Transcript
My name is Teni, and I am the sugar mummy of the whole wide world, including the sugar mummy of Risevest.
Growing up was very fun. I have to say a big thank you to my family, to my parents for making sure that I had the best childhood ever.
I was involved in sports, arts, a lot of traveling, a lot of beating because I was stubborn, but shoutout to my mum.
I love you.
A lot of music
Oh, yes. My love for music started… I can’t even remember when I loved music. I feel like I’ve always loved music because at the age of three, I was in school band, you know.
Every morning, imagine listening to trumpet and sax and playing the drums every morning, Monday to Friday for like. Okay, from nursery school to primary school to secondary school.
How many years is that? I know I did three years of nursery school because it was nursery one, nursery two, nursery three.
Then five years of primary school. That’s eight years. And then six years of secondary school. 14 years, yeah.
Well, everyone that knows me knows how much I love my dad.
But unfortunately, my dad passed when I was two years old, and I feel like he’s such a visionary. Um… I get, I get, I get very one kind when I talk about my dad because I almost want to just stand up and salute him like this for all the good job he did while he was here.
But my dad wasn’t a musician, but he loved music. So my dad owns a school. And when he started the school, he made sure that the school had a school band.
And that’s how I was introduced to music. So big ups to my daddy wherever he is. I love you.
So yesterday, your music creates a kind of excitement.
So to me.
Oh, yes. Always. Everything I do, I do for him.
I mean, the reason why my life turned out the way my life did, obviously, is because of God. But the wise decisions that my dad made also made life easier for us.
I’m always grateful for that.
It’s always the music for me. Music has always been the easiest thing
for me. Like, *Sings “Sitting on this couch talking to my friend interviewing me, asking me questions. I just want to go home” *Laughs
I don’t know. Music has just been the easiest thing for me. I feel like it was my mom. Like my elder sister, Nini, when she wanted to do her music everyone was like, no, no, no.
But Nini fought her way through and did it. So when I wanted to do music and they were like, no, no, no.
I was like, “Eh eh oh. Eh eh Oh.
Nini has done it and it worked out.
Please, allow me oh”
But it was a fight.
But I think God I fought for myself, stood up for myself, and it worked out well.
So help me God. He’s my robot.
I mean, yeah, I know. That’s the stuff was huge back then, so kind of stuff someone else had done before.
So aside from its beady eyes and that going into some, I wasn’t in the industry.
That’s for me, I just wanted to just enjoy myself,
really. I won’t even lie to you. Like, music started for me as enjoyment. It’s still enjoyment. That’s my hobby.
Like I say, that’s the thing I know how to do in these these years, so
I didn’t care. I was just like “Wo, if you people want to disown me, disown me. If you people don’t want to support me, don’t support me. This is what my heart tells me and that’s what I’m going to do” and I just followed through with my passion.
Boom!
Life experiences. Not just mine, just what people go
through on a daily basis. What happens in the world, my close friends, their situations, their heartbreak stories.
They’ll tell me, I’ll go and write a song about it. Different things, really. Like, even down to having conversations with my gateman. Just listening to people’s everyday struggles including mine.
Ha! It changes, depending on my mood. Right now, it’s Billionaire because I really want to be a billionaire right now. The economy is not good.
I want to be a billionaire I don’t want to be a mechanic. I want to be a billionaire. It felt good. Really good. It’s good to work and then for God to now put his spice and his sauce and make it big huge.
It feels really good. But I feel like all my life I’ve always been famous some type of way. Like since I was three, I was playing for governors, I was playing for presidents. Like high school, I was the most popular. Uni, I was doing stage plays, so I feel like it had always been like different levels of fame for me.
So when music fame came, I was like, okay, it’s just different heights and different levels.
Yeah, I was in KKB as well. That’s why I said shoutout to my parents
for giving me a well-rounded childhood. *Claps
Yes, KKB was fun. So KKB eh, We lived in Isolo and so every Saturday was KKB. So our driver would take us from Isolo to Ikoyi to Parkview every Saturday.
