By Duke of Shomolu
It has been a heated session this morning behind the scenes of my podcast – Duke Rants on the Muvmnt Studio. On the back of that explosive interview granted by another podcast by a young misguided youth, my backup team had expressed the desire for us to jump on that train to entertain conversations with her ilk or at worst get a guest that would counter.
But Tosh, the hardworking head honcho and visionary who brought together the Dukes Rants would have none of that. For her, The Muvmnt Studios, the umbrella platform for the Dukes rants and the other podcast which deals with life issues were designed to uphold certain values, tendencies and ethos none of which would align with that train wreck of a conversation.
For those of you who have not seen the interview, let me rehash it. She alluded to the fact that money was everything and that ‘as you talk to me, u must have N500k to spend, you must pay for my skin, cos skin care is very expensive’.
In response to another question, she goes – with N20m, I will open my legs for you, at least one time.
She now goes on and on about money being the essence of her puny life, bombing her listeners with a homily on money, money, money as the main driving force of her life.
You must give me a reason to leave my man and that reason is money. If you credit my account with money, that will give me an excuse to leave my man.
She continued, you must pay for my beauty. Yes, you must, cos beauty is not cheap. If I want to get married today, I will, she shouts in a boast. Can I open my DM, she dares, so you see the number of men begging for my hand in marriage?
Now this interview has gone haywire, it has now become the talk of the town eliciting all sorts of reactions up to this morning and up at our podcast back-end meeting.
I, for one, do not believe this reality. I think it’s a script written to garner attention and drive traffic. To me, that was a brilliant performance carried with the confidence of a well-trained actress.
But tarry awhile, what if for a second she is dann serious? I know there are a lot of women with those kinds of tendencies, and I have met some. Women who believe money can do anything, including opening their legs for jobs, contracts, lifestyle, and everything.
These women abound and are very audacious about their outlook towards life. But for me, today, it throws up a different kind of debate – the debate of the podcasts.
Now, how many of u remember Jerry Springer, the trashy, very popular talk show that took the world by storm? All sorts of people came out of the woodworks to display all sorts of depravity and even beat themselves up on stage and trash-talked themselves all to the glee of the producers and audience with their eye on ratings.
Now juxtapose this with the Oprah Winfrey show. Oprah was sexy and classy. It was artsy and very influential. Appealed to the clean mainstream audience who were aspirational and literary in approach.
The Oprah Book Club pushed a lot of books to the bestseller list and didn’t rely on sex or any of those gutter tactics to maintain relevance and this is where we are at the Muvmnt Studios with The Dukes Rant.
In designing the podcast, Tosh and I looked at the plethora of podcasts that now litter social media. There are so many to even contemplate, most targeting the same demographic and the sex and scandal-driven madness that is the digital market.
We knew we would not want to compete in that space, so we designed something looking more towards Oprah but more edgy. Something more punchy than Oprah with those – where did that come from questions, that shock the audience but pull the mischief from the otherwise serious guests.
In choosing the guests, we looked for sophistication, class, and much more importantly, influence and depth. From Pastor Itua through Timi Dakolo and Tonye Cole and the very influentially brilliant Dele Momodu care has been taken to pull in a very strict but sweet coterie of guests that will push our goal of delivering a very impactful message.
Now see the Ruth Osime interview and juxtapose it with this little girl who is trending as we speak.
Ruth is an iconic figure in media and fashion. At 60, she has garnered enough weight in society, that her engagements can only be one of the most profound experiences ever.
That interview, sweetly touched on some very critical issues from adult sex towards the evolution of media, style, and relationships to mention a few
Now, we will not fool ourselves to think that such topics as discussed with Ruth, or the ever so brilliant experiences between the last days of immortal MKO, or the beautiful renditions of Yoruba folk tales delving into mythical poetry or Ituah reflection on the day he lost his wife or Timi Dakolo’s almost spiritual odyssey in making those songs and lastly Laide’s mad exposition on the role of DNA in illicit affairs would resonate with the fickle demographics who just want to run with sex, scandal and drugs as fuel for engagement.
So, for us at Muvmnt Studio we are looking for a more sustainable impact, pushing through a more serious demographic and engaging with very engaged guests as we carve out a distinct positioning in an otherwise very mad creative space.
Watch out for my talks with Seun Kuti and Kehinde Bankole.*
Thanks
Duke of Shomolu