I Begged To Sell CDs In US Salons To Survive – Banky W

Empire Mates Entertainment (EME) boss, Olubankole Wellington popularly known as Banky W, tells his story of grass to grace in an interview with Josephine Igbinovia of Vanguard Newspapers.

Although, many see the fame and fortune music has brought to Banky W , it is hard to believe that the the R&B superstar who is responsible for producing monster hits and artistes the likes of Wizkid, Niyola, Skales, once did menial jobs including selling CDs in Salons while in the United States just to eke out a living.

Read excerpts from an interview after the cut:

Starting small

Banky did not only pay his due but also mastered certain principles which he wouldn’t forget in haste. "One of such is to think big but start small," he said.

"Everybody knows me to be the Chief Executive Officer, CEO, of EME, but what people do not know is that EME started when I was in my third year in university in New York. You see, we all dream dreams, but it is important to think very big and start where you are because God never gives you everything but gives you enough to start. At that time, I knew I wanted to do music, but of course I understood nobody starts by selling a million CDs or the big screen!."

Begging Salons

"After making that music, we printed a thousand CDs though we didn’t have any fan. I had one battered car that broke down virtually everywhere, so, we would print black and white posters, stick them on the sides of the car, sell from the car's trunk and drive to salons to do marketing. We would walk to the owners of the salons, greet politely, and ask them to let us entertain their customers. Sometimes, some would kick us out and sometimes some would say 'yes'. If told 'yes', after singing for a minute or two, we would sell our CDs to the customers! That was the beginning!"