Lasso of truth
Meeting Omawumi and holding a conversation with her can be an exhausting experience. In between rehearsals with her No Time band at a Surulere studio that also serves as the offices of her manager, Sunday Are of List Entertainment. First one has gets the privilege of watching her perform warm ups with members of her band, most of whom have been with her since 2009. They perform singles from her latest album, Lasso of truth even as Omawumi intermittently takes a sip from the Jack Daniels bottle domiciled in a corner of the room. When the energy is low and she is not quite feeling it, she builds the morale, coercing more from her band members than even they think they can give.
Her insistence on performing with her band has gotten her in tight situations in the past as show promoters with an eye on pinching pennies have accused her of being difficult when in fact all she demands is simple professionalism. Interestingly, in today’s industry, a male singer who insists on performing with a live band would be tagged professional.
Omawumi is clear about which questions she will answer and is unafraid to give as good as she gets. It is not unusual at all to hear her go, “What kind of question are you asking me?” or even “I don’t understand what type of kpakaraka question you asked” when the line of questioning tests her patience.
This level of self-confidence can be refreshing when it isn’t off putting and Omawumi knows how to make it work for her. On the song Warn yourself off her sophomore album, she opens boldly, making herself heard clearly amidst the banging drums and noisy production, I know say I get am/So I no need anybody to tell me say I dey sexy before warning some poor dude off with You no go fit to contain me.
Indeed there has been no containing this diva. Three years after her debut, and two years after giving birth to her first child, while some of her contemporaries had dropped off the scene completely, Omawumi proved once again she is made of sterner stuff. Her sophomore album Lasso of truth dropped to critical acclaim, surprising no one anywhere. In the three years since her debut, terms had changed and Omawumi was largely accepted as part of the establishment, even when she remained essentially an independent artiste, signed to her own vanity label, Oma records.
The sound, arrangement and conception of this new disc showed little evolution, mirroring Wonder woman directly but Omawumi had the star power to generate both critical and commercial acclaim. According to Omawumi, Lasso did more than 100,000 copies in sales the first week of release thanks mostly to strong word of mouth and hit singles like If you ask me and Bottom belle (with Flavour).
In April 2013, about a month after the album release, Omawumi hosted the Lasso of truth concert at the Oriental hotel in Lagos. At the time, it was the first major female headlining concert by a contemporary Nigerian artiste and she received support from peers 2face Idibia, Flavour and Waje. The most emotional moment of the night occurred when she brought on stage, the late sir Herbert Udemba, the original singer and author of Bottom belle, the song she introduced to a whole new generation with her remake.
