Believe it or not, Kenyan rapper and first runner-up in the just concluded Big Brother Star game, Jackson Makini alias Prezzo is feeling sober following his over-criticized relationship with Nigeria’s housemate, Goldie which went soar after the latter was evicted from the reality show few weeks ago.
Goldie, after leaving the Big Brother Star game house had accused the Kenyan rapper of betraying the trust she has in him, saying that Prezzo was the least housemate she expected to nominate her for eviction.
But reacting to this accusation, when confronted in an exclusive interview with this reporter after the grand finale of the show, which held in South Africa, last Sunday, Prezzo narrated her own side of the story in a manner that he has never done before now.
Although he accepted responsibility for Goldie’s eviction, Prezzo denied betraying her as claimed by the Nigerian singer. According to Prezzo, Nigerians misunderstood his relationship with Goldie. He therefore appealed to all to stop pointing accusing fingers at him. “If Nigerians say I’m part of the reason she was evicted from the BBA house, I want to use this opportunity to also apologize to Nigerians.”
“People misunderstood my relationship with Goldie. It wasn’t a strategy on my part to use Goldie for this or that reason. My relation with Goldie was genuine and the break-ups and make-ups we had in the house were also genuine.”
’I think a lot of people misunderstood that and my humble request is that at the end of the day, people should just be proud of us as Africans. They should be more supportive instead of pointing fingers, we should be united as one.” he stated.
The confident rapper said he had a plan to take his relationship with Goldie beyond the BBA house. He also said although he knew he could win the $300,000 cash prize, he knows it was a competition and it could go any way.
“I was confident about winning but in a competition, you win some and you lose some. So for me, ending up in second place wasn’t bad at all. I believe there is a lot more opportunities out there for Prezzo. The best man won. So no hard feelings.” On his new role as a One Campaign ambassador, Prezzo was excited and he expects to use his role to help the needy in society.
“The One Campaign is a beautiful thing and being an ambassador makes me feel like a winner. As soon I get back home, I will learn more about the organization and give it my all in whatever that I can do. I like giving back to the society, so I am excited and I look forward to working with the One Campaign.
Africa can certainly expect more from Prezzo on the music front, as he hopes to spread his tentacles further across the continent. “I think collaboration is the best way to break borders. I am ready to work with different artistes from across the globe. The platform we got from Big Brother is very huge so all I have to do as an artiste is to spread my wings and fly because I believe I can conquer.”
Big brother Africa stargame has ended with South Africa’s Keagan winning the star prize. Was it what you expected?
Definitely, I was expecting to win the show. When I entered the house, I had one goal, and that goal was to win the show. So, things turned out the way they did, I give all thanks to God. I appreciated everybody who voted for me and I salute Keagan because I believe it was destined for him to win the show.
How would you describe the 91 days you spent in the house?
It was very hectic. It’s not easy being stocked in an environment like that, where you have to interact with people from different social and cultural backgrounds. But you know, I had a lot of faith in myself because I know I was there to win the show. But it didn’t happen that way. I’m satisfied with what I have right now.
What was your strategy in the house?
Actually, I didn’t have any strategy. When I entered the house, I said to myself, I’m gong to be ‘me’, from beginning to the end. And if I made it the first week, and if I didn’t make it, well and good. But I was myself all along. I had no strategy whatsoever.
You think Kenyans wouldn’t be disappointed that you didn’t go home with the prize money?
My country would be very proud of me, becoming the first runner-up in the Big Brother Africa Reality Show is not an easy task at all. Considering the number of housemates that were in the house, winning the second position is a blessing on its own.
And part of the rewards of emerging first runner-up in the show is to be involved in One Campaign with J-Zee in the United States?
It’s also a blessing to be part of the “One Campaign” coming up in the United States. Personally, I look up to J-Zee, and getting an invitation in ‘One Campaign’ is a beautiful idea. I like to involve myself in a campaigns like this, and for me, it’s all about blessing, and I’m going to give it all I have. I look forward to working with One Campaign.
What’s the next level for you?
