Unlocking the Secrets of Kiing Lu’s Success in the Music Business
Kiing Lu: The Culture Entrepreneur with a Militant Mindset
In the world of music, few people can boast of a journey as multifaceted and inspiring as that of Lucas Emeodi, better known as Kiing Lu. A culture entrepreneur, A&R, music promoter, and executive producer, Kiing Lu’s story is one of resilience, passion, and relentless pursuit of dreams. From his early beginnings as a rapper and producer in Jos to becoming a significant force in the Nigerian music industry, Kiing Lu has embraced every challenge with a mindset he calls “militant.”
He began his music journey as a rapper and producer in 2004/2005 in Jos-plateau state where he was born and raised. He went through his university days there graduating with a degree in Business Administration. He left Jos for Ghana in 2008 and lived there for 7 years understudying the music Industry, collaborating with music executives, and learning the business. Kiing Lu moved back to Nigeria in 2014 after getting an invite from a label to manage their artists. “While managing those artists, I’d discovered TG Omori, the boy director.” He met the creative director at a point where he did not have any music video references. He gave him his first one and then started introducing him to other artists. In 2019, Kiing Lu got an offer from Universal Music Nigeria and joined them as an A&R “It was an exciting opportunity for me to understand the music business from a global perspective. It was exciting because I’ve done everything from online blogging, online pr, getting artists’ songs into notjustok, tooxclusive…….
I’ve always loved being a support system for emerging talents” Kiing Lu said he had worked in Alaba (Days of Alaba music marketing) at the time “I was getting artiste’s songs into those mixes and also making a living out of it” He’d transferred the knowledge and experiences he had gathered into his work with Universal Music because they were a global entity that had not yet gotten their footings in Nigeria “I was made Head of promotions at Universal though I was still working as an A&R. At some point I managed artiste’s and even events. I wasn’t just doing this for Universal, I was doing it for myself because I wanted to learn. It wasn’t about the money or salary being paid, it was more than that to me” He talked about his goal at the time being to learn more about the business and when he had soaked up some knowledge and when it was time to leave he resigned and set up his own company, speedplugpromotions “speedplugpromotions is a label servicing company that handles promotions for a bunch of artistes like Tems, Tiwa Savage, Yemi Alade, Odumodu black, Odunsi, Bloodycivilian, wurld, Liyah, Adekunle Gold, Qing Madi, Yarden, Alpha P, Bella Shmurda, Dice Ailes, Victony, King Promise and many more. We don’t just work with individuals we work with labels, we have affiliations such as Universal, Warner Music, empire, Island Records, Virgin Music, and Def Jam. We’ve done promotions for a lot of artists in this Industry so I can hit my chest and say me and my team have done great in terms of amplifying music for artists that work with us” He went on to set up his music label “captive music” which he founded alongside his wife, Livy Land who he described as a multifaceted entrepreneur she owns her hair business, singer-songwriter, visual artist and she’s signed to his label. Captive Records is affiliated with Virgin Music and has released its first project “Militant Mindset”
Remember I mentioned he is an executive producer??? “That was the project that introduced the executive producer side of me and the A&R side of my brand. It featured a couple of artists like Odumodu black, vector, Dremo, skales, Ria Sean, and Rowlene from Ghana….” I asked about the vision behind the project and for him it was to focus heavily on Drille. “Drille resonates with my soul.” “I want to focus on pushing this to the mainstream” Kiing Lu has militant camp which is a platform created to push Drille music, it’s more like a community. As we know Drille is more like a niche and not everyone gravitates towards it here in Nigeria. He disclosed that it’s something he’d love to push the mainstream, a blend of hip-hop, Drille, and Afrobeat. “There’s a mindset embedded in this community ‘The militant mindset’ This mindset is to encourage people to pursue their dreams aggressively, relentlessly, and against all odds. We did our first event in July and the next one comes up in September.” The militant community doesn’t give room for laziness, you must have a frontier and bring something to the table, be it as a rapper, producer, graphic designer, or A&R; the end goal is the mindset. “I’m not where I want to be in life yet, I’m still pushing, I’m still building the bridges, building the networks, building the connections and the relationships.” He went on to express the importance of relationship-building in the Industry. “Relationship is one of the biggest assets you can have to survive in this music space. It’s a very priceless asset. It makes the job easier, makes the jobs, makes the journey smoother, you know?” KiingLu describes himself as a man on a purposeful journey, trying to lift others along the way, he considers himself a culture entrepreneur. Now, Lucas Emeodi who we know as Kiinglu the multifaceted cultural entrepreneur. Can we say the militant persona is more of an alter ego? “When I step my foot into the house, I am Lucas, the husband, and father but once I’m out of the house into the public I am kiing Lu but same heart, same person. The only difference is one is the professional side and the other is my personal side.” “As a brand, you need to know how to carry yourself, you always have to understand who you are. How you carry yourself is extremely important” he further expressed. Kiing Lu has been in the music industry for over a decade starting as a rapper before establishing himself in the music business and when I asked how that feels here was his response “16 years.
