Triple MG Group CEO, artiste manager, son/brother and aspiring
husband. Ubi Franklin is different things to different people but above
all, he's a man with enough drive to rival a race horse.
By reputation and first encounter, Ubi Franklin comes off as arrogant and somewhat stand-offish. But beneath this brash exterior is an innate care and desire for those around him to succeed.
"Ice Prince" he responds without missing a beat.
"I've known him for years and he's kept that level head. We don't have a rapper on Triple MG and if you ask me what rapper I'd want it would be him. Also MI and Bridge from LOS."
And who's on your play list at the moment?
"Genevieve Nnaji is very beautiful" he continues
"But I don't feel anything from a man's point of view. I see her as a role model, so maybe its because of the kind of respect I have for her that I don't really see myself crushing on her."
Driven, ambitious and a serious go-getter, Ubi is not one to care about what people think of him."If you buy my dreams and aspirations and you want to grow, you'd describe me differently but if not then you'll say I'm rude and arrogant. Triple MG is like a family and I want everyone to succeed" he concludes.
By reputation and first encounter, Ubi Franklin comes off as arrogant and somewhat stand-offish. But beneath this brash exterior is an innate care and desire for those around him to succeed.
"I
don't have a father like Davido" the Madonna University Law graduate
explains."If music doesn't work for him he can always go back to his
father but I don't have a father, I only have a mother and siblings that
I'm taking care of. So in a way, I am like a Davido's father because
just like he has children that look up to him, I can't fail because I
have my signees and siblings that look up to me."
As a young
undergraduate at Madonna University, Ubi was bunkmates with music
artiste, Kelly Handsome and it was there the first seeds of
entertainment were planted for him. After losing his High Court judge
father in 2003, Ubi came to Lagos in December 2004 to work as a Personal
Assistant to his brother, who at the time was trying to put the
television show 'The Intern' together. From there Ubi pitched his tent
with 2face for a while trying to manage his social media accounts. This
was quickly followed by a 2-year stint with Julius Agwu as his Personal
Assitant.A tip from his elder brother's friend would later lead Ubi to
meeting Iyanya in 2010 after almost a year of tracking him down. But it
would take another year and some subtle trickery from Ubi before the
pair would later strike gold with the hit track 'Kukere'.
"At
some point Iyanya travelled to Calabar and when he came back, he said
he had an inspiration to do a song but he wasn't sure if people would
accept it because he's a proper R&B artiste. So he recorded it but
didn't finish and everyday I would listen to the song. One day I called
him to come and finish it but he said that wasn't the song he wanted to
drop because he preferred to do R&B and he kept delaying. Eventually
I said there's someone that wants to pay us N500,000 for a show so he
should come and the song because the show would be a party type show
which woud fit the song. Now back in 2010, that was huge money in terms
of what you could achieve with it. So when he finished it, he said ok
let's take it to them and I said there's no show, I just wanted you to
complete the song. So we took it to MTN and they liked it, we
strategised, dropped it somehow and it peaked and started entering the
charts. We shot the first video and didn't like it and shot the second
one with Patrick Ellis"
From that point, its been full speed ahead
for the duo as they would later go on to co-found Triple MG which
currently has 5 acts including Iyanya signed. But managing the careers
of music artistes does not come without its fair share of challenges and
misunderstanding, however Ubi is undeterred by this.
"Artistes
are very laidback people. They believe if they put out a song, it will
blow. They don't understand that there are other things that need to be
done. You need to beg them to do interviews, wake them up to do plug-ins
and appearances because the more you're trending as an ariste, the more
money you're making. The bigger your brand is, you can stay 2/3 years
without releasing a song. Just like the stock market, once you're hot,
you make money but when you crash everything is gone. So I just try to
make everyone make the most of their moment and understand that music
and their careers are as important as a bank job or something with job
security. I'm just a pusher and a go-getter"
So has there been a moment when you've thought 'yes Ubi, I've done well'?
"Not
yet. I want Iyanya to be the biggest artiste to come out of Africa.
Have you seen when Seun Kuti performs? When Seun Kuti performs outside
the country, he does proper international shows with white people
everywhere, you'll go for the show and there's no black peson. I want to
cut into that audience not just with Nigeria and Africa. I need to be
able to go to the United States and do a stadium tour where people will
be coming to see Iyanya, Techno or any other Triple MG act. When I do
that then I know I've recorded some measure of success."
With several signees under the Triple MG label, we want to know if there's any artiste Ubi would love to have on his label."Ice Prince" he responds without missing a beat.
"I've known him for years and he's kept that level head. We don't have a rapper on Triple MG and if you ask me what rapper I'd want it would be him. Also MI and Bridge from LOS."
And who's on your play list at the moment?
"I
listen to alot of Ghanaian music and music from East Africa. I don't
really listen to a lot of Nigerian music. The one song I'm feeling right
now though is 'Baby Hello' by Wande Coal. In the past I could tell you
every song that has been released but now I'm not really interested in
the Nigerian music scene in terms of listening to the songs, I just want
to push the music. If I go to the club and I hear what is being played I
come back and tell my people to switch things up, either increase or
reduce the tempo. But I don't just sit down and play Nigerian music
instead I play music from all African countries because I want to know
what the sound is like."
Ubi who wants to get married next year,
possibly to someone in the industry describes his ideal woman as an
understanding and supportive one who needs to be a driving force to his
business. On this note he names Rihanna and Osas Ighodaro as his
celebrity crushes."Genevieve Nnaji is very beautiful" he continues
"But I don't feel anything from a man's point of view. I see her as a role model, so maybe its because of the kind of respect I have for her that I don't really see myself crushing on her."
Driven, ambitious and a serious go-getter, Ubi is not one to care about what people think of him."If you buy my dreams and aspirations and you want to grow, you'd describe me differently but if not then you'll say I'm rude and arrogant. Triple MG is like a family and I want everyone to succeed" he concludes.
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