Camer’s Mboko god aka Le Monstre aka Jovi aka Ndukong Godlove Nfor, has influenced the Cameroonian entertainment industry a great deal through out his career. These are 5 ways in which he has influenced our industry:
1- He started the ‘Pidgin Rap’ Movement
Prior to Jovi’s ‘Don For Kwat’ in 2012, the song off his maiden album; HIV, there was only one other Cameroonian urban artiste who was famous for singing in ‘Mboko’ pidgin and that was Lapiro de Mbanga. The Cameroonian rap artistes who were reigning at the time like XLM squad were all rapping in English, with a lot of Western influence in their rap(I am not saying that rapping in English is bad o, I am stating facts). Jovi used to rap like that too, in the beginning of his career, before he started the ‘Mboko’ pidgin movement. Now all rappers, want to rap in mboko, they want to rap like Jovi. Which is not a bad thing tho…
2-He taught many Cameroonian artistes how to use their social media
Jovi was the first Camer urban artiste to break the internet with posts on his Facebook and Twitter. He was the first Cameroonian artiste to make news from posts on his Facebook or Twitter. Back when social media was not as popular, he already knew how to engage people. It was after him that other artistes knew they could use the social media to vent and let out opinions.
3-He started the new generation digital music trend
Prior to Jovi, no Cameroonian urban artiste had released an EP(Extended Play). He released his first EP in March 2014 titled Kankwe Vol 1 which introduced Cameroonian urban acts to EPs. Prior to that, the most Cameroonian urban artists did was release singles to digital music sites like itunes. After that, it became a trend. Several other Camer urban acts started releasing EPs.
His label; New Bell Music has one of the most professional websites in the industry- newbellmusic.com It was created simultaneously with the label, sometime between late 2013 and 2014. That was the first of its kind in Cameroon, and now other labels are doing same.
Prior to the release of his second album ‘Mboko god’ in 2015, he started an online campaign in which fans cropped out their photos and pasted in a yellow background to show their anticipation for the album. The whole Cameroonian internet was yellow. Click HERE to see the photos.
That was the first ever successful online music Campaign that the Camer music industry had ever recorded. From then other acts adopted similar strategies to promote their new songs and albums.
4-He made a historical cultural statement
He is the first Cameroonian producer to successfully create urban sounds that incorporate music of Cameroonian origin. In ‘Cash’ he blended hiphop/bikutsi and afropop, creating a unique Cameroonian sound. We hadn’t heard that before. Not only the production represented Cameroon, the language in the song as well. That was the first, and we loved it.
Jovi is one of Camer’s greatest acts. His career and journey so far have influenced our industry in so many ways. We wouldn’t be where we are now, as an industry without his input. This article is in a bid to celebrate his career and to appreciate his input in the industry.