‘PSQUARE’,
RUDEBOY, which one of the aforementioned rings a bell? Do you think the second
one will eventually wipe away the memory of the first? Did I hear you say ‘That is a huge question’? huge question indeed
as the Nigerian music industry is on the verge of a colossal loss given the
problems within the family of the duo, Paul and Peter Okoye of Psquare.
A
colossal loss because this duo have really added so much spice to the industry
as a team even as they come up with one good song after the other. But then,
all that is about or has even come to an end as recent reports on the trend
point to the fact that indeed this ‘for a long time square’ is finally
breaking up due to irreconcilable differences. I wish you could see the annoying look on my face right now.
Only
a couple of days back, Nollywood actress, Mercy Johnson was reported to have
admonished the ‘twins’ not to break up. I
guess all that and that of their teeming Nigerian fans, fell on deaf ears.
Recently
Paul Okoye, virtually avoided questions as regards the troubles they, Psquare
were having while on an interview with MTV Base Africa, rather than answering questions on the split, he spoke on his new
record label, Rudeboy and those he’s signed up already.
He
however confirmed during the interview that they do have an existing rift
which he said was strictly between them and went on to add he would let the
fans know when the issues which gave rise to the rift has been thrashed by the
family and so would let the issue remain private for now.
And
so it was, until Peter broke the news of ‘break-up’, *no jokes this time* in a most recent interview with members of thenet.ng.
Below are extracts from the interview:
According to Peter Okoye, “The truth is,
the fans should be happy that we were able to drop the ‘Double Trouble’ album
in 2014. What’s happening now should have happened then”.
‘The issue was the fact that I was in
Psquare and it felt like I was in fear. If I don’t do this, Psquare will
break-up, if I don’t do that, Psquare will scatter.’
‘Four
years ago, I told Jude he needs to step down as our manager, because I didn’t
want to disrespect him as a brother, but this is business, [and] we have to
structure it. And Jude said to me that there’s a way I [should] talk to him,
and [threatened to] slap me. So I kept quiet.’
‘So,
a few hours after, Paul came to me and said if I want Jude to step down it
wasn’t a problem, but it meant that he (Paul) would go solo. The first time
word got out about Psquare breaking up, a lot of people called us; senators,
governors, and people like that. In fact, three of us were once in a private
jet to go and see someone who wanted to resolve our issues, and we didn’t speak
to each other throughout the flight. At the end of the day, I swallowed my
pride for peace to reign and allowed Jude to remain as our manager.’
‘I
and Paul stay together in this estate and the last time I saw him was about a
week ago.’
But
you live in the same premises. Why is this so?
‘Truth is, I’ve
not been in talking terms with Paul since December 2015 and that was why I
travelled in January because I had a lot on my mind.
Something happened
at Mavin Studios last year that broke my heart.
Now listen to
this, Psquare featured on songs with J-Martins,
Bracket, LKT,
9ice and these 4 songs were done
by Paul alone, but guess what, did I appear in the videos, YES’.
‘Now
hear this, we have other collabos with Kaha,
Darey, Ruggedman. I did these songs alone. How come they
don’t have videos? Paul refused to appear in the videos.’
‘So
I told Paul that when next he does a collabo alone, he should be in the video
alone, because it got to a point where artistes began to feel if they did a
collabo with Paul it [would] get a video, but if it was me, it [wouldn’t] get a
video.
The
last collabo we did was with Flavour
and I refused to do another one. Even Flavour had to speak all the Igbo he
knows to convince me before I agreed to do it. Only for my brother to come and
tell me that ‘shey I thought you said you won’t appear in any video that I
did the collabo alone? Why did you appear on this one?’ I was sad but I
knew another one will come’.
‘So Tiwa Savage called me;
apparently Paul had done a song with her – not the campaign song they are
promoting now, another Psquare collabo entirely. So she [said] she’s been
trying to reach Paul to get the CD of the song from him [because] he’s already
done his part, so I went to Paul’s house to help ask for it and tell him I want
to go to the studio to do my verse and he said he doesn’t know where the CD
is.’
‘I
went to the Mavin studio to meet Tiwa. When I got there, she asked for the CD
and I told her Paul didn’t give me any CD, so I called him again and gave the
phone to Tiwa and [he] told her on phone that the CD is at Omole, so I got into
the studio, recorded my verse and when I finished, everybody was clapping. I
was surprised to realize that Paul had [told] them that I don’t sing or write
songs.’
