By Leshi Adebayo
Arguably Nigeria’s best rapper in decades, M.I Abaga is a household name in the country’s music scene. The iconic rap artiste turns 40 today.
In an Instagram post, he penned down a birthday message to himself, noting that he is grateful and joyous for the milestone.
In this piece, BlackBox Nigeria presents things you should know about the iconic rapper cum entrepreneur.
1. M.I’s full name is Jude Lemfani Abaga and he was born on October 4, 1981.
2. M.I is a sibling to Jesse Jagz, another popular name in the music industry.
3. He had his college education in Calvin College, Michigan U.S.A. There he studied Engineering for a year before moving on to major in Business and Economics.
4. M.I officially started off his music career in 2003. By 2006, he rose to prominence with the release of hit track, “Crowd Mentality” in Jos.
5. He released his first album titled, “Talk” in 2008. So far, he has released 5 Studio Albums, 4 Mixtapes /Playlists, and 2 EPs.
6. From 2015 to 2019, he was CEO of Chocolate City but exited the famous record label to launch his own label called Label Music.
7. M.I, aside from singing, has showcased his acting talents with his features on two Nigerian blockbuster movies — Chief Daddy (2018) and Namaste Wahala (2021).
8. He has won and bagged nominations for many awards including the Headies Award and BET Awards.
9. He once tried out as a comedian in the U.S but discovered that people refused to laugh at his jokes except him.
10. He is responsible for the success of many musicians such as Phyno, Wizkid, Brymo, etc. Also, he had a great influence in Kaligraph Jones’ music career.
11. In 2012, he was appointed as UN’s Goodwill Ambassador.
12. M.I Abaga in 2020 made a public declaration that he had no plans of having any children. Although, many thought it was a prank or joke as a result of a World War III prank by a young lad, he saw on social media. He claimed that children were troublesome and mischievous.
13. He is a very controversial personality as he has been involved in feuds with his colleagues such as Kelly Hansome, Ice Berg Slim, Vector. He even had a feud with notjustok.com as he released a track titled, “notjustok/Savage” for rating him as no. 4 best rapper in Nigeria.
14. He is one of the top 10 richest artistes in Nigeria. Although, details about his actual net worth are sketchy, it is estimated to be between $3- $8M.