That was the highlight of our weekend. And we’d go there, we’d have fun. We’d enjoy. And then, we used to always go to Mr. Bigss after. Ah! That Mr. Biggs meatpie used to pop. And then, yeah.
KKB! All my friends from KKB I’ve been looking for you guys. If you were in KKB, please find me. Shoot me a DM.
Of course. I’ve had to fight for everything I have or I’ve done
But me, I don’t even pay attention to those things because I’m excellent. I’m outstanding. So wherever I go, I shine because it’s God-given, like my talent is not, like, ordinary.
You know what I’m saying? Like, this is talent that people beg God for.
So, you know, I focus on that and I focus on the positive things and how I can make change and push the narrative for those that are coming behind me. For those young girls that are dreaming. Like, don’t listen to what anybody has to say.
Follow your heart, follow your instincts. Your instincts are there for a reason.
Sometimes, I really just want to be alone. But these people might never see you again. And the reason why they probably want a picture, or want to talk to you is because they love you. If they don’t care about you, they wouldn’t say anything, you know.
They’d just walk past but I try my best. Sometimes when I’m extremely tired, I’ll just be like, I’m tired, please. I’m tired, but most of the time, I just try to make them happy.
You know, because they might never just see you again. This might be their just one chance to see you. And so my mom always taught me that it’s not what you say, it’s how you make people feel, you know? So my own little part, doing my job.
The thing about music is music is a 24 hour job oh. Being a musician, is not 9-5 oh. You’re working every second.
Somebody is calling you, your management is calling you, your other businesses you have to handle, your fans. It’s a lot of things.
So I feel like once you just agree and accept this is my life, you know, you just know how to maneuver it. Fun, but sometimes, I like to be sad.
Isn’t that crazy?
Like this because sadness helps you, sometimes, to just express yourself in a way that joy cannot.
There’s a way the thing will be paining you, especially when
you are going through breakup.
Don’t worry. Wo, you’ll sing Ah! *Sings
Ah, you’ll be going but I tell people, “embrace sadness” because how do you enjoy joy if you haven’t felt pain?
Like, don’t linger in it. Don’t stay in it, but life was made in twos, I think: good and bad.
For you to enjoy good, you have to feel bad and so when bad things happen, because bad things will happen, you know. Things won’t always happen the way you plan it.
So when those things happen, you know, just just process it, feel it, go through it and then try to get out of it.
Because you can’t stay in that sadness. Because you still have to enjoy your life. You don’t even know when the time is going to be up.
So, you know, let sadness lead you and drive you, but let happiness remind you.
Yeah, I think that’s it.
Oh, my mom is amazing, I feel like my mom is the most reliable person I’ve ever met in my life.
Well, second to my manager. My manager is quite reliable, but my mom is very, very reliable.
Like, I can call my mom for anything. I can call my mom to be like, “Please, send me credit” Don’t worry, my mom will send you like 20k. When I first moved back to Nigeria… Because I didn’t even understand anything when I first moved back. I was just like, wait, why do people have to do this?
Why do you have to do that? Like, damn, can’t I just call for this?
My mom was like, “Ah, you’re in Nigeria. This is how it works” So when I first moved back, my mom helped me with a lot of things, you know. Helped me with my banking, helped me with getting my sim, you know. I know for the first one year, my mom like, sent me credit every month.
Like 20k, so I never ran out of credit. I was… And so when people be like, and I’d I just always found it weird that people would turn off their data.
I was just like, why are you doing that?
I’m trying to reach you. Ah, data! They’ll finish your data. I was just like, why is this happening? And so my mom just helped me. Every phase of my life, my mom has helped me and she’s been very instrumental.
So, yeah. That’s just I guess you’re still very proud of what you closest to. Now. Yeah. Like when I moved back, my mom gave me a Honda pilot because I was in Lekki. I was living in the label house.