‘I
felt really bad and betrayed, but I covered up for him. I jokingly asked Teebillz if they gave him Red
Label and he said yes, so I was like you guys caused it, and we laughed over
it. So when my assistant went to pick up the CD, Paul and Jude started shouting
at him to ‘ask Peter what is he doing at the Mavin studio? He knows how we
work.’ The next day, I went to Paul and told him how I felt when I heard
what he said. Only for Jude to say that he made Paul the lead singer of
Psquare 8 years ago! A leader leads, he doesn’t destroy.’
‘When
it came to decision-making, it was always a Triangle formation, and the highest
vote wins. I never used to complain because we were all okay, but what has
changed now is the fact that we’ve grown. You can make a certain decision based
on how we used to do it and it may affect everyone as an individual, but it
gets to a point when the decisions taken are never my own and I began to wonder
if anything was wrong.’
‘Most
of Psquare ideas came from me, like [the] materials we needed to put out for
people to see, video, stage performances and all. But when I came up with them,
nobody wanted to accept it. I didn’t complain because people still love what we
do, but then again, there wasn’t much competition in the industry back then.’
‘As
time goes, we should get better; it shouldn’t be same triangle deciding,
because if we continue that same way, we’ll lose it. All I want is a proper
structure in the sense that, we need to have proper management, business
managers and all.’
‘As
I speak to you right now, we don’t have an office, [we have] no structure. When
this issue started about five years ago, our lawyer told us the way we run our
business is wrong.’
‘I’ll
give you an instance’.
‘We had to go perform somewhere once,
and because I had a slight argument with Paul, he said he wasn’t going. It was
the wedding of the President’s daughter. When I got to the airport my brother
wasn’t there, and I [didn’t know] how I was going to explain to the President
that we [couldn’t] perform. I made up my mind to go with the band, perform like
that and lie that my brother was sick. So we left for Abuja, and when we got to
the hotel, my assistant manager called [to say] he was on the way to the
airport with Paul, so we had to wait for them to land in Abuja and that was why
we couldn’t make it on time to the reception.’
‘The president was
mad. In fact, Mama Peace (Patience Jonathan) was really mad. But we
eventually made up for it with a performance at the Gala night. Only for Jude
to [tell me that] Paul said he wasn’t going for a show and I still went
[without him]. Imagine if Jude had a proper structure and we had contracts?
That wouldn’t happen. And it was more because the show came through me. If the
show came through Jude, it wouldn’t have happened. I don’t have a problem with
doing things as a family, but structure and proper organization is important
too. The name Psquare is very big outside but inside we have no structure. I
see people like Audu of Chocolate City, Mavin Records, even Ubi Franklin, and I
wanted us to have a structure like that. Psquare is just up there because of
the grace of God.’
You’ve
said a lot about Jude being the problem, and how you’re the minority. But,
really, as Peter, what do you bring to the table?
‘It’s
really sad that people have labeled me ‘Dancer’ and they don’t really know what
I do for Psquare. Kudos to Paul, I’m not a good songwriter; in fact, I’ll rate
myself 30%, so when it comes to song writing, I give it to Paul 100%.
‘However,
not writing songs does not disqualify you from being a musician. I can tell you
for free that a Nigerian wrote two of the songs on Rihanna’s
new album. I’ve travelled a lot and most times people ask, ‘which one are you,
the singer or the dancer’? And it’s really sad.’
‘In
Psquare, I am the creative person, I can sit-down and tell you what people want
to hear, what they want to see and what they want to learn from Psquare. But
it’s not something to brag about.’
‘Jude
directs all our videos.’
‘This
whole thing began when Paul went online and started posting lyrics of most of
our songs on Instagram [and saying] that he wrote them all, just because Peter
brought in something to the table. I had been trying to bring more business for
Psquare. I didn’t know it was going to cause problems. I sent my manager to a
meeting in Senegal to meet with Universal music about getting us deals, and
when he came back, the way they responded to him wasn’t encouraging.’
‘So I had to send Diouf
(the footballer) to help get the documents and convince my brothers before we
could pull through with the deal. After some months, we started making money.
