We are just going to ignore the fact that HFTv’s Zinnia had another cringe-worthy interview and listen to BOJ do our job for us and explain to his colleagues why it’s important to not only make a name for themselves but also to register one.
The DRB artiste dropped a few gems while voicing his frustration with having a fellow artiste, Kelvin Boj, use his stage name as a suffix.
What a joker, man. I was pissed obviously (when I found out), but what can I do? I found out in August, last year… We were on NotJustOk or something and we just saw some guy called Kelvin Boj and we were like, what’s this guy trying to do?
His name used to be Laylow… After that, I actually went and trademarked my name… I feel like a lot of artistes actually have to do that.. It’s very important that you actually go and register your name cos you don’t know, some people are out for you in the wrongest way.
BOJ (HFtv), 2015
BOJ then went on to share a story of how some of his associates had the dubious idea to trademark Wizkid’s name and I’m pretty sure none of them were Star Boy’s lawyers. The lesson here – once the public starts to recognize an entertainer by their stage name but that name isn’t registered, the entertainer is leaving themselves wide open for others to exploit potentially.
Laylow to Kelvin Boj
Now, back to the drama. Kelvin Boj is the same person as Laylow, he gained prominence as the producer of Morachi’s hit song “Hapuya Like Dat” in 06 and stuck around after that. However, you always felt he had intentions to be a bit more than just the guy behind the boards because Laylow would often introduce or sign off on records with a few more words than producers at the time usually did.
In recent years, he’s rebranded from a producer to a recording artist. Unfortunately, the DRB artiste obviously didn’t appreciate that the name “Boj” was part of the rebranding process. But for the sake of clarity, Kelvin’s stage name is Kelvin Boj and not Kelvin BOJ, that’s a subtle but important difference. It’s important because it makes me question whether the older artiste really had copycat intentions. Besides, Laylow’s government name is Kelvin Bojeghre, so technically he was Kelvin Boj-eghre as a person before BOJ of DRB was, well, born.
I realized from an international business perspective that I had to change my name. There were a lot of companies, names and trademarks already associated with the name LayLow.
So the smart thing to do was change my name if I really wanted to make the type of money from the business aspect of music that’s past just Nigeria and African and I chose my first name and an abbreviation of my last name ‘Kelvin Boj’.
Kelvin Boj (VIBE Afrik), 2015
I do not know if Kelvin actually owns the name “Kelvin Boj” in Nigeria but judging from this interview, it does in fact sound like he was knowledgeable enough to register the name before using it. Either way, his stage name clearly has a prefix, so if he applied for the trademark after BOJ, it would then be up to the Trademarks, Patents and Designs Commercial Law Department of the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment to decide whether it was too similar to BOJ’s and decline his application. So, in a legal sense, BOJ and Kelvin Boj could coexist in the same industry but even if they couldn’t, it’s not up to BOJ to decide.
Fabolous, King LOS
Away from the legal conversation, I understand BOJ’s frustration with being confused with Kelvin and vice versa and the feeling that Kelvin is piggybacking off his and DRB’s recent popularity to create a buzz for himself. I do, I feel the same way about Fabolous and King LOS. Fabolous had been referring to himself as LOSO or LOS for years, only for King LOS to come in like all of that didn’t happen and call himself LOS, King LOS etc.
But, I have a theory – I would like to theorize that that’s part of the reason why despite his immense talent and numerous cosigns, King LOS hasn’t been able to distinguish himself and truly prosper as a rapper. However, I do not think the same thing will happen with Kelvin Boj and BOJ. The two artistes have 2 totally different styles of music, appeal to two totally different demographics and even live on 2 totally different continents (Kelvin lives in the States); there’s more than enough space for 2 BOJs in Nigerian music.