BY MUNYA VOMO
SAMA award-winning rapper iFani is back with a second album which is set to make history after his debut hit, I Believes In Me – 1st Quadrant. The innovative rapper has come up with a challenge for himself and his team, which is to sell the album at gold status on the first day of its release on April 29.
“It is my dream to release the second album with a big goal because I believe I can do it. I think with the help of Sony and the fans, nothing is really impossible. It’s part of my dream and so I can’t back down. I have to make it work,” iFani said.
Having enjoyed the success of his first album and dabbling with a bit of TV presenting, iFani went to his first love, which is making music. In an industry that is flooded with good rappers, iFani had to separate himself from the rest.
“We started the campaign through Twitter and what we said to the fans was that we were aiming to get the album to sell gold (20 000 copies) on the first day of its release. For this to happen, we have started a campaign to get as many people as possible to place pre-orders.
“Musica is on board and they have distributed flyers all over the country. iTunes is excited and Twitter gave us access to their functionality.
“The more people believe in the dream, the more they want to be part of it. Even you are talking to me right now about this project which is good, because it means we are getting somewhere,” he said.
While his fans will be excited to hear what comes from him this time, after a successful first time, it took an unfortunate incident for iFani to set the second album in motion.
“The 2nd Quadrant is brand new. My music was stolen on December 26 last year. They broke into my place and took everything including the back-ups. I had to sit down and ask myself if I really needed to keep doing the music because I could not act like nothing had happened. I could not act like I didn’t have a degree in engineering. I had to be real with myself and weigh my options.
“Going back to engineering would be cool because that would mean I would have come back to that industry clutching a Sama award – no other engineer can say the same. It would be easier for myself to go there,” he said.
“So, I had to really asked myself what I would be doing if I were to return to music, because I could not do the same material that was stolen.”
Armed with a desire to succeed, iFani was undeterred and he started working on the second album from scratch.
“I cancelled all gigs and all interviews and I locked myself in my studio and asked myself what it was that I could do that sounds impossible. Then I realised that it was getting gold sales on the first day.
“So, I am now working on making the impossible, possible,” he said.
As with most great thinkers, unbelievers tend to come out of the woodwork to predict doom. iFani is no exception to this kind of negative energy.
“People keep saying it’s not going to happen and I understand because it sounds ridiculous to think that 20 000 people are going to buy the album on the first day.
“That’s exactly why I am doing it, because someone feels that it is impossible. When I said I was going to stay, I had to do it for a good reason. Fear is real to a lot of people. It takes a brave individual to say fear does not exist.
“A lot of people can’t jump out of a plane because they fear that they are going to die. If you were to ask the person who can jump out of a plane, they will tell you that fear is really not part of their jumping process. That’s how life works. A dream works not because it’s been proven before, but because there is a person who believes in it. That’s all, we can go left and right, but if you believe in something and work at it, it will work out just fine even if your house gets robbed,” he said.
While other rappers prefer to fight over make-up, iFani is focusing on making history.
I Believes In Me – 2nd Quadrant will be released on April 29 and will be available at Musica and iTunes.