Naetochukwu Chikwe “Naeto C” was born on December 17th in Houston Texas. He spent his earlier years growing up in England and Nigeria within a household hugely influenced by music. His likeness for music grew fast and was articulated into other creative art forms, most specifically poetry, which took him to various competitions and earned him accolade as a young poet during his earlier years. Naeto attended the prestigious Atlantic Hall Secondary School, Epe Lagos and later moved to the United States of America to further his higher education in SUNY Old Westbury and a year later, George Washington University.

 

While in the states, Naeto linked up with Uzikwendu and his brother, Ikechukwu, an up and coming Hip Hop artist out of Washington Heights, NY. The trio formed the World Famous Akademy, an aspiring Record Label but most importantly they developed a bond of brotherhood between them and became very close friends. While in the States, Naeto C recorded over 40 to 50 songs as a solo artist and about 25 songs with the World Famous Akademy as a group.

 

Naeto graduated in 2004 with a B Sc. in Biology. His original intention was pursuing a professional career within the medical field but like most creative artists, “”Naeto C”, opted to drop the medical career path and follow one that would be more accommodating to his creative side. His budding sense of self-employment, being an entrepreneur and his numerous business ideas were catalysts to making a career change, however, furthering his educational background still remained a priority.

 

Within this period, Storm Records had expressed interest in signing the World Famous Akademy having heard their material on a local radio station. Coincidentally, one of the co-owners of Storm, Obi Asika, was an older cousin of Naeto. Years prior to Storm indicating interest in the World Famous Akademy, Naeto had already played earlier material of himself and his group to Obi.

 

After receiving Obi’s message from South Africa about signing the World Famous Akademy trio, Naeto notified the rest of the group and introduced Ikechukwu to Obi over the phone and in person in December 2005. A year later both Naeto and Ikechukwu would return to Nigeria at the beginning of 2006 and Ikechukwu would release his debut album titled “Son of the Soil”, laying the foundation for “Naeto C” and the World Famous Akademy.
While in Nigeria, Naeto got admission into University of Hertfordshire, to pursue a Masters in Biotechnology. Having found the ideal recording home that would provide the flexibility to nurture a career in music alongside a Masters program in the UK, signing a record deal with Storm was a perfect match. Working as an in-house producer with his newly discovered production team “ET-Quake” (Consisting of TY Mix and VC Perez).

 

His first single from his album titled, “You Know My P”, “Sitting on Top” was a phenomenal piece of work, with a delightful video to go with it. The song sat on the charts from Soundcity to MTV Base for weeks and went onto grow a significant hit. He also shot a video for his next single “You Know My P”. As a producer, Naeto was able to display his production skills working with Storm artists like Sasha, Dare Art-Alade, GT the Guitarman, Disconnect, Saro-Wiwa and Nkiru. Within a year of working with the aforementioned artists, Naeto had successfully recorded over 60 songs including his most recent album material (a bulk of which he co-produced with ET-Quake). A notable production achievement is the “I Believe” song Naeto wrote and co-produced with VC Perez (member of ET-Quake), which features himself, an up and coming R&B/Gospel artist, Sheun and the Legendary Hugh Masekela from South Africa. Within the same year Naeto garnered a lot of experience performing, from Ikechukwu’s album launch to Channel O awards to the I Believe Tour to Always promo tour with Sasha and many more gigs, in preparation for the phenomenal MTN Homecoming Concert, headlined by a popular friend, Nigerian pop sensation, D’banj.

 

After all the hype, Naeto released his third single, “Kini Big Deal” and it ruled the charts, clubs and everywhere else for a very long time. He then released his first album You Know My P and it was a huge success. It is still one of the best selling hip hop albums in Nigeria to date. Due to the hype and demand for Naeto C, he performed at shows like The Thisday Music Festival after parties in both Washington DC & London and The Nokia Face of Africa event in South Africa. He also performed at the Opening of Big Brother Africa and Rhythm Unplugged 2008. Naeto just shot and released the videos for two singles on the album “Ashawo” which features Wande Coal and “Ringtone”.

 

He was honored by his former school, Atlantic hall for his outstanding achievement in the Nigerian entertainment industry and as one of the most successful people to graduate from the school. He was named an ambassador by the school, at a well attended event which took place in Lagos.
He graduated with a Master’s Degree in Energy at the University of Dundee and while recording material for the release of his next album titled “Super C Season”. He released a single titled “Ako mi ti poju” from his first album and shot a video which topped all music charts in the last quarter of its year of release.

 

He has opened show for American singer, R. Kelly at the This Day music festival in Suncity South Africa and was also a judge on Emcee Africa 2009 edition in Botswana. He was co-host on a TV series for channel O called Jamrock 5.
Awards he has won since the inception of his career include HHWA best hip hop single 2009, Sound-City best male video 2009, Best new act, MTV MAMA’s award 2008. He has had  nominations for the channel O awards and even performed at the awards ceremony which  took place in carnival city South Africa and went on to win Best Rap Artist for 2010.

 

He has also done some major collaboration this year with prominent hip hop stars who include Sway, HHP and an All Star Africa collaboration (which features HHP, Proverb, Zeus, Nazizi and Tamarasha) titled “All around the A”.

 

To date, Naeto C has gone on to release his second album Super C to critical acclaim and release the hit single 10/10 along with a video which was recently nominated for Channel O Most Gifted video in West Africa in 2011. He set to further release his second single 5 and 6 and already shot a video for it.

 

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Artist website: www.naetoc.com

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