Listed and first reviewed on: 07/19/16
I regret compromising on my scrutinization standards while selecting the very last vendor for my wedding celebration. A DJ who stumbled on DJing for money with no passion, technical knowledge and adequate experience.
Looking back to my wedding day, I regret not being on instagram prior to my wedding. I would have found a whole lot of djs myself and taken my time to choose properly.
During the planning phase of my wedding in 2015, I had already contacted DJ Obi who gave us a quote of 250K just to give us some hip hop jamz for my wedding alongside the live band (DJ business is something else in Nigeria now — nawa). Being the proactive person that I am, I requested for his invoice about 5 months before our wedding and kept asking for this invoice till it was 1.5 months to the wedding. At some point it felt like na me dey chase am to spend my money on am and I hate last minute disappointments. Omo I vexed and called my wedding coordinator who recommended DJ Lambo and DJ Poppaeye. Unfortunately, DJ Lambo – who was most preferred – was not available for my date and so she said DJ Poppaeye and spoke highly of him! In fact, the hype propelled me to do a brief research and here is his resume that made me book him sharp sharp; he is the official DJ for Cool fm tv, he was the official DJ for the big nigerian wedding season 2 in 2015, his profile on instagram was interesting, popping with lots of overly edited pictures of people grooving to his jamz at various weddings in 2015. Finally, I was mesmerized by his branding especially the way he groomed his beards, I was like mmmmmmm another DJ Obi in the making!
Fast forward to two days later, I got in touch with him and he said his fee is 300K but because it was a business transaction based on referral, he would charge us 200K. Due to fatigue from planning, coupled with my trust in my wedding coordinator, I settled with him and started singing ..I don find ghen ghen DJ ….because I really wanted to boogie down on my wedding day. So I made a deposit of 100K and got talking with him, providing details on our expectations, the flow and genres of music we wanted, etc.
So my wedding day was in three days and he asked for his balance and I was like for what? I insisted that I would hold on to his balance until he had performed. Moreover my policy also applied to all other vendors even the MC (who was so brilliant, creative and covered up the flaws of Deejay Poppaeye). And what if he spoils my day with nonsense jamz? How would I get my refund? So after much deliberation he agreed.
Oyah o! My joyous wedding day arrives and here I was about to cry that I made the worst decision choosing Deejay Poppeye. At the initial stage, he adhered to our instructions to play old school jamz (which I got to know later on because we were busy taking pictures). However, from the time the bridal train danced in, I really do not know the kind of spirit that entered Deejay Poppaeye and he started fumbling. Chai! Guess what? Our wedding reception had just begun and Deejay Poppaeye fumbled. So let’s just say he messed up our day big time. O Chineke! Thankfully we had the live band as backup because we were thinking of having only the dj to save money. In fact his speakers were inadequate and so songs were not well projected. Chimo! As a perfectionist, I wanted to cry (in my heart) and to top it up he was so nonchalant, looking so drowsy and clueless.
There were times when he would switch to a new song quickly without allowing us to enjoy the previous song. Most times the transition from one song to the other was noisy, quick and horrible. I wonder who plays “love is wicked” when everyone is hyped and ready to boogie at a wedding? Smh! In fact the guy just spoilt the tempo and everything. As in there were so many times I gave him and his team bad eye, so many times I had to pass a message across to him through the mc, lots of times I had to ask my wedding coordinator what the dj was doing? In fact I was so close to walking up to his stand to give him the words of his life.
The height of it was when his crew had to come and ask me (while I was dancing) what songs I want? HEY! ISI MBAKA CHORO IME MU (I WANTED TO RUN MAD!) YOU MEAN IN THIS TIME OF SO MANY PANGOLO NIGERIAN HIP HOP JAMZ AND ARTISTES YOU ARE ASKING ME WHAT SONGS TO PLAY! In fact he killed the tempo of my wedding party and the after party. And unfortunately for us it was also my husband’s birthday but o well we told ourselves whatever happens, we would dance it anyhow and that was how we had fun at our own wedding regardless of what happened.
Of course, my husband and I did not pay him his balance. We told him to use his tongue to count his teeth, period! He even asked us to tell him what he did wrong knowing fully well his performance was poor and below par after all the hype!
Rating for Deejay Poppaeye, per my experience, is 4/10. He is just a below average disc jockey who does not really understand the skills, joys and technical know-how required of a good wedding DJ. Please people should rather hire roadside DJs. Next time I have a party, I would do auditioning for my DJ’s and select who I feel is best with my eyes and ears well opened (like I did with most of my vendors who rendered quality service asides from two that I shall review soon).
At least I am now on instagram…lol! I learnt the hard way.
Stay tuned for more reviews.
This isn’t a good look for DJ Popeye. It’s also a good example for those who don’t take their business services seriously. You leave your fate to dissatisfied customers and end up hurting your brand.
This is exactly what Nigerian businesses fail to understand. Rather unfortunate!
What a review! I enjoyed this
Thank you Sandra Gee.E pain me die so I had to be very meticulous in my review.lol.