{"id":153208,"date":"2025-03-24T07:21:10","date_gmt":"2025-03-24T07:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/african-music\/africoriginal-chief-stephen-osita-osadebe-1936\/"},"modified":"2025-03-24T07:21:10","modified_gmt":"2025-03-24T07:21:10","slug":"africoriginal-chief-stephen-osita-osadebe-1936","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=153208","title":{"rendered":"AfricOriginal: Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe: 1936"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n[Baby one pound no balance \u2013 Osondi Owendi \u2013 Onu
\nkwulonjo \u2013 Obiajulu \u2013 Makojo]<\/span><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Stephen Osita Osadebe born in Atani, was one of Nigerian leading Highlife musicians. Osadebe\u2019s musical gift first blossomed during high school, which he attended in Onitsha, the major Nigerian commercial center near Atani. He later traveled to Lagos, and, with trumpeter Zeal Oniya as his mentor, quickly worked his way through the then Nigerian capital city\u2019s circuit of nightclubs and dance halls.<\/span><\/p>\n

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In 1958, Chief Stephen released his first record to great acclaim and broad acceptance. It contained two songs, one of which was Adamma, his famous tribute to a beautiful lady. Since that time, Osadebe has written over 500 songs, more than half of which have been released and circulated worldwide. Once established, Chief Stephen took his musical career to anaother level in two major ways: The first was\u00a0 in incorporating satirical social commentary in his compositions. The second was in extending the duration of each song to accommodate the dance floor jolly mood of his audience. Whereas the early constraints of recording technology limited records to 3 and later 6 minutes in length, from the early 70\u2019s on Osadebe\u2019s recordings consitently pushed the 20+ limits of vinyl records.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nThe 1967 outbreak of hostilities between Nigeria and
\none of her regions (the later self-named Biafra), led to an enormous loss in
\nprominence for Highlife in Nigeria, especially in Lagos, which was not only the
\npolitical capital, but also the cultural and social epicenter of the country.
\nThe mass exodus of the Easterners to Biafra left a huge cavern in the musical
\nlandscape, which was soon filles by styles such as Juju, and later Afrobeat.
\nBoth during and after the war, Chief Stephen kept his performance schedule
\nactive, in spite of the hardship of those years.\u00a0 <\/span>It was in the mid-seventies that his musical
\ncareer reached its zenith. His release Osadebe
\n\u201975 <\/i>brought him much success. Several hits followed in rapid succession. However,
\nbehind the gloss of acclaim, times were turbulent. Osadebe\u2019s band went through
\nseveral major split-ups, and a negative bias crept into the artistry of his
\nlyrics, compromising the overall integrity of his music.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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\nDespite these hard times, by the late 1970s Chief Stephen had established his reputation as Highlife leader and in 1981 he received a gold disc for the 1981 LP Onu kwulonjo<\/i>. He also released a series of albums dedicated to various social clubs which flourish among the Ibo. One of these albums, People\u2019s Club special <\/i>sold in excess of 40.000 copies. By the mid-1980s, Osadebe reached the peak of his polularity with the album Osondi Owendi <\/i>(One man\u2019s meat is another man\u2019s poison<\/i>). Osondi Owendi (surpassed in sales only by Nico Mbarga\u2019s Sweet Mother) sold so many copies (750.000) that Polygram awarded Chief Stephen the first and only Platinum record to be received by any Nigerian artist. \u00a0<\/span>The album firmly entrenched him in the forefront of innovation in Highlife. His bold musical experiments incorporating new instrumentation and stylistic elements from a wide range of musical genre paid off admirably.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Through the years, Chief Stephan\u2019s music has evolved a characteristic flow: jazzy horns and strong wah-wah guitar strokes, atop bold, frenetic native instrumentation. Among many other musicle titles, he is known as \u201cThe Doctor of Hypertension,\u201d for his ability to bring a dancing crowd to an energy-infused, delightful frenzy. His rich baritone voice, itself a major instrument, is a defining element of his music that has maintained an incredible consistency through the years. When Osadebe turned 50 in 1986, he consciously began to make room for his son Obiajulu, by lightening his pefromance schedule. But his album output, however, continued to be high, with often two and sometimes even three or four records a year.<\/span><\/p>\n

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[Baby one pound no balance \u2013 Osondi Owendi \u2013 Onu kwulonjo \u2013 Obiajulu \u2013 Makojo] Stephen Osita Osadebe born in Atani, was one of Nigerian leading Highlife musicians. Osadebe\u2019s musical gift first blossomed during high school, which he attended in Onitsha, the major Nigerian commercial center near Atani. He later traveled to Lagos, and, with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":153209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12025],"tags":[13384,3576,63631,63630,4030],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-153208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-african-music","tag-africoriginal","tag-chief","tag-osadebe","tag-osita","tag-stephen"],"yoast_head":"\nAfricOriginal: Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe: 1936 - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=153208\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"AfricOriginal: Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe: 1936 - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[Baby one pound no balance \u2013 Osondi Owendi \u2013 Onu kwulonjo \u2013 Obiajulu \u2013 Makojo] Stephen Osita Osadebe born in Atani, was one of Nigerian leading Highlife musicians. 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