Singer, Orezi, was criticised by online commentators this week shortly after he released a picture to promote his new music, Born Broke Die Rich.
In the picture, the singer appeared to have set ablaze N1,000 note. Many Nigerians felt it was disrespectful to Nigeria and the country’s legal tender. However, in an exclusive interview with Saturday Beats, the singer noted that it was an edited picture.
He said, “I never burnt the N1,000 note like people thought, it was just graphics; an edited picture. I did not burn the Nigerian currency. If you look at the picture, you would see that the fire almost got to my eyes. If it were real, I would not have been able to withstand the heat. I cannot allow fire to burn my eyes because I want to take a picture. I replied some comments when people were criticising me because of the picture.
“I told them that it was an artistic paper and I did not burn the Nigerian currency. Why would I burn money to promote my music? A lot of my fans also tried to explain to those that were abusing me that it was an edited picture, but they would not listen. Some people went as far as saying that they would arrest me because it is against the law, but I did not burn the money. It is not everything that you can explain to people; sometimes you just have to keep quiet.”
Speaking about ‘Born Broke Die Rich’, the singer said it was inspired by his life story.
“It is just a song for people like me who were not born with a silver spoon in their mouth, but we aspire to be great so that our children would not suffer the way we did.
“It is an inspirational song that advises people like me to work hard for their children’s sake. In the song, I said that my child must not suffer the way I did and that is why I work hard the way I do,” he said.
In 2013, there was a rumour that the singer had signed on with Davido’s record label but since the news went viral, nothing has been heard about the deal. During his interview with Saturday Beats, the singer spoke about the purported deal.
“I never signed on with Davido’s record label. We were supposed to work together and we had a deal but at the time, he travelled (out) and the deal was taking too long. Some things were not in place for the deal to happen so we decided to hold on. However, we are very good friends and we have done about two songs together.
“This year, we would also do some projects together. Right now, I am an independent artiste signed on with my record label, Gehn Gehn Music,” he said.