time working and daydreaming in my office. I build things in my head a lot. If I could see, I might’ve been an architect. I grab dinner, watch a ton of YouTube and go to sleep or work some more depending on what deadlines are looking like. Occasionally I host friends to barbecue and I manage to sneak some piano time. I listen to a lot of music throughout this process – anything from Bach to Drake to Cece Winans or Davido.
Everyone knows Cobahms Asuquo as a music maker. I use Music Maker because it encompasses anything music. But what other skill would people be surprised to learn you have? (It’s okay if you don’t have.)
I possess a set of interesting skills. For instance, I can taste food for Africa! Chai! My taste buds are working! I also consider myself something of a sommelier. I’m a good voice actor. I can mimic that your uncle that everybody laughs about behind his back. In fact, it was my special way of entertaining my family growing up. Growing up, I imitated most of my neighbours’ parents with exactitude. Chai, I should make money with this thing sha. (sighs then laughs).
There are three balls – red, green and black– and you’re to pick one. Black means you win $12,000. Green means you win something better than black. Red is a mystery. Which ball would you pick?
I’ll pick green.
If you’d like to remove and include three things in your life, what would they be and why?
That’s a difficult question for me to answer. Most of the things I would have said I’d like to remove have helped in shaping my most invaluable experiences. The things I would like to include, I’m including them now because I believe when you wake up is your morning. Sha just don’t wake up at 7 pm. Generally, I like my life. That said, if you have 50 million dollars that you’re not using I’d like to include that in my life (laughs!).
Thank you for being Doing Life With…, Cobhams
Thank you for having me.
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Many thanks to Cobhams Asuquo for having this conversation with us and answering all our questions – and swiftly too, we must add.
Do you love this content, have any feedback for us or want to be a BellaNaija Features contributor? We’d love to read from you. Shoot us an email: [email protected]. Join us on Saturday for the next episode!
