20 Minutes with POMPI

This is my first entry to the #ugblogmonth. I decided to jump in today because I have been wanting to write about this for a long time. I didn’t struggle to pick who I would choose for the 20 minutes. I knew that it had to be someone from Lota House. If it were possible, I would choose all the artists. But alas, it is not.

A lot of the people that know me will tell you why I decided to jump in today. It’s in the title. I think my love for Pompi’s music is very well documented on almost all my social media. I am very vocal about this love.

My neighbours have heard me play his music. All my playlists feature his songs. My dad threatened to ship me off to Zambia to find Pompi when I played and replayed his album Become the whole day. He who favours Nigerian gospel begrudgingly admitted that Pompi’s music is great.

In my mind, I have already had this conversation with Pompi. The picture unfolds like a movie in my head each time. I am seated in the room we are to have this 20 minute meeting, going over the questions that I have noted down lest I forget. I am nervous, my heart is pumping out of it’s chest. Every so often I turn to stare at the door so I can see him walk in.

The door turns and he walks in. I stand up and wipe my already wet palms on my jeans before extending my left hand, forgetting that it’s the right hand that is used to shake hands. He’s too kind and doesn’t mention my fumble. I bite down the urge to tell him that I am big fan of his. Bite down the urge to scream at his presence but what I’m sure I won’t stop doing is smiling.

The first thing I tell him is how I am going to try to finagle more minutes and try to make the meeting at least 2 hours, because, who wants just 20 minutes with their favourite musician? I would then tell him about the first time I discovered his music in mid-2013. The song Giant Killer came on the radio and I would say how I was intrigued by this Gospel artist who sang about rats.

I babble on about how I failed to go for Phat Fest 2013 where he was a headlining artist because I was a broke university student but how I bought his album, Mizu, as soon as I could. I would tell him about how his music helped me get through the hardest part of 2014, the death of my best friend. How I listened to the music on repeat and how the words seeped through my despair and helped me affirm my faith in Christ. And I would then reiterate how much I love his music, and how it blesses me no end. And that what draws me to his music is the words, the lyrics, the word play. I don’t understand some of the words in his native tongue but music is universal and even if the words don’t compute, the spirit of the song is translated.

After babbling, I then remember that I have some questions that I noted. I look at the discarded notebook and ask the first question that I see. Would Pompi consider writing a book? Wouldn’t that be awesome? What would the book be about? If he’s looking for a ghostwriter (I quickly throw my hat in the ring. Or is it throw my name in the hat?) We talk at length about this hypothetical book. I ask him about what he likes to read.

During this hypothetical meeting, I ask about his journey, how he got to where he is now and the lessons he learnt a long the way. I ask about his journey to Christianity and if there have been any bumps in the road. I ask if he knew he was going to be an artist from the time he was young. I ask about his music before he saw the proverbial light. I listen intently, never interrupting as he speaks. I ask about the inspiration behind some of his songs. I ask about his writing process. How he comes up with these words.

I tell him about Pompi for President and ask if he would consider running for president. I am prepared to beg him not to because the world needs his music and everyone knows you can’t be president and sing. I tell him about how Become is one of my favourite albums and in fact, in my list of top ten albums, I list all three of his solo Gospel projects. I ask him about the writing process of the songs on the Become album. I ask him about the art concept of the album and how they came up with it.

In my mind, the conversation has lasted more than 20 minutes. I tell him about the way I jumped in jubilation when he followed me back on Twitter. At the end of it, I ask to pray for him and his music ministry. I ask if he can help me with his email address so that I randomly spam his email address with multiple memes and very strange questions like; if you were a superhero, which one would you be? I ask him to promise to not block my weird self.

Until this happens, I will stay connected through his music and I remain, yours truly, a big Pompi fan.