Jaiyeola Jeffery
has a master’s degree in Applied Geophysics from the University of
Lagos and currently works as a geologist in an oil firm in Lagos. His
alter ego Plumbline, however, is a poet who makes rap music and
expresses himself at spoken word performances. The video for his most
recent single, “Dead President”, was directed by Nodash and has aired
on a couple of terrestrial television channels. The track plays around
the concept of faces on the Naira notes to tell a tale about Nigeria’s
history. He speaks briefly to X2.
How did it start for you?
At a younger age,
my elder sister wrote a story that had a sad ending and I didn’t like
it. I decided to write my own version of it; that was how it started.
Although both stories were never published, I continued from there and
got into poetry. I never took poetry seriously because I thought it was
a common thing then but when I realized that not many people do, I
decided to take it more seriously.
How did you get the name Plumbline and what does it mean?
A plumbline is a
calibrating instrument for setting things straight. This kind of
informs my philosophy because my inspiration is drawn from a need to
correct some incorrect things around me.
Are you going to drop your degrees to ply in the music industry?
Right now I’m still
running both hand in hand; the good thing for me is that my job
provides a platform to meet people that I normally will not meet in the
music industry. And on a lighter note, it provides funding for my
musical ambition. Running both is very challenging but I have been able
to form a habit of writing at anytime, so I use my break and other
spare time to work on my songs.
What do you hope to achieve with music?
What I strive to do
is make this world a better place than I met it. I hope to draw
people’s attention to what is going wrong around me and hopefully get
things to change for the better. I believe there will be people
listening to my music who get challenged to effect change.
