In spite of the strong pull he had towards music early in life, due to the strong culture of hip hop and rap as a medium of expression in the Bronx, Kingsley Kenechukwu Okolo aka King K.C, had no other option than to study hard in complete obedience to his dotting parents, who insisted that he obtains a college degree before thinking of anything else.
Of course, his parent’s insistence on education was borne out of the decadent culture of crime, gangasterism and bloodletting, which was, and is still to some extent, the hallmark of the Bronx. In this instance, King K.C remains ever grateful to his elder sister, Wendy, who helped in steering his adventurous and impressionable young mind and thoughts off the prevalent street gangs and criminal fraternities of the time, as she kept reminding him of his “immense creative talents that must be nurtured and utilized for the benefit of mankind.”
The 24-year-old Enugu State-born K.C, who was taken to America at the age of two by his parents, started his academic journey at the PS -11 Elementary School in the South Bronx, before proceeding to the Kappa Academy for his Middle School and Andrew Jackson High School, Queens for his high school certificates; he then capped it with a degree from the prestigious Brooklyn College in New York.
After leaving school with credible results, positive assessment reports and crime free status (this is a big plus for a young black male from the Bronx), King K.C finally received the nod from his parents to stir it up musically; and he wasted no time in hitting the studio for his first single, Alarm!
The single, which was released in New York City, in October 2017, on his own private label called Royal Music, talks about a shy girl who loves him but lacks the temerity to confront him. The accolades and recognitions he received from the reviews then fuelled his hunger and determination to do more.
A resonating voice for the advancement of the protection of the girl-child, women and vulnerable children, K.C is also an avowed “ladies man” who avers that he makes music for the entertainment of his female fans. After about two years of kicking up dust in the bustling New York music scene, K.C is finally home to stake a claim in the Nigerian music industry, and he is doing it in style by settling an old score with a love interest.
At age 18, while still a freshman in college, K.C visited Nigeria on holidays and fell in love again with the sights and sounds of his motherland. A healthy teenager with plenty energy to burn; he came, he saw and he was ultimately conquered by love. Shakira (not her real name) was all the young K.C needed, and she was also madly in love with him. After about two months of love-filled coitus, K.C returned to America with a mutual vow of a lifelong conjugal bliss and togetherness exchanged between each other.
Two years into the whirlwind but long distance love affair, K.C was unexpectedly swept off his feet by a ravishing American siren who turned his world around in so many positive ways, and he broke up with Shakira. Now, he is coming full circle with restitution bargains and pleas, encased in apologies and promises of making it up financially, for the Nigerian girl, Shakira.
Through the creative ingenuity of the Olympic torchbearer, social crusader and hip hop star, Eedris Abdulkareem and his Lakreem Entertainment crew, K.C has finished dotting his i’s and crossing his t’s in preparation for the release of his introductory single into the Nigerian music scene.
Produced by Soso Beat and titled ‘Mabinu Simi’, the single features legendary disc jokey, DJ Jimmy Jatt. It showcases a love struck K.C caught in the web of a love triangle, pleading and explaining his actions and inactions, while Jimmy Jatt comes out in this song as a super act, methodically digging his creative claws into the intrinsic fibers of lyricism.
The song boasts clean lyrics with nuggets of wisdom and lessons of life, all anchored on a bubbling sound accompaniment that gets you grooving along before you know it. According to the management of Lakreem Entertainment, the video of the single is already in the works and shall hit the airwaves in a forthnight alongside the audio.