Saheed Osupa
The crisis in the Fuji music industry started several years back. However, it recently took a new form with a faceoff between Pasuma, Waheed Oyediran popular as Mosebolatan and Saheed Osupa. In this interview with our reporter, Saheed Osupa explains it all.
You have been tagged as the man responsible for the crisis in the Fuji music industry, is this true?
How can that be possible; we have a lot of Fuji musician who have at one point in time called an artiste one name or the other, so why should I be labeled as such; It is not true.
Attempts aimed at resolving the crisis have hit the rock severally, don’t you people like peace?
The reason why such resolutions have failed is because they have not been objective peace meetings. More often than not the people who make the laws which govern the industry take sides.
What is the problem between you and Pasuma because you always seem to be at loggerheads?
I don’t have any problem with him. Whatever misunderstanding we have had has had to do with moving the industry forward. For instance, between 2010 and 2011, we were called to stop fighting and labeling each other in order to encourage peace in the music industry. When we were called for the meeting I thought it was a good idea, but I didn’t know that they had a plan. On getting to the meeting, Pasuma said we should cancel live shows because that was the avenue artistes were using to label and abuse each other, but I told him that if he was proposing an idea he should look at the shortcomings and the benefits and if the shortcomings are better than the benefits then you don’t bring such to the table. He has benefitted from live shows as I have, but what about the up and coming artistes who are yet to be popular, how would they survive if you ban live shows because you have to remember that they hardly get anything from album sales.
So, how did you resolve the issue of live shows?
We eventually decided to settle for two live shows in a month. That way; we were able to resolve the issue of flooding the market with discs of such shows and at the same time give the up and coming artistes the opportunity to grow.
At this point your association seems to be on the right foot, what started the crisis again?
At the peace meeting I talked about earlier, after resolving the issue of live shows we also agreed on the number of album that would be released in a year. It was agreed that two albums will be released and anybody who dropped the third would see his album banned. You need to understand something about me. I can survive in any situation and when they said two albums a year I agreed with them.
Still at the meeting, they asked us to swear by the Quran that we won’t go back on our words I did, and I said if anybody abuse me I will abuse him back, but if I am left alone I will be on my own, but none of the other people at the meeting including Pasuma used the holy book to swear they were covering up with other discussion and when I reminded them they said it was not important.
Having resolved the name calling and abuse issues, how come you and Pasuma still returned to it?
A few weeks after the meeting, Pasuma began to abuse me, he was saying different things about me and when I went to the conveners of that meeting they were asking me if I didn’t swear by the Holy Quran that I won’t abuse any one again. I told them to remember what I said and that since I had not been left alone I no longer had a choice. When it was getting too much and I couldn’t take it anymore and I decided to start singing back. Mosebolatan then started accusing me that I had started again. When the heat was getting too much they said we should stop it and we stopped.
How did your fight with Mosebolatan begin?
In 2012, Pasuma released three albums ‘Danceable’, ‘Institution’ and ‘Gateway’ and nobody said anything. I was looking at them, remember that we agreed it would be two albums a year and two live shows a month and anyone who does three would naturally get the third album banned. In 2013, I released three albums and they banned the last one titled ‘Main Man’, they called for a meeting and I told them I was not interested since they had banned the album what more do they want from me. They insisted that I should come that my attendance meant that they would lift the ban. When I got there they said I dropped three albums against the earlier agree two and I was asked if I was guilty, I told them that if they said I was then I agree, but as far as I was concern I was not guilty and I had explanations. I asked them when the law was made and when Pasuma released his three albums, but they said I should face my case and leave that issue, but I insisted that as long as the law that was made covers all artistes in the Fuji industry then it must apply. If you cannot hold Pasuma for what he did then you can’t find me guilty. So, I told them that the people who made the law were inconsistent. Someone later told me to tell my marketer ‘Golden Point’ to beg the association and that they would lift the ban, so I went to the marketer, but he refused saying he could not apologize when he had not wronged anyone. Eventually, I made him understand that for peace to reign he should do it and he eventually did. Then, they said since ‘Golden Point’ and Saheed Osupa have apologized the judgment is that the ban still remain and it will last for six months. Weeks later, a poster came out with the title Pasuma takes over Ajegunle and Mosebolatan was the marketer, meanwhile he had already released two other live shows earlier. I became curious because Mosebolatan was the one who made the law f the number of live shows. My people said we should title our next work ‘Takeover Impossible’ to counter theirs, but I said no because I didn’t have issues with Pasuma, but Mosebolatan who made the law and was abusing it. When I called him to update him on my plans and he said it was not possible I told him if he could release ‘Pasuma takeover Ajegunle’ I could do as I deem fit. He said he would fight me physically and spiritually and I told him if I was fighting a just course he would fail. That was how it all started.
What led to the recent destruction of your albums and posters?
I wanted to take things personal with Mosebolatan, but my lawyer advised that we write them a letter. In the letter; we narrated how the laws were made, how an artiste abused it without consequence, how my album was banned for six months and how Mosebolatan was abusing his office as the President of Music Advertisers Association of Nigeria (MAAN). As soon as he received the letter, he scanned it and told his followers that I had dragged them to court. He asked them to tear up my posters anywhere they see it and his boys started destroying and carting away my albums from shops selling them.
Are you sure this is not a fight you will regret getting involved in?
I am a moving train. I am yet to hear of a train which has ever made a U turn. If I decide to fight for something or a course I do it to the end. That is why I take my time before doing anything. I like to accumulate my facts before fighting. For instance before, any marketer release a job he pays five thousand naira for logo and when I asked what he money would be used for they said to fight piracy. Since they started collecting the money nothing has been done with it and no one is asking. Fuji artistes know Mosebolatan is doing something that is wrong, but they can’t say it to his face. They would rather say it behind him. These are the things I am fighting for and I don’t believe in regrets
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