We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Chidike John Nwankwo. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Chidike below.

Chidike, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Has your work ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized?

For being a very young mind in the entertainment industry, people try to treat me like I have no value. I’ve had multiple experiences where people try to verbally disrespect me, or act like I’m not apart of the team because of my age. Luckily I have developed tough skin to get through situations like these. Regardless of how people may treat me, I still show respect among them because an image needs to be set. I refuse to drop to their level.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Since the age of 5 my world has been versed in music. I have always been fascinated with manipulating the speed of air to make noise. The church I grew up in always had changing music major students which caused the worship to be played at a high level. For fun I would get up on stage, and play a toy electric guitar that my parents bought me. Playing in the church band gave me a fulfillment nothing else could. My parents enrolled me with a piano teacher that taught me the fundamentals for a few years. In 2017, by age 11 I became the music director for a church in Riverside, CA called GraceWorld Christian Fellowship. Unfortunately I lost the fulfillment of music for a while, and became more interested in video production. I had a little YouTube channel that I would post vlogs, and gaming videos on. It was until I moved middle schools in 2019 that I saw potential in music. In our lunch room there was an old upright piano that I would jam on for fun. This quickly started forming a crowd around me. I received compliments, questions, and requests to play music. It boosted my self confidence, and made me start to rethink my future. Not too long after this joy, a global pandemic came to change the world forever. During the start of the lockdown, I just stayed up all night playing games, and watching YouTube. This cycle became boring very quickly. I had to make better use of my time. Being locked in room for almost two years allowed me to watch other creatives online, practice my instruments myself, and become proficient at a good rate. I used my Instagram story to entertain people by doing song requests since I can play music by ear. With the skills I gained making videos, and music, it was time to start gigging. This was around the time I officially started my business ChikayMusic Enterprises™. The term Chikay derives from a nickname I got by a group of girls in middle school. It was definitely a rough start because the entertainment industry was barely coming back to its pre-pandemic levels, but I took off in 2022. During this year I was able to work on film sets, play music live, and do studio work for artists. My business composes of rentals for parties/events, video/film production, creative direction for clients, live arrangements for artists, and playing instruments live for artists. Fortunately I have partners in my business like Portugal Photography and others to help ease the load, and deliver consistent industry standard work for clients. My biggest work so far includes arranging with Khirye Tyler for Khalid, and Monica Denise on their end of the year tours. For all the people that want to get into the show biz, I recommend you go for it. My biggest tip is to be smart about the decisions you make. Don’t drop out of high school for your dream, or put yourself in financial crisis. Pursue the dream while still holding on to what puts food on the table. You will know when it is the appropriate time to make a full time switch, and give that dream your all!

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Surprisingly I started out with making skits on my Instagram which caused me to trend, and get my name known in my school district. People now knew me as an entertainer which is what I wanted to establish. This made it easy for my audience to adjust when I started making music. I took every opportunity I could get like, being on my middle schools morning news show, and doing a lot of dares from classmates for attention. My biggest stunt was having a skateboarder do an ollie over me. I do admit a lot of the risks I took were stupid, but then I can’t be blamed for being a dumb middle schooler haha. The biggest tip to building a following, and fanbase is simply being you. I know everyone has heard this line from a lot of creators, but that’s because it’s the reality. People become famous because of their personality whether good or bad. There is an always existing group of people that will like your work, and the image you display online. Some people see quicker success than others. Unfortunately it’s hard to predict how fast you will reach your online goal when starting.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect about the show biz is flexibility. You can accept who you want to work with. This changes your hours of work depending on the client. For example in the music business, you may spend more time, traveling, and rehearsing the music than the time spent playing the show. A chunk of this business is about meeting people, and building your image. This is how you get high profile work because fellow creatives will recommend you to clients. Having a good attitude is the easiest way to get far in this industry. You could be the best at your craft, but no one wants to work with a jerk. Be mindful of the people you work with. Many people want to take advantage of new faces. Be prepared for a lot of no’s. Not every audition will call you back. People will decline your pitches for my film folks. It is a rough industry, that you need a strong mindset to survive in. Otherwise you won’t last long. What makes this fulfilling for us peeps in the industry is the joy upon witnessing the final product after all the sweat, tears, late nights, and complications to put it together. Seeing fans cry, and scream in the crowd warms our hearts as musicians. Watching a clients face glow when their dream becomes a reality is a feeling that is not replicable.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://solo.to/chi-k
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/i.am.chidike/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@chi-k
• Other: My business Instagram page: @chikaymusicent

Image Credits
Portugal Photography FigTree Cinemas Roberta Sparta