And you know how Lekki can be flooded. So they first gave me one car, one Camry like this.
It was low and it would just rain and I would just be entering inside water. And I was just like, “what is this?” Even how to drive in Nigeria. Because when I first moved back, I was very scared to drive.
I was just like, what’s all this? Like, there’s no lanes, what’s going on?
Why’s everybody just honking at themselves. And so one day, we went to my aunt’s house and we were coming back, my mom said, “Teni, enter inside and drive” Ha.
I was like, no, I’m not doing this. She was like, drive, drive. And so she was teaching me. Since that day, I knew how to drive in Nigeria.
So she gave me the Honda pilot big car. I’ve been driving. So I remember the first time I confronted a danfo guy because we were driving, he was trying to enter… I said,you dey craze? Ah. After I finished I clapped for myself.
I said yes, I have adapted. I have adapted. I’m finally a Lagosian!
So, yeah. I can go on and on, talking about my mom.
So let me just stop here. Yeah.
Well, personal growth. I’ve just learned that to become, you need knowledge.
You need knowledge to become like, you have to seek, you have to find, you have to… Why do I think I’m about to start preaching? Seek, find and knock.
Knock and the door shall be opened. Seek, and ye shall find. But you know, I’m learning every day that there’s different sides of me.
And as long as I’m willing to take my time to tap into those sides, I can actually become more. Like I don’t think God created me for just one thing. I feel like I’m learning to, like, search myself and build myself and actually use this SWOT analysis for my own life.
You know what the SWOT analysis is? The strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
They use it for business, but I feel like it has worked really well in my own life as well.
Knowing my strengths, you know. Knowing what I’m good, what I’m really strong at.
Knowing my weaknesses. Weaknesses are the things that actually pull me back from achieving because they’re my weaknesses.
I’m not so strong. You know, knowing what my opportunities are. Like, okay, what I need to do, you know, and what I have in my hand.
And then knowing my threats. That’s like, okay, what can affect me?
You know, like I just you know, lost about 60, about 70 pounds. And when I started, my friend said, “You love food. You can never lose weight” and I was just like, “Wo, me, I want to be able to play basketball” Because in Uni, I used to play ball every day until when I moved back here.
You know, facilities. I couldn’t really play basketball because basketball just used to help me keep fit. And when I just plug my ears and I listen to music and I start playing ball, like that’s the best time ever.
So, you know, I went on a journey and I’ve lost about 70 pounds and I’m going to put up a tournament in December for my birthday for young girls to just come out, let’s ball, let’s have fun, You know, give out shoes.
You know, give out things. So, you know, I’ve worked on myself a lot this year, so that’s why that question is like ‘aww’ Well, I won’t give you too much details, but I’ll tell you, it came with a lot of sacrifice.
I won’t lie to you. As somebody that really loves food, my PA is here. They don’t order one food for me oh. They order like five because I have to eat what I have taste for.
So like, they’ll order, like, five different things and then when I’m ready to eat, I’ll just look at it like this.And me, I have talent in food.
I have big talent in food. If I look at jollof rice, I can tell you if it’s sweet or it’s not sweet.
If I look at plantain, I can tell you the texture of the plantain if it’s nice or it’s not nice.
So imagine someone that really loves food like me going on a diet. And the thing I’ll just say is that dieting is hard, but it becomes easy because you choose better.
You choose you. You choose to live a healthy life.
So I remember some people were saying on Twitter if I got surgery done Ha. I’m too scared.
I feel like I don’t want to go to sleep.
What if they now give me that injection and my body does not wake up? What, what will I tell my mummy?
So I just went and did diet. And it also helps with your mind. Like, just going on a clean diet helps with your mind, like vegetables, oxygen. Like these things are actually true.
Like before, when people will be telling me, I’ll just be doing like this. For where village palm oil rice dey? Abeg, abeg oh. Allow me oh. But you know, it helps with your mind.
It just helps with discipline as well. You feel, you feel more in control of yourself. That’s all I’ll just tell you. Watch out for the book and the documentary. Um, it’s just a basketball tournament.
I’m going to invite my celebrity friends. You know, I want to get the… I was talking to my PA about it, and we were like, “Ah! Omo. These young girls that play ball every day, them go beat us oh”
He was like, “Don’t worry jor. It’s nothing” You know? So what I’m going to do is I’m going to start… I’m going to London, and when I’m back, I’m going to start training for the tournament, just so I’m in form and I’m in good shape.
So even if they beat us, it won’t be that bad.
Sure. Just giving more females and more women, more young girls opportunities. I’ll tell you oh, women are amazing oh. Heh. Hmm. Oh, my God.
Please, don’t let me start. Just leave me the way I am. But yes,
To give more young girls and more women opportunities in this space. Like, there’s songwriting, there’s engineering, there’s camera, there’s audio. There’s everything. And I want to see more women
in those spaces.
That’s what I think would be nice to see. I think. Yes. To a lot of But it is changing. And, you know, we’re not going to stop. We’re not going to stop. We’re going to keep pushing because the more we push, the more we give these young people and older people. The more we just motivate people to say, you know, she did it.
We can do it too. Hmm. I feel like because I’m so versatile, I can literally do just about anything. Like I can. That’s why I make timeless music, because I’m not like in one niche or. Not saying being in a niche is bad, it’s just I’m versatile.
So I’m not just doing music for in the time. I do music that speaks to my soul. Like from here, you know, so my sound changes.
It is whatever I want it to be and whatever whatever I feel and in the moment. So I’m the same one that can give you an Askamaya and also give you an Uyo Meyo.
I wrote those songs. It was in the moment. It was how I was feeling.
Hmm. Me and money Me and money be like five and six Me and money be like five and six. Ah
Money.Money’s, money is important. Like, I’ll go back to my mummy again. I don’t want to do this. It’s making me sound like a mummy’s girl. But since a very young age, my mum always taught us about money
To save, to invest, to find opportunities, to not just invest in properties or like stocks or all these things, but to invest in people as well.
Human resources is the, is the… Abi, what’s the English? *Speaks Yoruba. Human resources is the epitome of the *Speaks Yoruba
Oh, come on. Human resources is the what? It is the bedrock of the economy. Without human resources, other resources cannot play because you need humans to actually make these things work.
So, you know, investing in people, investing in your own self. You know, investing in things that can make sure that at a certain age, you can actually rest and enjoy your life.
So my relationship with money is me and money that know. Me, God and money.
Ah. But wait oh, my relationship with money didn’t always used to be perfect oh. It didn’t always used to be good oh
Let me not lie to you. When I was in Uni so I used to get allowance and my sister, my younger sister and I went to uni together.
At first, it was just me and then she she moved to my school. By the time my money enter like this, no worry. No worry. Say worry.
No… Say worry. No worry. I’ll be at the restaurant… There was a time that there was one restaurant that knew my name and they knew my order.
If I just walk in like this, they even knew where I liked to sit down. I’ll eat ehn. I’ll sit down and think about my life. And at the time I was failing in school so spending money was my favourite thing to do. I’d go to the mall and I’d shop and my younger sister would just be saving money.
So when I now finish my own, I’d now be asking her that “Ah, Teju nau, please quicly borrow me $20” Do you know how many $20 Teju has borrowed me in this life that I’ve not paid back?
Shout-out to Teju for all the $20 she borrowed me back in uni. But when I now started making money, because my parents helped me out until I started making money.
So when I did start making money, you know, my mom was just like “All that rubbish that you have been doing needs to stop because you’re… I’m not going to sit down here and let you ruin your life”
So, you know, then I started having a budget for, you know, spending and a budget for investments and then a budget for travel.
Just, you know, cleaning up my finances. And then becoming friends with people like you. that can give information about the right things to do.
I remember before COVID hit, should I say this on camera? I won’t say it on camera.
Well, one of my billionaire friends called me. I won’t say his name. And he was just like change your naira to dollar. Naira is about to fall.
I didn’t listen So, yes. Mm hmm. I didn’t listen. So, I mean, it didn’t hit me so bad, but when you have people that have more knowledge about you, you have to have people that know more about you for you to be more, you know.
Nobody’s saying everything they tell you to do, go and do, but do your own research and have people that can actually put you in the right direction
because it’ll actually go a long way. So it’s a big step.
One important step, though. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Oh, yes.
Not budgeting like ‘Oh, I’m on a strict budget’ Ask them, like, I spend money on me. I, I just do whatever I want.
But I pay myself. Do you get? So I have a percentage that I pay myself and I have a percentage that goes to whatever.
So when I’m spending money, know that I am spending money that I’ve allocated for spending. And then one person, that’s.
My mummy will always say, *speaks Yoruba So literally what that means is you don’t eat with your two with both hands. You must always save.
You must always invest. That’s how you have turnovers. Teni the guru. Let’s go. Clap for me. You ask about. That would be great.
Great. You had to check your money. Oh. Yes, we can go. Me, I was fine during COVID oh. I thank God. But I could have made more money.
So I will. Going to do now financial tools. You guys, guys. You really want to chuck me everywhere. I’m trying to run away from this.
You still want to take me back memory lane. I just realize that as a musician, there’s so much more to you than just the music.
You’re a brand I can sell shoes. I love to wear shoes. I could sell earrings. I could sell this. I could sell that. So I just realized that omo, *Speaks Yoruba You know. And entering business also creates job opportunities for people and helps people that have been looking for opportunities to express their talents, to express their gifts.
You know. You’d be surprised that you’ll just go to UNILAG, see one one young kid just walking oh. Do you know what is in that boy’s head? Or that girl’s head? You don’t know oh. So you, you have the access to the world, right?
Your access to the world is not for you alone. It’s for you to also create for other people to have opportunities and make a gateway for them to go to the world too.
That’s why I say we musicians must must take business seriously because we have the power to make change.
My relationship with Rise has been amazing. Just talking to people about Rise before everything now happened and now people are calling me like “Ehe, that eh, that this thing I will be a year me oh good are these are People that created Rise are, they’re visionaries.
Abi, what’s the English? My English is bad this morning.
Please, I am Yoruba. Please, my first language is Yoruba before English. People that created Rise are visionaries. Because look at what is going on in the world today.
I feel like Rise is the bridge. Is the gap between you and where you see yourself. Between you and your investments. And the beautiful thing about Rise is
Rise has topnotch brains to help you so much that it would be almost. Let me not say, almost impossible to lose except something is just going on that’s out of their control.
But they have resources that can help you. They have tips that can help you. They want to see you win. They’re not just about you putting your money there. They want to see it turnover.
They want to see you win because your story is actually what inspires them to do more. Your success is what inspires them to inspire other people to do more and to have financial literacy and financial leverage.
I’ll just say, like you’re a business. Treat yourself as such. God has made you a key to open doors for you and your generations unborn. Don’t fuck up the bag.
You feel like it’s just important to government? Of course Everybody expects money from you. In fact, when I was coming here, there were already some people doing like this, doing like this, doing like this. It’s easy, the lifestyle. You know what I’m saying?
Like, brah. But
*Speaks Yoruba
Go and google it on Google translation.
*Speaks Yoruba.
I think something should be here That means it’s sense that we used to live this life. It’s sense that it takes.
Well, the one that I’m most, most, most passionate about is Real Estate abroad because I’m a dual citizen as well.
So, you know, flipping houses like the opportunities are endless.
You can never lose with real estate. Even if it goes down, wait a little bit, it’ll shoot back up. So that’s the one I’m most passionate about.
Real estate. Well, what I would just say to you is take life easy, be easy, be kind. Focus on your life, be happy and know trust me, it’s never that serious. Thank you for.