 It's today with John and Helen, your wholesome TV breakfast show, and next is our guest, Nassir Mohamed, and is widely recognized as Nass Magnificent, a multi-faceted artist, celebrated for his remarkable talent as a dancer, a choreographer, a visionary costume designer and a troll blazer in the innovative dance genre known as Afrubak and that's an electrifying fusion of African and crump dance styles. Helen, you don't know what that is, I'm sure. Nass Magnificent is the visionary founder behind the vibrant dance community Freestyle Friday with NM. This thriving community serves as a dynamic hub for dancers of all backgrounds to connect, collaborate and continuously elevate their artistic prowess. Over the past four years, believe it or not, Freestyle Friday with Nassir Mohamed NM has experienced consistent growth and it now boasts the affiliation of someone Nigeria's most prominent and influential dancers he proudly said to us. Nass envisions a bright future for this community aspiring to transform it into a globally renowned organization and his vision encompasses cultivating a cater of world-class dancers by providing them with the essential skills and comprehensive self-development training that they may need to propel them to the pinnacle of their craft. Also, through his unwavering dedication, Nass aims to shape the next generation of dance luminaries and he focuses on getting the young generation passionate about dance with his unique lessons for kids and young adults, setting the stage for their remarkable achievement on the global scene. And that in a nutshell is Nass. Welcome Nass. Thank you so much Mohamed. Nass is magnificent. Nass is magnificent. Yes. There's a fusion of what and what kind of music? I mean for the dance style, it's Crump. Crump. And then the African style. I guess you have no idea what Crump is. Crump is called KRUMP. Yes. It started in the year 2000 in LA. No, first time. She's the one who did it. She's the one who did it. Oh, you know. All right. All right. My young black Americans, one of the unique things about the dance style is it helps them transfer their negative energy into a positive one. All I mean is most of them are gangsters. So instead of fighting themselves fristically, they put it in the dance form. So when you see the dance, it looks energetic. Yeah, it looks aggressive but it's not aggressive. You understand? So that's one unique part. The fact that it just transforms that negative energy into positive art. I think the entertainment industry basically generally does that. When you think of artists, dancers, they are the painters. You know, the talent, the talent generally. There's something inside of them that is expressed. Yeah, it's expressed. You know, from the outside. Exactly. And that is it. Wow. Okay. So, Nassir, the arts has been a huge transition in the last, or has seen a huge transition in the last 10 years. From being an industry for lazy in court youth, you know, to being an industry so large that a lot of people are even envious in and become an esports for this country. Talk to us about your journey, you know, fashion, music, dance and all of it. How has it been so far? All right. Firstly, I would say I dance. It's not something that I think I chose. Not I think. I didn't choose it. I usually say that dance chose me. Because what I mean is in the early stage when you're young, dance is attractive to lots of young people. Yeah. Like when you see people who are involved, young, vibrant people, yeah, I want to learn this trend, that trend. So when I was younger, you get those Michael Jackson involved then. So I cut up my parents used to bring cities to the house. I liked it. Everybody wants to show up in school that you can dance. Then after a while, you're expected to grow out of it. You understand? So this is the part where I said dance chose me. Now I'm trying to grow out of it. I'm not growing out of it. I still find myself in it. You understand? So then it goes from a hobby to what you like to your career. And now you now have to learn how to work with it as a career. Learn the business side of it. You get, learn the things to compliment it. You understand? So you just learn how to dance. Now you now have to learn the fashion of dance. You understand? You have to learn every other thing that compliments that dancing so that you can give your full package out when you get selling your product or when you're ties into clients and stuff. So yeah. So far, like I said, it chose me. I'm learning. I went to school. But yeah, I didn't study dancing in school. I wish dance chose me as well. Because it couldn't possibly have chosen you without giving you some economic gratification at the same time. Okay? So tell us. I'm a businessman. Yeah, that's it. Hang on, hang on, hang on. Be sincere. How profitable has this transition been for dance artists and, you know, artists in general? Okay. In this part of the world, right? Firstly from the house, I mean from the African home, the way it is perceived, right? You're not supposed to say you want to take dance as a career. You're not supposed to say it. Yeah, because our parents have an idea of, I don't know what to call it, call it a king. Change. Not that much. The younger people that you're working with. They are the ones forcing the change, but our parents have their own ideas. They have their own perceptions. So you will fight them to survive. So yeah, me saying I want to dance wasn't easy for my parents to take. And then they let me know how. And then because of that system, in fact, you get, when you have an, if you're in an environment where the people in power don't see that craft as something that you should call it. Serious. It wouldn't, you get, there wouldn't be so much investment. Nobody wants to put their money into it. So that's why it's lagging behind. There's no money in dance. And then truthfully, in the early stage it was just partial. It was just partial. And at the point where, like I said, the art form chose me. I'm like, let me go. We're not giving me any money. It's like, bro, you're going to dance staying with me. So it was tough. It was tough. And then that now made me tangled for education. I was like, okay, now learn other things to complement it. Learn other things so you don't starve. So I went into crafting. I started making costuming. I learned how to edit videos for people. I was surviving with those things while I was pushing the art form. And then it gets to a point, this dance that I've been pushing so much, that's been enough. And you know how it is? The building that takes the longest time to build the foundation turns out to be the strongest. Right now, dance is the biggest business for you. And that's why we have you on this show because we know that there are loads of young people like you. Girls and guys out there who have this dance passion in them and they don't know how to turn it into business. So that's why we're looking at dance as a business. So if you were to speak to the younger people out there who want to do dance, and want it to be a main source of sustenance, financial business and it would be good business for them, how can you help them? Okay, firstly, I wouldn't really advise any young person to take one source or one thing as a major source. You advise in this dispensation that you should smartly have different streams. Especially if you live in a country like Nigeria, at least you should have one more thing that assists