Meanwhile, while filling the forms, Jude filled everything as Psquare. So the
first payment came and we shared it. The second payment was bigger, and we shared
it too. That was when Paul said we had to re-fill the form and give proper
credit to the songwriter (Himself) and said if the form wasn’t brought back, he
would expose me and tell the world that he writes all the songs. The next day
he went online to post those lyrics. So my question is, when he was doing that what did Jude do about it? Absolutely
nothing!’
‘I remember I once told Paul something
when Jude became our manager; he was using the term ‘Our Money,’ that was when
we made our first 1 million [naira]. I called Paul and told him that our former
manager used to make about 15%, and now that Jude is our manager, let’s think
of a percentage that we’ll be giving him and put it on paper. Paul said it’s
not necessary. He probably went to tell Jude about it. I’m sorry to say this,
but I think Paul is weak.’
‘You know they say change is constant,
you can’t stay in one spot. As the industry moves, you move. So I won’t say the
problem we have is money. I think everybody is just dragging power
unnecessarily. Imagine Jude telling me that he’s in charge of Psquare and
there’s nothing Peter and Paul can do about it, and I look at Paul and he’s
quiet about it. I’ve never seen where a manager talks to his artistes anyhow.
If there’s an issue you should call us aside quietly to talk about it.’
‘On December 14, 2015, we sat down to
have a meeting hoping to set a proper structure in place, but Paul noticed that
it wasn’t working the way he wanted, so he said he’s starting a new group. I
thought he meant he wanted to start a record label, and he was like no, he’s
starting a new group that he belongs to. And Jude simply said, ‘anybody stop
you?’ He picked up his phones and walked out of the meeting. I felt it had
already been discussed behind me. I later found out that Paul was already
recruiting for the group and Jude is their manager. At the moment I hear they
are called ‘The MVPs’ I don’t know what it means yet.’
‘So
how do you expect me to be managed by the same person we’ve been having issues
with, who is now the manager of the other group? There’ll surely be conflict of
interest.’
‘[Recently]
Jude called me, after I had said he was fired. He called me on
a Thursday to say ‘Hope you know we are going to the embassy
tomorrow for that show in Holland.’ I know about the show, [because] it
was already booked before the issues started, so I told him, ‘Bro you are not
my manager, talk to my manager.’ He said, ‘Noted.’ The next day, they went to
the embassy with the new group members, which means they had already set up their
interviews at the embassy because it’s not possible to get an appointment in
less than 24 hours. I traced the organisers and told them Jude represents only
Paul. I told them this is what it takes to get Peter and Paul, Peter alone or
Paul alone.’
‘So
I went on social media to protect our careers, because if I didn’t do that,
Psquare will not release any material anytime soon, they’ll be busy promoting
their artistes.’
‘And I remember going to talk to Paul
about it before I went on social media. I went to his house, and he was in his
room with his friend, [whom I asked to excuse us, but] Paul said, no, his
friend should stay, [and that] anything I want to say should be said in front
of him. So I said, no, you know we are brothers and he was like, ‘oh, na
now you know say we be brothers.’ I told him I came to talk to him about
what’s been happening, but it was turning into an argument so I left and I
travelled out. I was away for over a month, knowing that we didn’t have any
shows at that time. I went to Turkey and London to rest my mind, my
friend Samuel Eto’o invited me to come.’
‘The
day I fired Jude was at a concert. The day I came back, we had a show, so I
went straight to the venue in Lagos and told Jude I want to talk to him, and he
said I should say anything I want to say in front of everyone, [which] was the
same attitude Paul gave me before I travelled. So Jude said if I like, I should
get out, and I said ‘guy don’t embarrass me.’ He said who are you, because you
think you are Psquare? So I told him openly that if he cannot resolve me and
Paul’s issue, he doesn’t deserve to be our manager, and he said I should get
out. There and then I told him ‘You are fired’! He looked at me and said, ‘You
fit fire me?’ That was when I entered my car and started tweeting. How else
can you take him out?’
‘[In
fact,] long before I made up my mind, Paul had already said there’s no more
Psquare, [and that] if Jude leaves, he goes with him.’
