In prelude to the release of her forthcoming single – Stay Alive, Omawumi had a chat with Seun Apara where she spoke about sundry issues and the meaning of words and phrases off her most recent single.
Basically, the word ‘Kokoma’, what does it mean?
I came back from America with my daughter when she was about two and half months or three months.
My mum was with me for about four months to take care of the baby. When my mum was with me, I used to sing ‘Omawumi’s baby, Grandma Warri’s baby, Grandma Lekki’s baby’, and so on. Kokoma is like a drum beat or dance style of highlife that could be related to Ghanaian highlife in the 60′s or 70′s. When my mum cooks, that’s what they sing- ‘kokoma, I stand by, Adebisi Konga’. Adebisi konga is the name of a guy that used to play drums, his name was Adebisi, but we call him ‘Adebisi Konga’.
Then before I released the song, my mum used to sing the song. When the producer of ‘Bottom Belle’ called me that he’s taking the song to Flavour and that he needs me to come out with something different because Flavour will surely bring in his own style. We did it and the song became a hit. Now, a lot of people enjoy the music, from six months to 10 years old. That’s satisfaction to me.see the full interview after the cut
What is ‘Bottom Belle’ itself?
Bottom Belle! I get tired of answering that question because everybody has the idea that it might be the bottom of the belle.
The song was originally done by Victor Olaiya. I got ideas from him and a couple of other artistes. Basically, I wrote it in my concept because it was released in the 60′s, 70′s and then bell bottoms were in vogue. A woman will tell me buy me bottom belle, give me bottom belle to cool my heart.
Then the in-thing was bell bottom trouser. So when they tell you give me bottom belle or buy me bottom belle, it means buy me bell bottom trouser, so that I will feel among and be happy. Bottom Belle in my own concept means going the extra mile to make your woman happy.