I feel excited that I was not forced by my parents, even though I rebelled against them wanting to be something else, I followed my heart. I followed my dreams and I am happy. I am living a very happy life now even though the dreams keep getting tougher but we enjoy the fact that we chose our paths and it’s what we want to do so we endure the pain, we endure the struggles but we also enjoy the benefits that come from it.” This brings me to a point of his journey where he after studying Business Administration decided to carve a different path for himself.
His parents were not at all supportive of this. “At some point, I was sent out of the house. My daddy wanted me to choose between his own decisions and my own. I chose my own decision, I left his house and kept doing my music thing and when he saw the resilience, passion, and energy I put into trying to follow my path he let me come back home and said he’d support me.” Do you know what’s the most striking and beautiful feeling ever? You follow your path, blocking out the noise and discouragement and it in turn works out and that was what happened in his case “On my wedding day he was so emotional, he said he remembered trying to kick against my dream and now seeing me succeeding in that same dream, it’s very inspiring to him and he has learned a lot from it.
This part of his journey influenced his brand. “Militant” I had to spin the meaning. I’m trying to re-engineer people’s mindset.” I asked him about the feeling of ever being underappreciated “The feeling of being underappreciated is a mindset. I try to condition my mind to focus on what is important. Are you making an impact? Are you expecting applause for the impact you are making? For me, I’m not expecting applause. My focus is to make an impact and also make money to take care of my family. I don’t care about appreciation or awards. If you think I deserve it, then hand it to me and don’t tell me to pay for it. I cannot put an award in my house, looking at it knowing I paid for it.”
He is big on his purpose and being able to live a free and real life. “People will not remember you for the amount you have in your account or the awards you have, they will remember to fit the impact you’ve made.” We further conversed on the same question “I’ve done so much for the industry, people that know these things know these things, even though some of them act like they don’t see it but they come to me in private. And one thing I’ve learned from my journey is to always buy yourself flowers. Do not wait for nobody to hand you flowers. Give yourself credit. If you do something nice shout about it, if you hit a milestone shout about it. Nobody is going to shout for you, you have to blow your trumpet and that’s not for your ego, it is for your Brand.” He went on to further explain his statement on the brand “It’s so people understand your brand is credible, people want to work because they see that you are doing well with what you are doing.”
His words ring with a sense of purpose and determination that has become the hallmark of his brand. “Impact first, money follows,” he said, encapsulating the driving force behind his career.“
I asked about his point of view about the struggles of music executives in Nigeria. “First of all, I’d say we all have our destinies in our hands so as music executives we need to remember we are human beings with dreams. So the struggle I’d say is people not allowing themselves to evolve, always trying to sacrifice for others without doing so for themselves. I’ve seen a lot of bitter music executives because of their past relationships with other artists. As a manager, you need to realize that you are a brand too.” The most fulfilling moment in his career was “I envisioned militant camp, the concept in my head, spoke to my creative director, we created a 3D version of the concept and then brought it to life. Now going to the event and seeing the place packed with people singing my song word for word, enjoying themselves, I was fulfilled but it was a point I knew I needed to do more. I needed to expand my vision beyond Lagos, so we are taking this event, militant camp to Abuja, port-harcourt, Bayelsa and Jos then we’d expand to Ghana” he expressed with pride and excitement.
Kiing Lu boldly and loudly encourages every creative executive to embrace the militant mindset, believe in their dreams, and keep pushing aggressively.