you. You have the ability to learn more than just a thing. So I would not advise. But then if you insist and say, okay, I want this alone to be and I'll tell you, go and get information, knowledge. Go and understand business. Yes, you love to dance, you're passionate about it, but you have to study the business side of it. You have to understand how to package your dancing. You have to understand how to sell your dancing. You want to make the big box. You know the guys that have this big money, you have to know their language. You can't go and go to a, for example, down to his office and then you go looking like a street person because you say you are a dancer and then you are using slang to talk to the man and then you are cross-legged. You need to understand all those important things that will put you in a place for that kind of connection. So there's information, a whole lot of information that these young people need to get. It goes beyond just I really feel like it goes beyond the passion, it goes beyond the enthusiasm of I just want to move. Just before you come in, John, what this says to me is that you can't do it alone. You probably need a team. Exactly. I was going to get there, you can't do it alone. Who knows more about the financial aspect. You are the artists. Yeah. So find other people who have other qualities to compliment you. Exactly. You don't necessarily have to be the brain. You are the energy. Fine. Where you get the brain. Like I don't sign, I sign the documents but I don't read the documents alone when they come. Yeah. I don't know if you understand. I can put a choreography together in 20 minutes but I probably will not be able to read two pages and understand it in two hours. Wow. You have clauses and stuff that you need a lawyer, especially like so I have the lawyer. I have the person who is in charge of several things that put NAS together. So I'm not the guy who is attending to everybody. So yes, you need help. Wow. You need help. You can't do it alone. This is getting quite interesting. In fact, when I grow up, I want to be like you. Jesus. So now talk to me one on one NAS. Let's talk to me. Now explain to me with your portfolio that's as huge and rich as yours. From working with several entertainment companies and doing all kinds of things. Dancing and promoting dance here and there. How easy or difficult has it been juggling all of this together. As well as managing the transition. Alright. Because now I'm ready to receive change. Okay. Yes, that's not been easy. Right. There's not been easy but it's worth it. It's worth it. Now the things that I said just now, I had to apply. Okay. I got information. Right. I have people who sought out for confidence. You get and then when they do I have a product. You get and I need to know how to sell that product. So what I'm saying is for example my show, the freestyle fighter show. Now most brands will not just come and put their money into you if you have not to a point sacrificed to a point for what you believe in. So there's a lot of sacrifices I have put into starting up that show. The freestyle fighter show. Getting this community together. Now these people are saying that okay he's doing this. Here I started this. He can do this. And that gives trust with those brands. Then I have somebody have a middleman who does the talking, who does the connecting and they meet me. So it's that process of people helping out getting that knowledge, sacrificing my own time, cash in what I believe in. It's all that put together. It's putting a structure together. A brand. The branding thing. Exactly. That's what we did. Okay. When you talk dance maybe because I'm female. Coffee comes to mind. And from the back of my head I seem to have come with her in her dance journey. And for a female we know the terrain that she's been and how big she is and how relevant she is in the dance industry. So there are a few other people, a lot more other people like her. And here you are. How do you handle rejection? How do you handle competition? Is there a synergy between dancers positive energy between dancers in this country for example in the industry? Yeah. What's the connectivity? How do you handle rejection and failures and all that? It's almost how I put it. Everybody gets rejected one time or the other. If you're heading somewhere big at a point in time somebody will tell you no. Now it's up to you to want that to pull you back or keep going. So when someone tells me no or when I feel like I've been rejected I just go and find out why that happened and then I walk on it. I don't remember the one. I sent a message to propose out to a brand. I didn't spell the confidence name properly. No you will not. You didn't spell it properly. And I typed that. He came back. He didn't even read the rest of it. He just lashed out at me. I'm not going to work with you for that. I stopped writing them myself. I was going to say that would have become a learning curve. When you get rejected you learn from it. You learn from it. Let's look about perceptions. Ancient perceptions. This lazy Nigerian youth narrative changed by the older generation some time back. How do you react to that now? We are not lazy. I'm not saying he just wants to defend us. We are not lazy. You can't even afford to be lazy. You can't. This environment will not allow you to be lazy. What do you think informed that opinion? I think they judge a lot of things by what they are doing. They assume that young people have so much time on their phones and they complain about structure and they are just there on their phones and they are not putting their energy to work instead. They are beating down the government and all that. I feel like it's just a way to attack them back. Which is not true. We have 30 seconds to go. I'll throw in this question as quickly as possible. It's a question that is very important. There are lots of young people who want to be like you. They are having the issues that you had when you set out. Issues of parents not understanding the value or the need to encourage the children. What would be your message to this people? What do you think about what has happened to Moabad and the drug issues in this kind of industry? I would say don't ignore your parents' warnings. Don't just knock them aside and say they don't understand what I am doing. Try to explain. Try to get them to understand. And if they don't, as long as you are still under their roof, play by it. Even when you are out there, you are still their child. When you gain your freedom, I don't know if 18 is the age here. When you are able to say okay, I have 3 points. Don't what they want me to do. We go to school. Then you can now build on what you don't want to do. So right now, are you fulfilled as a dancer? I needed to get that for me. I needed to settle into this very interesting conversation. The producer just whispered into my ears that we have to let you go. But you know what? You have to do a part two. Next time we have to see some moves. We need to get our dancing shoes on and have you show us some things right here. So that's you. Probably so she will be back. Thank you. She is very catchy. You have to find the word. Thank you for coming. We can thank you enough. Magnificent. It's fine. You can tell that I have enjoyed your company. We will take a quick break right now when we return. We will be debuting on her segment today. She has a guest that you would love to meet. Don't go away.