Jaywon Soaring Higher

With hit tracks such as ‘File Be’ (his debut single), ‘Gbon Gbon Gbon’, ‘This Year (Odun Yi)’ amongst many others, one can easily say Jaywon knows his way around cooking up hit street songs that will appeal to everyone including both the young and old.

His single, ‘This year (Odun Yi)’ which he dropped towards the tail end of 2012 is a sure masterpiece which had brought him back to the fore and the song recently won him a multi-million naira endorsement deal with top household appliances maker, Haier Thermocool.

James Oluwajuwonlo Edahi, popularly known as Jaywon, broke into the music industry with a hit track 'File Be'. He grew up in Kogi and Kwara States and studied at the Federal Polytechnic Bida for his National Diploma before proceeding to Lagos enroute Abuja -where he completed his industrial training.

An Afro-hiphop act, Jaywon is signed on to one of Nigeria’s biggest record labels, Kennis Music and he has been nominated for several awards and has won the Nigeria Music Video Award (NMVA) for the best new video in 2009.

Speaking about his name, “Jaywon is from my name Oluwajuwonlo, but a lot of people call me Juwon, the short form of my name. Everywhere I go, people give me different names like Shigga, Holy talk, Jay boy, and so on. But at a point I was like, I need to carve a name for myself and so I used Juwon. I removed the U and had J won was what I had left”.

Speaking on Kennis Music
After God and my mum, my next respect goes to Keke Ogungbe. I always advise any upcoming artiste that if he sees anybody that can spend N100, 000 on his career, he should respect such person. I am not saying millions now o, because it is not easy to find somebody that believes so much in you to spend such money for you. So for Keke to spend millions on my career, I appreciate him. He is someone that I will always listen to.

Unique selling point?

I think I do music with haste. I have worked with a lot of artistes that you will have to work and work, write and write, do this, do that, record 10 times, dem never get am but me, I have not heard the beats before, I will enter the studio and deliver. I don’t even write. I listen to the beats and I am like ‘this is good’, let me just talk before I write, when I finish, they will tell me they want it like that and that I should not edit anything. So for me, I do music with haste and it’s just too easy for me, and has been selling for me. But, what I tell people is that, the most important thing is whether you love what you are doing or not. Any job you don’t love, leave it and look for the one you love, because the love would give you the strength to bear every challenge.

I have paid my dues, and let me tell you, nobody paid the kind of dues I paid in this industry. The only person I respect that really paid his dues is Tuface. Apart from him, nobody paid the kind of dues I paid from the number one to number 10 artiste in Nigeria. If not for the Plantation Boiz, hip-hop might not be where it is today. The plantation boys, the Remedies and the rest of them, if they didn’t sing, how we won take know say hip-hop fit sell.

Inspirations

It is my dream. I have always wanted to be known and seen on TV, and I always pray to God for that, even though I am not the type that prays, but when I pray, I pray hard, and also my mum’s prayer. Again, I believe in myself that I know that it is just a matter of time for me to get there, and here I am, getting closer to where I am going.