‘Before
I announced my management, I wanted my mind to be clear, so I went back to
Paul, this time we were alone and we [discussed things]; I told him I had no
issues with him, but he needs to stop letting Jude use him as a shield. Both of
us started shedding tears, and when we finished he still said he hopes I’m not
here to tell him that I still want Psquare, and I told him I want to move on,
because he already has a manager (Jude) and I don’t, so I had to structure
myself too. And I didn’t want to allow the Psquare name to fade before moving
on. Look at Don Jazzy and Dbanj, when they broke up, they waited for like 6
months and had to start again. Now, that Psquare just broke up, let me use the
name to move on quickly, because there’s no time.
‘To be honest with you, I feel if our
mum was still alive, we would have pushed her to her grave with this whole
thing. It’s really sad that even with everything going on, I still stand with
Paul.’
‘It
still boils down to the fact that Psquare was not structured. Music is like
football, Messi has his
manager, Neymar has his
manager, Suarez has his
manager, but when they get to the pitch, they play as a team’.
‘Before
I did the Olympic deal, I’d brought some deals for Psquare. The people
endorsing Psquare only see Peter and Paul, but behind [the scenes] it’s Peter,
Paul and Jude so the price goes so high that it never works.’
‘But when a deal
comes to my table, it’s not like they called Jude and I went behind to talk to
them, the deal came directly to me from Jude’s friend. He called me and told me
about it, and before then I had already established my own beverage factory and
the deal coming was from PZ, which means I could do more business with them, so
should I lose that deal because they didn’t call Jude?’
‘I asked them why
me and not Psquare, and they said they couldn’t afford Psquare, and the brand
was tailored to fit one person. So I went back to tell Paul and Jude and they
didn’t say anything. They didn’t ask me not to do it. Don’t get it wrong, we’ve
been doing different private businesses, the only difference was that the
Olympic deal came out in public. I’ve been doing mass housing projects on my
own, Paul has been doing real estate, Jude has been doing his own thing, he
even [set up the] Northside record label, so it’s not like it’s the first thing
I’m doing alone. It’s just the first one that went public.’
‘So even when I
decide to open my beverage factory, people will still ask why I am doing it
alone without my brother.’
‘I hear lot of people
think it’s all a stunt, and that’s what I really want to put an end to. It’s
not a stunt at all. It has been going on for a while’.
‘When Jude didn’t
come to my wedding, people started saying we broke up and then others said it’s
a stunt. When Paul posted those lyrics on Instagram people thought it was a
stunt too, but the truth is that this is not and has never been a publicity
stunt. I am telling you the truth. I am moving on because people are already
getting tired of this Psquare brouhaha. Now I have my manager, Olatunde
Michaels, and I expect everybody to respect that. I am a family man, a
musician, singer and dancer. If I don’t move on, Psquare will collapse and
there’ll be nothing left’.
‘Already Paul has
done two songs without me but no one is saying anything, he did a song with his
artiste ‘Muno’ with his name as Rudeboy did they feature me? He did a song with
Tiwa Savage, did they feature me?’
‘Last week Yemi Alade
sent me her album track list to help her share on Instagram, guess what I saw,
she had a song with Psquare that I didn’t even know about. Only Paul did it.’
‘Because I
announced new management, people feel I’m the one going solo, but Paul has
already gone solo. He’s moved on and didn’t need to announce any new management
because he still works with Jude, so I had to announce mine and believe it or
not, people are booking me for gigs already.’
‘And guess what,
I’ll still perform Psquare songs, nobody can stop me, nobody can stop Paul too,
we didn’t have a contract with Jude, so I have the right to perform Psquare
songs especially the ones I took part in’.
‘I’ll also
consider releasing solo songs and even albums. Truth is – in the last album
Paul did some songs alone, I did some songs alone. ‘Bring It On’ was Paul
alone, ‘Eje Ajo’, ‘Shekini’ was done by me alone’.
‘Remember the 4
songs ‘Free For Fans’ that we released, those songs were removed from the last
album and I leaked them’.
‘I have some
songwriters already, V-Tek writes for me, and I’m still
bringing up more’.
‘Because of what
was happening, it was like two against one, so I said let’s share our
properties. When I said that, Paul said if we want to share our properties,
Jude must get the same share with us otherwise Psquare will split and I was
like ‘SPLIT-AGAIN?’
‘Our lawyer came
and told Paul that it’s wrong to share it equally with Jude, but he insisted,
so we divided every property we owned in Lagos, Jos, America, Abuja. In-fact
the right and left wing of the Square Ville mansion belongs to Paul and Jude
now.
