{"id":234758,"date":"2025-08-20T14:57:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T14:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abianewscentral.com.ng\/why-i-transitioned-from-music-to-filmmaking-jjc-skillz\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T14:57:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T14:57:16","slug":"why-i-transitioned-from-music-to-filmmaking-jjc-skillz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/why-i-transitioned-from-music-to-filmmaking-jjc-skillz\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I Transitioned From Music To Filmmaking \u2014 JJC Skillz"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Why I Transitioned From Music To Filmmaking \u2014 JJC Skillz<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Filmmaker and former musician JJC Skillz, alias Abdulrasheed Bello, has explained why he left the music scene for Nollywood.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>JJC, who made a guest appearance on Sunday\u2019s <em>Rubbin\u2019 Minds<\/em> programme on Channels Television, revealed that he felt \u201ctoo old\u201d for the youthful energy of the industry.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs far back as I can remember, I have been shooting music videos for years. Even my \u2018We Are Africans\u2019 video, I shot that myself.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut after doing African Gang in 2011, I realised I was getting too old for the young scene, so I knew it was time to evolve. I packed my bags and moved into Nollywood. I was very passionate about telling stories,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>On the challenges of breaking into film, JJC, who delved into filmmaking in the early 2010s, explained that he had to start afresh in Nigeria and experience gatekeeping, despite his earlier success in the UK.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say normal life when you\u2019re starting again. I was a JJC (newbie). I didn\u2019t grow up with most of the filmmakers in Nigeria, so it was like, \u2018You want to enter our space?\u2019 Some doors were closed. There are gatekeepers at all levels.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"AI Useful For Filmmaking Strategy, Not Human Enough For Real Films \u2013 JJC Skillz\" width=\"740\" height=\"416\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_3gY-HKh1mM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He credited actor Deyemi Okanlawon and filmmaker Funke Akindele for supporting his journey, saying they believed in his talent and encouraged him when others were hesitant.<\/p>\n<p>Turning to the challenges of cinema ticketing in Nigeria, he stressed that filmmakers must give audiences value for money. He lamented the poor revenue share filmmakers receive, describing it as \u201chorrible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNigerian filmmakers need to improve to give the people value. I\u2019ve even had to market my film with a promise of refunds if viewers weren\u2019t satisfied.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a situation of monkey dey work, baboon dey chop. We put in a lot of work. Sometimes, the cinemas take 70 per cent, other times 60 per cent, and after paying 22 per cent tax, we\u2019re left with nothing. We have to make the film and also sell it because distribution companies aren\u2019t out there selling. We are stuck in a horrible place,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The 48-year-old filmmaker noted that while the arrival of streaming platforms once offered hope, their gradual exit from Nigeria has left filmmakers uncertain about recouping investments.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe hope for a better day was with streaming companies, but they\u2019ve left. So now we\u2019re back to asking, \u2018if we put our money into it, will we get it back?\u2019 At the end of the day, it\u2019s a business, and creativity is getting killed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>JJC Skillz first made his mark in the UK music scene, co-founding Big Brovaz and later JJC &amp; the 419 Squad, with hits like <em>We Are Africans.<\/em> He won the KORA Award for Best African Group and the NEA Best International Artist before transitioning into Nollywood.<\/p>\n<p>He has since co-created Industreet, directed episodes of <em>Jenifa\u2019s Diary,<\/em> co-directed the blockbuster <em>Omo Ghetto: The Saga,<\/em> and most recently helmed Amazon Prime\u2019s <em>She Must Be Obeyed. <\/em>In early August, he released <em>Hakeem: Seeking Justice,<\/em> which is credited for its action scale with Hollywood-level stunts.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>JJC Skillz,Nollywood<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.channelstv.com\/2025\/08\/17\/why-i-transitioned-from-music-to-filmmaking-jjc-skillz\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why I Transitioned From Music To Filmmaking \u2014 JJC Skillz \u00a0 Filmmaker and former musician JJC Skillz, alias Abdulrasheed Bello, has explained why he left the music scene for Nollywood. JJC, who made a guest appearance on Sunday\u2019s Rubbin\u2019 Minds programme on Channels Television, revealed that he felt \u201ctoo old\u201d for the youthful energy of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":234760,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[1712,344],"class_list":["post-234758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-jjc-skillz","tag-nollywood"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}