King Kong, Stanley Enow has been in the news lately for sweeping a couple of awards at the Canal d’or which took place last weekend. Here’s a chit chat he had with kamerkongosa on his achievements and personal life.
Q: Hello Stanley, Congratulations for all your success
A: Hello Kamer Kongosa, thank you for the appreciation. The best is yet to come!
Q: How do you feel now with all these achievements? Did you ever imagine you would be where you are now when you started?
A: It is a feeling of profound gratitude to God Almighty for the multitude of blessings He is pouring on me on my mission.
Of course I did believe I would be where I am today! What I wasn’t sure about was how quick this would happen. From an early age I have always been a dreamer. I had a deep conviction within me that my dreams would someday somehow come true. I gave it the very best that I could at all levels to make my dreams come true. As a high school teenager, I made great efforts towards achieving my ambition of becoming a successful artiste. I did experience countless number of really tough challenges that did help in perfecting my hustle and skills. It has been a long and tough journey from grace to the grace I am experiencing right now. Nonetheless, the journey is way too long; there is still a lot to achieve.
Q: MTV Award winner!! Have you really taken it all in? Can you describe your feeling when your name was called as the winner of the Best New Act Category?
A: Winning MTV BASE Africa Music Awards with my monster hit Single ‘Hein Pere’, under the category BEST NEW ACT 2014 was a very exciting moment of my life and my career. It marked a total wind of change as by the grace of God Almighty I had managed to rewrite history. It was a very tough challenge but I made it. I was nominated in this category in competition with some of the very best of the continent like Nigeria’s finest MC’s: Burna Boy and Phyno and also in competition with some of South Africa’s best male singers: Heavy K and Uhuru.
Many doubted my possibility of winning due to the fact that no Cameroonian artiste home or abroad had ever been nominated for this prestigious award. However, I had faith in the Lord Almighty and in my art work. With God all things are possible.
Q: At the just ended Canal d’or 2015 you bagged 2 awards for the nigh; what is your secret?
A: I do not have any hard secret. My most powerful secret recipe remains hard work, discipline and humility. Being a University graduate in the domain of Business Journalism and having 10 years experience in the entertainment industry naturally gives me the knowledge necessary to be quite innovative in my art. However, God has also granted me the capacity of abundant humility to listen to my team members. I have a world class team of highly trained professionals with whom I work in close collaboration. My PR, Cynthia Tabe; my manager Didier Kouamo; the co-founder of my record label Motherland Empire, based in the USA; Dikalo Chie; my CEO Martin Enow and many others.
Q: Congratulations on your collabo with Sarkodie. Will Stanley Enow be collaborating with any Cameroonian artiste anytime soon? If yes, who is /are the artiste/artistes you would like to work with?
A: Thank you! The collaboration on ‘Njama Njama Cow’ remix with Sarkodie who is Africa’s number one rapper at the moment was a pleasure to work with him. There is joy in sharing. There are numerous collaborations with Cameroonian artistes in the pipeline. My record Label, Motherland Empire has detected some young and extremely talented acts with whom I will be collaborating with. In the days ahead there will be collaboration with a very unique emerging Cameroonian act called Locko, known for his inspiring track ‘Margo’.
There is also collaboration in the pipelines with some very top young Cameroonian female artistes which will be made public soon.
Q: How do you handle criticisms?
A: Valid criticisms only make one better. Nonetheless, if people do not criticise you then most definitely you are not on the right track.
Q: Do you listen to your own music? What are the other artistes you listen to?
A: I do listen to myself a lot. I am a fan of my own music!! I will recommend you to listen to Petit Pays, X-Maleya, Gasha, Charlotte Dipanda, Sarkodie, Daphne, Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Ciana, Michael Kiessou and many others.
Q: You post photos of very beautiful women on your social media pages and one of them is former Miss Cameroon, Valerie Ayena. Are you guys an item?
A: Miss Cameroon 2013 Valerie Ayena is such a beauty diva I must say for whom I have strong admiration due to her hustle and her warm heart as a human being. Valerie Ayena and I are both Guinness ambassadors for the #MadeOfBlack campaign so there is every reason for us to entertain warm relations.
Q: What does Stanley Enow do to unwind?
A: Any time I feel pressured I listen to some soul music.
Q: There are many artistes in Cameroon that you have inspired to follow their dreams. Any words for them?
A: I would advise them to remain focused on their craft and to always ensure they give 110% in all they do and even more. Hardwork and dedication is the key.
Q: When do we expect an album from you?
A: My album ‘Soldier Like Ma Papa’ will be released any time soon but before that, I will be releasing my follow up single ‘KingKong’.
Q: Anything that you would like to add that I forgot to mention?
A: I would like to sincerely thank the Cameroon public as well as those around Africa and the Diaspora who have been there and are still there with me on this journey. I would also like to salute the Cameroonian Army across the border dedicating their lives for our peace.
Q: Thanks for talking to Kamer Kongosa Moh Manyang.
A: Thank you for having me. I do appreciate your time and kind attention. Lots of courage with the great job you are doing out there.
