You don’t have to sing about bible to do good music – Ajomale

With over 30 years of doing gospel music, Evangelist Kunle Ajomale is unarguably a veteran in his field. However, he seems to be on a lane of his own. Contrary to the opinion of other gospel artistes that it is wrong to feature secular artists, the evangelist told Saturday Beats that he had another view on the subject matter.

In a chat with Saturday Beats, he said that there was nothing wrong with gospel singers featuring secular artistes who have meaningful lyrical content.

Ajomale said, “I can feature a hip-hop artiste on my song but only those that attach meaning to their songs. Even the word gospel means good news, so anything that brings joy, good news, love and inspires the people is gospel. I don’t have to talk about the bible before I can sing good music and it can come from any direction but it depends on how the inspiration comes. I can encourage hip-hop artistes but it has to have a meaning and the music mix which are music, message and melody. Once the song has these three elements, then I am good to go.”

He believes that most gospel musicians have a narrow outlook to some biblical issues and that is the main reason he is not a member of any association.

The singer said, “That is why presently I am not a member of any association because of the way a lot of gospel musicians think. Some of them believe that to do gospel, they cannot spray you money at parties but it depends on one’s understanding of the issue. God is an assorted God as far as I am concerned and if you look at the book of Solomon in the bible, you would see that it is full of love. In that book, they talk about love, kiss, and you can see the way King Solomon was calling his lover. One needs to be very deep in understanding who God is. That is why you don’t have to sing about Jesus before you create good music and that is why I opted out of certain things. They tell you that they cannot spray you money at parties but what is wrong with that when it is our culture? People can come up to appreciate you and they can spray you at parties when you sing good songs. I can sing love songs and in fact, I would sing a love song very soon because I believe that God is a God of love. Except the song does not come with finesse, if not we should feel free. Would you say that pastor don’t make love to their wives? Or do they preach about Jesus when they are in bed? No, you have to be romantic when the time comes. I am not too rigid with my calling.”

Taking a trip down memory lane, the iconic gospel singer said that he never knew that music would eventually become his full time career. He told Saturday Beats that it all started as child’s play but now it is what puts food on his table.

He also spoke about how Chief Obafemi Awolowo impacted his life after performing for him.

The evangelist said, the first group I put together was called the Black and White Brothers and that was when I was at Government College, Ikorodu, Lagos. When I got to the university, we started a group called Gangan cast. We made use of the talking drum and that was more or less a cultural group. It was the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo that gave me that inspiration because I performed for him during the turning of the sod when the Ogun State University started on March 4, 1983. He commended my presentation and that was the first time I ever met him in my life and when he died in 1987, I dedicated my first album to him. That was the beginning of my growth and that was when I started music as a career. The album won an award for me as I was presented with the award of the best youth corp member that year in Bendel State, now Edo State. The then director of NYSC saw it as an achievement for a youth corp member to be able to put up an album during his service year and the song of the album was aired on NTA when Awolowo was buried. The television station played my song throughout the day. To me, that was an achievement.

Source: Punch