In the mid 2000s, a light skinned svelte talented lady ruled the Nigerian music industry with her Afro-pop sound. Her name is Mocheddah.
However the rhythm of her success changed the moment she left the industry at a point when she was being hyped as the next big thing.
Earlier in 2018, her fans were shocked when she recounted her battle with depression.
Speaking during the recent edition of Dang Monologue, Mo’Cheddah opens up on her battle with survival and depression.
Little beginnings
”I have been active in the music industry since I was 12.When I say actively, I mean going to the studio…I always knew what I wanted to do… Music was my life, it was what I wanted to do and It was easy for my parents to support me.
The day I recorded ‘Won Beri’, my life changed in an instant. I was 16 and the lady that was supposed to record the song didn’t show up, so they asked me to come record this thing pending the time she shows up, so I entered the booth and sang but nobody thought it sounded that good, until Sauce Kid [now Sinzu] came and asked, who sang this hook.
I didn’t need to be in the video, but Clarence Peters was like, the whole of Nigeria has been asking who is she and that changed my career.
Industry trouble
Mocheddah noted that she wasn’t prepared for the trouble that came with fame.
”I was brought up to be very honest, to be very proud of my emotions, brought up to make my own decisions… I was coming from a naive, God-fearing family and I went into the world of adults and I was thrown into a jungle and people didn’t care if I was 16, they attacked me.
The industry was hostile… I would be performing and they would turn off my microphone because the A-list artist doesn’t like me. I didn’t get it, i didn’t know there was hate… I never knew hate…
There was one day I looked at my Mum and told her ”You taught me everything about love but you did not teach me to hate.” I don’t know why she did not, but the truth is there is hate in the world, so I went into the industry thinking everybody loved everybody. I didn’t understand that hate.
The day I won the Channel O award, that was around when Twitter came out and people I knew started dragging me online. People started asking why I won the award, people starting questioning me and carrying stories around me.
How do I meet a legend and I kneel down to say hi to her and she is like ”Get off me”, a woman I have looked up to for years, the industry was hostile.”
Battle with depression and suicide
Mocheddah who got married earlier in the year revealed that she contemplated suicide and thought of drowning herself on the popular third mainland bridge
”I felt as I had failed, especially because I had thought that business will pick up. They had so much hate for me, they started bad-mouthing me to people to companies, to producers, so I was kind of blacklisted, so you know all that time people were saying, where is Mo’Cheddah, nobody wanted to work with me because they hated me and they wanted to do everything in their power to ruin me and I felt God forsook me, sadness consumed me.
I googled ”there is this darkness inside me” and I saw a lot of people had it, they were talking about depression.
The only reason I did not kill myself, first I didn’t know how I will kill myself. I thought about it so many times… I thought of drowning myself in the 3rd Mainland bridge, at times I wanted it to be quick, so I will be praying that God should just kill me.
All I had to do was understand that as long as I was at peace with this person, every other thing will be OK. I live to be happy.” she concluded.