So that was how we
shared all our properties equally among the three of us about two or three
years ago.’
‘After sharing
everything, I called Paul again and spoke to him about a proper structure.
We’ve been with people like Akon
and co and we see how it’s done. Right now, Psquare has millions of dollars in
royalties hanging in the air.’
‘All our
endorsement and shows are shared equally between the three of us as well.’
‘After what it
took to share our properties, I was embarking on a project, so I needed more
money and I wanted to sell my house in America and buy something smaller,
because I spend close to $30,000 to maintain that condo every year.’
‘So I called my
caretaker to begin the process and she told Jude and Paul to send their data
page and passport photographs, but they refused because they know I wanted to
sell the house. And see the value of dollars now. The house was valued at 100M
then, but if I sell it now, I could make extra 250M.’
‘And we already
signed paper works and document of the house that it belongs to me but Jude
ignored it, so I called our lawyer, Festus Keyamo to
inform him about the development. He called them and they both refused to pick
his call, so he sent them a text and requested that we should have a meeting,
but Jude replied him and said no need for a meeting that the America house will
be sold.’
‘Paul said we
agreed and signed on how to share but we haven’t really shared it yet, after
all Jude is still holding on to the documents.’
‘Three of us have
properties close to each other in Parkview and that’s why I want to sell my own
and move to Banana Island.’
‘I can’t really
understand why they don’t want a structure, to me I think it’s ignorance, and
if I decide to do it, it’ll seem like I’m looking for trouble.’
‘People think we
changed when we started having wives. Before my mum died, she was at St
Nicholas hospital on the island, and my sisters were living in this house (in
Lekki), and every morning before my wife goes to work, she’ll leave home at 5am in the morning to go and stay with
my mum even before we get there ourselves. And when she closes from work, she’s
back with her again.’
‘So I just laugh
when I hear people say my mum didn’t like my wife. It’s my wife and sister that
prepare my mum’s meals in the kitchen.’
‘Now let me shock
you: our wives, the three of them are the closest set of people you can
imagine. Even with all that’s going on. It’s really surprising. Somehow, they
respect themselves and stayed out of the whole drama and I respect them a lot.
And that’s somehow what has kept us together for this long, otherwise Psquare
would have ended like two or three years back.’
‘When I set up
P-Classic records because people were saying Psquare haven’t helped anyone, I
saw the success of Tiwa Savage and I was close to signing Cynthia Morgan
and Simi.
Ask them they’ll tell you.’
‘I remember Paul
came to the studio and said he heard I’m signing Simi and Cynthia, I said
‘Yes’, and he was like ‘What will people see Jude as’, and I gave him example
of Drake and Young Money, Cash money.’
‘Oscar
(Producer of ‘Collabo’ ft. Don Jazzy) called to tell me that they can’t sign
the deal, because he heard it’s causing problem in Psquare. Meanwhile Cynthia
and Simi were both going through the contracts I gave them only for them to
return it two days later that
they can’t do it.’
‘Two weeks after,
I was shocked to hear that Jude had signed Cynthia Morgan, and she knows deep
down that she’s never going to get a Psquare collabo.’
‘The truth is I
feel happy it has come, because I’ve been staying in Psquare out of fear for
the last four years. The situation now is, if you want Psquare to perform,
you’ll have to get in touch with two managers. I don’t care if you pay Paul’s
management more than you pay me – once we are able to agree, Psquare is still
there. I just don’t want to have a manager that feels he’s in control because
he’s my elder brother. And because of the legacy that I want Psquare to be
remembered for, that was why I went to talk to Paul the last time. I don’t want
us to start doing beef songs, or we see at the clubs and we don’t greet each
other, or ignore our kids and stuff like that. And even if Psquare breaks up, I
still want us to have our relationship as brothers. If I’ve regretted anything
in my life so far, I swear to God this is not one of them, I’m happy because I’ve
been in pain for a long time.’
‘It’s good if we
go and do stuff separately so that even IF we come back we’ll have respect for
each other. I wish Paul the best and I wish Jude the best as well.’ END OF INTERVIEW EXTRACTS
Now readers, guess
I’ll save my thoughts for another day and save you another long read!
