#oyoyo blew me away

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Love lifts us up where we belong, Where the eagles fly, on a mountain high! Love makes us act like we are fools, Throw our lives away for one happy day!

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Odyssey of Majek Fashek and classes for Wizkid, Davido, others

Majek Fashek: the odyssey and the teachings for the youthful stars

By Tunde Alabi Hundeyin-Dudu.

My first musical video produced on any reggae artiste was on TERRA KOTTA. Really the primary reggae artiste in Nigeria.

The second was Majek Fashek. 1991. He was adopted by different Rasta greats like. Ras kimono, Orits Wiliki, Evi Edna-Ogholi, Mandators, Peterside Ottong and many others

Dean Disi , then PR supervisor of SONY music needed me to come back to the workplace. The MD, Chief Keji Okunowo invited me to a gathering.

I had produced Shina Peters ACE video for Sony. It caught like hearth within the trade. The primary musical video to be bought within the nation. So Sony simply declared I might be producing movies of all their artistes.

It was at that assembly Majek Fashek was launched to me.

Hitherto, Ship Down the Rain was raving all around the nation. However Tabansi information, the homeowners, couldn’t rise to the event. So Sony snatched Majek from them. Really Sony tushed up Majek , shopping for him a Peugeot 505, new clothes, contracting me to shoot a complete album video and many others.

D-Day was set for the shoot after I had achieved plenty of location recce. I moved crew and gear very early to Majek’s home at Oluwaleyimu avenue near Oshopey plaza off Allen Avenue.

I used to be shocked Majek was nonetheless sleeping. The home was a four storey constructing, so I hesitated climbing

I stored sending one of many crew up however he wouldn’t come out of the flat. I needed to ultimately climb the steps. Olu the senior brother and Rita the spouse stored apologising to me as I sat the following two hours on a bench within the hall on the balcony. No one was daring sufficient to wake him up. Even Randy, his very younger son needed to be enjoying with this stranger. I used to be furious.

After over four hours since we bought there I all of a sudden heard the sound of the Aladura kind bell sounding from the recess of the flat. Lastly Majek emerged to me on the balcony and shouted “Repent for the Kingdom of God is nigh !!!”

I blew up shouting. I don’t work like this. Name time should be obeyed after I work and so forth and so forth. He checked out me , flashed a mischievous smile and shouted Omo Ita Agbalagba !( rascally elder!).

Though his identify was Majekodunmi, he didn’t communicate or perceive Yoruba, as he grew up in Benin. The way in which he pronounced it was a part of the massive enjoyable. I collapsed in laughter. The ice was damaged. And that was the way in which he would at all times salute me anytime we met for the remainder of his life.

My quick emotions right now are the thrilling occasions we had working collectively on a complete album movies.

I keep in mind the scenes on the lagoon by the Unilag VCs home the place we had been joined by DEDE MABIOKU , apparently a really shut good friend of his. Two scenes stand out in my reminiscence.

I had arrange the UNILAG theatre auditorium for the ‘So lengthy Too lengthy’ observe which I needed to shoot as live performance format. My good friend Tunji Sotimirin facilitated the permission.

I had by no means seen him carry out earlier than and he was nonetheless on the elementary stage of his stardom. All cameras and lights had been set for the stage. The band was prepared. Amos Mcroy, Black rice and many others . I referred to as ACTION! I didn’t see Majek emerge. Immediately I heard the sound of the bell once more from exterior the corridor and as he emerged ringing it and his palms in handcuffs, he was shouting REPENT FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS NIGH !!! . It was a mad scramble to show the cameras and lights spherical to catch the second. That format of entrance he maintained as his entrance into any live performance he did wherever on the earth all through his profession.

Let me digress. Years and years later , when Majek had achieved worldwide fame and I started to listen to of his substance abuse , I keep in mind seeing him someday in visitors in Maryland. We stopped to greet and I requested why he was breaking down. He narrated to me how he had his first breakthrough which was a live performance tour with Tracy Chapman within the US. On the primary evening of the tour he entered the corridor from the again together with his bell and in handcuffs. He narrated how Chapman ordered her safety to cease him and take away {the handcuffs}. Saying so far as she was involved the Blackman has damaged the cuffs and are free. The sight of the cuffs to her was an insult to her psyche. Majek informed me that shame affected his morale, self-worth, and it was the primary evening he had an overdose.

Anyway again to the video shoot. The most memorable sequence we had was for the observe MOTHER – oyoyo. Because the tune was to honour his mom , I requested him to ask Mama from Benin for the shoot. