King Jamal “The Hit Maker”

Way way back in year 2010/2011 when rapper Olamide put out “Eni Duro”, when Wizkid first became a teen sensation and then went on to sign with Banky, when rappers like M.I dropped Action Film, signed Ice Prince and then Prince came out with songs like “Oleku”, Wande coal released “Been long you saw me”, Skales came out with “Mukulu”. Lord have mercy. That year, in particular, was hot for the Nigerian music industry with bangers dropping left right and centre. Upcoming artists were all on their toes, rappers and producers underground felt like the only way to become rich and mainstream was to make a danceable track and then get light skinned Unilag girls to do the video, shake bodies, show some skin, you know? That kind of thing. That same year, based in the cut in a Polytechnic in Nekede, Owerri, it was I, other rappers I knew, another rap singer Metaphor and King Jamal, but he wasn’t called King Jamal then he was known as Yung Presh, we used to do mornings, and sleep over for night sessions at Willex studio down that university road leading to Naze Junction. Look how far we came to what it all is now. Real.

When I first met King Jamal, then as Yung Presh, he didn’t really feel the flow of making danceable music, he wanted to rap at a time when people thought only singing or rap singing was the way out of the struggles in the underground, and he wasn’t liked or famous for it, he couldn’t book sessions because producers were bent on making that one danceable track that would explode their name like Chopstix. But Jamal stuck to his hip hop guns and was true to the game.

Fast forward, I left Nekede that year and forgot about music and managing artists, they all seemed confused at the time. I focused on school and more on writing and tried not to involve myself. But, I was in Accra last December and I met Jamal again at a beach party. We hooked up, rolled one, and then he played me his songs.

To cut the chat, King Jamal’s real name is Precious Onome, originally he is from Delta state, but he was raised in Port Harcourt. As for education, he studies information and communication technology in Accra.

Precious recorded his first single in 2010 titled “My Ways” and then that was it; he went cold. Much later in 2014 he made another song; this time with Ice Prince Zamani called “Trap Music” which he refused to put out for unknown reasons, but you can listen to it here:

After the track with Ice Prince in 2014 Jamal went lowkey again and worked more on producing, but earlier this year Jamal put out a new single called “Tuscan Leather”

and currently is working on an EP titled war ready, all songs are recorded and produced by him. Talk about the real hip hop Marc Jacobs. The Ep has just five tracks and three bonus instrumentals all produced by him.