For me, I’m a hustler. I have to survive by all means. I have a daughter who needs to go to school; who needs to eat. So, life goes on after Big Brother Reality Show.
I’m definitely gonna keep doing my music, because music is my passion. I’m also going to work on the ‘One Campaign project’. Basically, I’m going to take everything as they come to me. One step at a time. Life has to go on.
Back in the Big Brother house, Nigeria’s housemate, Goldie felt you betrayed her?
That’s what Goldie thinks. For me, Goldie and I connected since day one in the house. I believe in a relationship; it’s always ups and downs, struggles here and there. But then, I was very offended because I gave Goldie something that belonged to me, and when she left the house, she threw whatever I gave her on the floor.
To me, that attitude was like a spit in the face. I was hoping that something good would come out of our relationship after the house. But the way things turned out, one got to take it one step at a time, as it comes. I have no hard feelings for Goldie. She’s still my girl anytime. I salute Goldie, because she’s a bright woman. It’s such a shame that things turned out the way they did. But I did not betray her. I can sit here and tell the whole world that I didn’t betray Goldie.
When you saw those hot tears rolling down her cheeks, did you feel bad nominating her for eviction?
I felt bad because she’s a girl that was very close to me. While we were in the house, she was the one who kept me going. She asked me when my worse days were, and I told her that my worse days were when herself and me would have an argument and we were not okay in the house. Then, I felt like the whole world is just crumbling.
The day she left the house, we had an argument, she threw my clothes on the floor. I understood, women are like little children, that’s what my mum always said. I understood that and I took it as it came. It’s what it’s.
How would you describe your relationship with Goldie?
It was a perfect relationship. And, Goldie is a caring woman. She took care of me, just as I also took care of her. We stood side by side with each other. She kept me going in the house, and I want to believe I kept her going as well.
Was there any intention to take the relationship beyond the house?
That’s what I was hoping. I was hoping that myself and Goldie will actually be together just as J-Zee and Beyonce; hustle together and survive together. I think Goldie is a very wonderful woman. She is a smart lady, and moreover, she knows how to take care of a man.
I can’t point accusing figures at her nor can I do the same thing at myself. I just think that the environment in which we found ourselves then was actually responsible for my misunderstanding with her. But you know, when you are outside the house, and you have a woman. If you have an argument with her you can choose to drive out in order to get somethings off your mind. But when you are in the BBA house, you are stocked into whatever that is in the house.
So, it was like there was no solution to the problems at hand. It’s unfortunate that things turned out the way they did. I have no regret for knowing Goldie, or having anything to do with her in the house. I wish her all the best at all times.
You are talking as if there is no hope of reconciling with Goldie again?
Honestly, I didn’t know how that would be possible. Up till now, I haven’t spoken to her, we haven’t gotten chance to talk to each other, because she was no longer in the house. But you never can tell what destiny hold in stock for I and Goldie.
Nigerians believed you were responsible for Goldie’s eviction?
To my Nigerian brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, at the end of the day, we are all human beings. With someone like Goldie, they shouldn’t hold that against her because you cannot control how you feel inside of her.
It could have happened to me, it could have happened to Goldie, and it could have happened to anybody. What they need to do is to embrace her as one of their own because she is a product of Nigeria.
God planned everything as it was. God destined Keagan to be a winner. So, I don’t think it is fair for us to gang up against Goldie because she didn’t win or she expressed her feelings while she was in the house. In every competition, there is a winner as well as somebody who doesn’t win.
Goldie is human just like you and I. If they say, I’m part of the reason she was evicted from the house, I want to use this opportunity to also apology to Nigerians. I look forward to coming to Nigeria and working with a couple of Nigerian artistes. So, I don’t want it to be like a situation whereby I feel I shouldn’t come to Nigeria because I’m not wanted in the country.
Every Nigerian should salute Goldie for however far she got in the game and keeping in mind that, it’s just a game we shouldn’t take it personally. We shouldn’t hold grudge against each other. In Africa, we are always united, and that is how it should remain.
Back in Kenya, you used to be the people’s president, a crowd puller and a role model to Kenyan youths. Why the choice to participate in the Big Brother Reality Show?
