Timaya is one of Nigeria’s famous musician, songwriter, producer who was known for his realistic lyrics that portray the injustice in the Niger Delta regions of Nigeria, in the fight against militants insurgency.
Timaya is also known as Egberipapa 1 or Dem Mama soldier, has being in the music industry over a decade and has being surviving due to the various genres of music he is into.
He music is known to touch the very soul of youths and old people in interior areas of the Niger Delta. In this article we will reveal to you the biography of this Dem Mama soldier, his net worth and much more.
Timaya Profile
- Full Name: Inetimi Timaya Alfred Odon
- Age: 43 years old
- Nationality: Nigerian
- State of Origin: Bayelsa
- State of residence: Lagos, Nigeria
- Marital status: Single
- Occupation: Musician, Record producer and a Songwriter.
Timaya Age
The Dem Mama Soldier was born on the 15th of August, 1977 at Port Harcourt in Rivers State. Timaya is originally from Odi, Bayelsa state in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. He is the last of his 14 siblings, they grew up in Agip Estate in Port Harcourt.
His father was a banker while his mother was a small businesswoman.
Timaya Education
Timaya completed his early childhood education at Assemblies of God Nursery And Primary School at Port Harcourt, where he received his First School Leaving Certificate.
His started off his secondary education at Nkpolu Oroworukwo in Port Harcourt, but he was known to keep late nights as a teenager to feed his passion for music by attending late night music events.
Timaya’s mum made arrangements for him to go and live with his older brother and older sister who stayed at Lagos.
After relocating to the city, Timaya was admitted to Lagos’ Ikeja Grammar School, where he wrote his senior school certificate examination and obtained its certificate.
Timaya after his senior school certificate examination, later relocated to Port Harcourt to further his education at the tertiary level. He got admitted to study banking and Finance as in the same line as his father.
Unfortunately, he did not do well during his semester examinations which led to him dropping out from school.
Timaya Career
After an unsuccessful journey in tertiary education, Timaya driven by his passion for music went back to Lagos to work with Eedris Abdulkareem’s hiphop group as a backup singer.
After a period of three years of working for Abdulkareem, he left the group to greener pastures by turning his energy on his solo music career.
He started to record collaborations with same up-coming artists like himself, his first appearance on TV in an unreleased music video by UDX, a Lagos-based rap group.
Along the line, Timaya perform the acappella version of Dem Mama which got the attention of an Oshodi music producer Obaksolo. After he came in contact with the producer in Mafoluku, Oshodi, his first major hit record “Dem Mama” was produced.
Apart from working with Obaksolo, he also worked with Namse Udosen (Menthol X) on the track “Pomporo” which was in his first album, True Story were 7 more songs were recorded and release in 2007.
In an interview in 2013, Timaya stated that his inspiration of the song Dem Mama came from the incident that took place in 1999, on the destruction of Odi, a riverine area where Soldiers were chasing down militants they alleged killed about eight policemen.This act of bravery got him an instant street credibility for his boldness.
After Timaya first album, he released the second album which he titled “Gift and Grace” in 2008. His second album was a product of many producers such as Phyno, Terry G, Jeggs, Spankie and Akeem D Beat. This particular album was of a reggae genre and won him two awards.
In 2010, Timaya released another album titled De Rebirth, this album was produced by a collaboration of various producers in the likes of Akeem D Beat, Phyno, Flux, M-Yire, Jay Sleek, N.D, Jesse Jagz, and Obaksolo.
In this particular album, Timaya collaborated with various iconic Nigeria’s artists such as 2face Idibia(Tubaba), TJ 2Solo, Allenian, Konga, Lanre, M.I(aka African rapper no. 1) TJ, and Wrecoba.
Timaya also featured with a gospel musician Kefee in the famous “Kokoroko” gospel song. The Dem Mama soldier also appeared in Kcee’s Erima song.
After a year later, Timaya released another album titled Long Life And Prosperity (LLNP).
This album was collaborative effort from his music crew popularly known as Dem Mama Soldiers. The second song “Dem No Like Me” from this LLNP music album was recorded with an iconic reggae artist Ras Kimono.
The following year, precisely on the 25th of June, 2012, Timaya released the 14th-track album which was titled Upgrade. This album produced remarkable hits “Bum-Bum”, “Sexy Ladies”, and “Malonogede”. The album consisted of collaboration with artists such as Attitude, Terry G and Vector.
Two years later(2014), Timaya released another album after Upgrade, which he titled “EPIPHANY”. The album was outstanding and we’ll received globally. This album consisted of some songs such as the remix of Bum Bum (which featured Dancehall A-Lister and famous Sean Paul), “Sanko”, and the spirit lifter “Ukwu”.
This album apart from featuring overseas artists it also featured 2baba, Patoranking, Olamide, Sir Shina Peters, Deethi, Phyno and Terry G.
In 2017, Timaya performed at the Afro Soca Concert that took place in Nassau, Bahamas. After 5 years of releasing singles, and performing at his tours, Timaya in 2019 released an EP titled Chulo Vibes.
This music project featured collaborations from other African countries artists such as Alikiba, Trinidadian Soca Legend Machel Montano and Nigeria’s famous African Giant Burna Boy.
Timaya is also into record labels, as he owns the DM Records Limited. Under this label he has groomed artists in the likes of our Patoranking and Runtown. However In 2017, he signed up the young Dancehall/Afro-Fusion artiste, King Perry to his record label.
Timaya relationship
Timaya was into a relationship with a Nollywood actress, Empress Njamah. As things turned out their relationship went South following trails of accusations. After the end of that particular relationship. Timaya fell in love and is currently dating a lady whose name is Barbara.
His relationship with Barbara resulted in the birth of two beautiful daughters; Emmanuela and Grace.
Timaya Achievement
Due to Timaya’s talents and flexibility in the various genres of music, he has won a lot of awards and received nominations during his music career such as; Afrotainment-Museke Online African Music Awards 201, he won the Best Afro-Dancehall song, ” Plantain Boy”.
He also won the Nigeria Music Awards 2008 for the Album of the Year. His album True Story got his this award. He has received the Headies award 2008 for the Best Reggae/Dancehall Album for his album True Story.
In 2009, he also received Best Reggae/Dancehall Album, with the help of his Gift and Grace album. In that same year, he collected the Best Collaboration, with the help of the collabo music “Good or Bad” (featuring J. Martins and P-Square). Finally he was nominated for the Artiste of the year in 2009.
In 2010, Timaya won Best Collaboration, with the collabo music “Kokoroko” (with the gospel artiste Kefee). In 2014, he was nominated for Nigeria Entertainment Awards for the Indigenous Artist of the Year.
Timaya was nominated for two AFRIMMAs; In 2015, for Afrimma Best Dancehall Artist and in 2016 for Afrimma Best Dancehall Act of the Year.
In 2017, Timaya finally won the Afrimma for Dancehall Act of the Year and was nominated in 2018 for Best African Reggae/Dancehall Act.
Timaya Net Worth
With a music career spanning over a decade, Timaya has earned an estimated net worth of $10 million.
