14th March, 2014
Funsho Arogundade
Popular Fuji musician, Saheed Osupa is embroiled in a cold war with the Music Advertisers Association of Nigeria, MAAN, especially its President, Waidi Oyediran Mosebolatan, over the unlawful ban of his albums.
P.M.NEWS Entertainment Cafe learnt that Osupa has written through his lawyer, Tunde Fabunmi, to Mosebolatan to stop all forms of alleged witch-hunting and systematic ploy to kill his music career.
Narrating how the crisis ensued, Osupa, the Ibadan-born singer and one of the highest selling Fuji musicians, said for no known reason, Mosebolatan is hell bent on killing his music career.
His words: “Let me take it from how it all started. Initially, when the crisis in the industry was brewing, people called me several names, they said I like trouble, they called me all sorts of names and that is because they didn’t know the real reasons why I was fighting, but they said I was being troublesome.
“But before then, many of the artistes ganged-up against me and they felt they will win the battle, but when they realised that I was having an upper hand, they said we should stop the fight and make peace. The reason why they chose to resolve the differences between the Fuji musicians was because I was doing more shows, hence I was having more “Live Show CD’s in the market which were always sold out.”
He continued: “At that period, I was doing nothing less than three live shows per day, and the shows were always different concepts. Their belief was that my albums were making-waves because we were abusing each other, so they felt if we should settle the fight, my album sales will drop. So we were all invited to a meeting at the Airport Hotel in Ikeja. At the meeting, Wasiu Alabi Pasuma opined that all the Live Shows CD should be banned and I said no.
Two months after the meeting, Osupa claimed that Pasuma contravened all the agreements by releasing three albums and abused him with MAAN raising no eyebrow.
This spurred him to also release three albums and the association wasted no time to ban him.
Osupa claimed that this same man who is among those who advised the artistes to stop using provocative titles for their works contracted Pasuma to perform for him in Ajegunle which is his base. He said he titled the live show CD: “Pasuma Takes Over Ajegunle”.
“After they released theirs, I did another work which I titled ‘Take Over Impossible’. Mosebolatan went ahead to ban it. I now sat down to think about it, because it is obvious that they are playing politics in order to favour their artiste. On my investigations, I found out that Mosebolatan is doing everything possible to bring down my career.
“This is a man I made to become who he is today. He was just an ordinary recorder, I bought him his first deck. The deal that gave him big break was Muri Thunder’s album which I composed. We also raised money for him to execute the project. I never knew I was building a monster that will come back to attack me,” the singer said sadly.
But Mosebolatan in an interview with P.M.NEWS Entertainment Café denied that MAAN banned the sales of Osupa’s albums. He said what the executives of his association have done was to send message to all its members not to patronize Osupa again because he spurned the association when a letter (dated 27 February) was sent to him to come explain why he breached the association’s directive asking all musicians to stop recording satiric albums.
“We didn’t ban the sales of his albums but only directed our members not to patronise him again after he released an album Tan’ta Rubber, which is full of abusive songs. He had earlier released Take Over Impossible which we ignored. This is in breach of our agreement that musicians should no longer wax any of such songs. What we are against is the impact of such songs on our children apart from the fact that they also breed acrimony. We are just tired of promoting such abusive songs,” Mosebolatan told P.M.NEWS Entertainment Cafe.
According to the music marketers’ boss, he has no personal grouse with Osupa whom he claimed to have known for more than two decades.
“I have known Osupa for more than two decades. He is my boy. I trained him and cannot now wish him bad and discriminate against him. The same way I have promoted his music, is how I have done for King Sunny Ade, K1, Alabi Pasuma, Muri Thunder and so many other artistes. We don’t discriminate against any musician but Osupa should just check his abusive lyrical content. He should also come to face the association to react to the letter that was sent to him since Fecruary so that things can be resolved between our association and him,” he added.
As the cold war lingers, Osupa said apart from briefing his lawyer to write to caution Mosebolatan, he has concluded plans to seek legal actions against Mosebolatan and MAAN to enforce his right. He said he has also written to the Human Rights Commission in respect of the text messages sent to people by Mosebolatan threatening and demanding that none of his works should be sold by any marketer.