Nigeria’s Reggae leg
end, Oritz Williki is all out to celebrate his 30 years in the Reggae Arena. The anniversary celebration will hold between 9th and 16th August 2014. The event will feature night of glamour, fun and glitz with rousing performances from classic and current super stars of the entertainment clan.
These veterans of reggae revolutionaries expected to perform at the continental event include RasKimono, Daniel Wilson, Fidel Ranks, Righteousman, Omawumi and Tuface. Others include Don Jazzy, Tiwa Savage, Black Rice, Arthur Pepple Jnr, Sinclar and Jaywon among others. The event will also feature talented stand up comedians such as Klint D’Drunk, Mc Saco, Omo Baba, Basket Mouth, Bovi and others.
The event will commence with a novelty football match between the Revolutionary XI and selected industry stars on the 9th of August 2014 followed by an entertainment summit with the Theme: “The future of royalties collection in the globalised industry” on the 12th of August 2014 featuring key industry players, intellectual property experts and digital media practitioners to address all the critical issues in today’s entertainment industry.
An executive media dinner will be hosted for key entertainment media executives and practitioners on the 14th of August at a VIP Lounge in Lagos. While, the anniversary grand event and gala night will hold on August 16th with the celebrant, Pupa Oritz Williki taking the centre stage to perform live with all his best hits.
Speaking in an interview with the Press, the reggae legend stated that his anniversary celebration is unique and significant because he wants to use the event to thank God and all those who stood by him and believed in his brand Oritz Williki and more importantly to show that there is no retirement for a sound and creative mind. Born Oritsebemigho Williki, the Rastafarian  lord started music at the age of 8, then he was already in the choir based on the strict discipline of his missionary father.
Although, he did not start his music career by releasing albums, he worked with notable artistes such as Ras Kimono, Mandators, Alex O, Chris Mba, Cloud 7 Etc.
His exploits in music took him to the Western world where he worked under the tutelage of Jack Solo of Jamaica later he got a record label called Alan Cheti in Paris 1988.
According to the reggae maestro back here in Nigeria, the record labels then were Polygram, Sunny Music, EMI, Tabansi Records Etc and there was sanity in the marketing section, piracy was minimal, but when these music labels left, the bad story of artistes started.
He noted that in those days there were many professional artistes and more righteousness. Those days you cannot be a successful musician if you don’t know how to play one or two musical instrumentals. He stressed that those days were inspiring.
The Raggae veteran contended that “what we have today are rhythmic and songs. The songs don’t make meaning, but the beats are okay. It is a phrase and the buying population are the youths, the contents add no  value to society,” he said.
The ‘Jah Works’ crooner stressed that today’s beats are very good, over the years, the music was very complex because we had Juju, Fuji, Hi-Life.
He noted that there was no specific identification of Nigerian music, but today, it is possible to identify music from Nigeria because of beats, that is why the works of Nigerian artistes are selling at international markets now.