I used to be jealous of my brother, Jesse Jagz – MI Abaga declares

Nigerian ace rapper Jude Abaga, professionally known as MI Abaga has stated that he once jealous his brother, Jesse Jagz.

MI Abaga gave the reason he used to be jealous of his brother Jesse Jagz, who is also a rapper, and also disclose how he dealt with it.

Abaga who was the CEO of Chocolate City from 2015 to 2019, made this statement in a chat with Ikechukwu Onunaku.

“Imagine Jesse Jagz being your brother. It was the first moment where I think I dealt with jealousy completely. I come home with this record called ‘Crowd Mentality’. The beat was hot and I knew it was the record,” MI said.

“Jesse said, ‘nice, let me play you a record.’ And he plays me a record called ‘Bend Down Low’. He’s on his first album. I was doing all the work then, organising things. He played it and we all in the studio knew.

“If a label comes and plays all our songs, they would sign Jesse, even though it wasn’t fair. MI deserved to be signed, not Jesse but everyone knew Jesse was the stuff. I was still pitching to Chocolate City at the time.

“Do I play the song to them? I decided jealousy wouldn’t help me going forward. I needed to get rid of it. I had to accept that, when they heard it, they would ask me to stop. I played the record and they told me it was amazing.”

MI further spoke about his early days doing menial jobs in the U.S.

“Getting signed to Chocolate City, for me, happened in Jos (2008). I came back to Nigeria from the US, got a job. I was earning, at the time, around N15,000. I was working at an internet cafe,” the music executive said.

“In Nigeria, people don’t work when they’re young. We have to destigmatise work. I cleaned. I was a janitor in America, sending money home to my brothers. In the last job I did, we were cutting grass for one rich guy.

“It was 2003 and he was paying 10 bucks an hour, with overtime up to you. So we work 8 hours, he pays an hour and a half on anything above that. It stacked up. I came home with $700 cash after buying things for everyone.”

Jesse Jagz signed a record deal with Chocolate City in 2010 and released his debut studio album Jag of All Tradez that same year. He voluntarily exited the Chocolate City deal in 2013 and announced the launch of his independent label, Jagz Nation. Jagz released his second studio album Jagz Nation, Vol.1.

Thy Nation Come in 2013; it included singles such as “Redemption”, “Bad Girl”, “Sex & Scotch” and “God on the Mic”. His third studio album, Jagz Nation Vol. 2: Royal Niger Company, was released in 2014. He returned to Chocolate City in 2015 but left the label again prior to releasing his fourth studio album Odysseus in 2017. In May 2020, he released a 5-track EP titled Garba.