El Priest’s Biography

Born Elvis Idumijie in Kaduna, north central Nigeria, El Priest began singing, acting, dancing and reading speeches in elementary school at St. Anne’s Primary School, Kaduna, Kaduna State. He discovered he could rap in 1990 at Rimi College, Kaduna, Nigeria, in his second year of senior secondary school, but R&B fascinated him more. His music career took off seriously as an R & B artiste while studying mechanical engineering at Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State, Nigeria. He switched over to rap in 1995 after an incident which made him realize rap offered him a better and comparative advantage.
El Priest aka Da Man God Uses or Da M.G.U. (as some of his very close friends prefer to call him) credits and attributes his skills to God. He recalls listening to his dad’s collections of musical legends and a couple of Christmas carols on vinyl. With the advent of rap music he was influenced by the likes of Carman, Commissioned, Michael Peace, Stephen Wiley, DC Talk, Will Smith, Sup & DJ Dove (SFC-Soldiers For Christ), Original Gospel Gangstaz, T-Bone, Dynamic Twins (DII) and Prime Minister of Grapetree Records (renowned to be the World’s #1 Christian Rap Label) and a whole generation of rap acts on the now rested Yo! MTV Raps.
A rapper/singer/songwriter/choreographer, El sees his being in the music industry as a calling and in January 2006 decided to do music professionally after setting up his label known as Da Priest Entertainment (DPE) in 2005. He is leveraging on his years of experience performing on some Nigerian university campuses, youth events, weddings, and churches with a view to reaching a global audience.
El Priest’s debut titled Da Man God Uses is a 12 track album with production credits attributed to Rymzo, K-Solo, Sir J and Timothy King (TK). Featured are Rymzo, Richard, Henry McJohn, TK, Uche and Praiz who is the second runner up of the maiden edition of MTN Project Fame West Africa. Songs like ‘Takeover’, ‘Transformed’, ‘Suicide’ and ‘Da Man God Uses’ are sure to win him fans, supporters and admiration across the globe.