Experience. I have always wanted to be part of a reality show. And when the opportunity came to me, I grabbed it. I went there to represent my country. While in the house, I know there were people who were watching the show, and as a public figure, I feel I have a responsibility to the young ones who looked up to me.
So, for me, I had to control myself as much as I could, just to set a good example out there for the youths. But whenever things went out of hand in the house, I had to address issues as they came., Hopefully, that was what got me this far.
Who’s Prezzo in the first place?
I’m half-Kenyan, and half Tanzania. My dad was Kenyan while my mum is Tanzanian. My dad died in 1993. He had cancer.
How are you facing the challenges of surviving without your dad?
It just made me to become a man before my time. I can’t question God at any time. So, his death came as it came and it just made me a better person. I’m sure wherever my dad is right now, he should be very proud of the man that I have become.
Why are you called The President?
Because I’m a leader, and I’m not a follower. I’m never a disciple in whatever I do. I always try to be the first caller and I would never follow others. That’s why they call me the president. When you have a big name as a president, you have to live by the standard. You don’t settle for anything less, and for me, I didn’t call myself the President. It was a name given to me by other people.
So, what are your real names?
My real names are Jackon Makini alias Presido
Would you say, you started playing music at a very tender age?
Music has always been my passion since I was a teenager. I knew that one day I would become a star.
How many albums do you have to your credit?
I have three albums to my credit at the moment.
You are also known to have brought revolution into the Kenyan music industry?
I brought glamour and style into the Kenyan music industry. I also brought show into the business. Before my emergence in the Kenyan music scene, people believed that to become a successful musician, you have to come from the ghetto. Though I was born and raised in the ghetto, I always wanted to define things in my own way. So, by the time I started pursuing my career in music, I was blessed enough to add glitz and glamour into Kenyan showbiz. I didn’t actually change, rather I carried on with the glitz and glamour that I brought into the industry.
Having been born with a silver spoon in your mouth, did it in any way affected your life?
I wasn’t born with a silver spoon, rather I was born and raised in the ghetto. I was brought up in the ghetto called the ‘Slave’.My growing up wasn’t very easy at all. But God blessed my parents and I had to use their wealth to my advantage.Though I depended on my parents up to the level when I finished my High College, then, I started hustling for myself since 2003.
And you got married the same year?
I got married in 2008.
What happened to your marriage?
My wife wasn’t comfortable with the music industry and all that goes with it. It was a struggle then to keep my marriage even though I dated my wife for thirteen years before we got married before we relocated to Canada. My marriage started having a crack after I became a star. I believe everything happened for a reason, I still respect and love her because she gave birth to a beautiful girl for me. She will always be the mother to my daughter. I talk to her all the time because of our daughter.
What was she doing before you met her?
She was studying Business Administration in Canada before she later relocated to Switzerland where she studied Hotel Management. But at the moment, she is in Kenya.
Goldie advised you to go back to your wife while she was in the house?
It is actually difficult for an outsider to understand the cause of a particular action unless the person witnessed it. So, for Goldie, she has good intention. But only me knew what transpired between us.
Are you planning to embark on any project?
I intend to do a video for my new song titled “ My City, My town” as soon as I return to my country. I ‘m actually working with one of Nigerian artistes called, Clarence Peters. He does a very good videos and I look forward to working with him.
Did you study music?
Not all. Music is something I was born with. While in High School, I performed in different talent shows and each time, I emerged a winner in the shows.
You seem to be a heavy smoker?
I have been smoking since I was in form five, about fifteen years now. I smoke five to six stick of cigaret per day. It depends on my mood. If I’m stressed out, I probably take more cigaret, and if I’m actually chilled up, then I smoke less.
What’s your message to Africans?
My mission was to make everybody proud in Africa. But then, things didn’t turn out the way I expected. However, emerging the first runner-up is still a good result because there were so many housemates both Downville and Upville who couldn’t make it to the final. It would have been better if I had won the star prize, but I can’t really question God’s judgment. For my Kenyans brothers and sisters, my intention was to make them proud.
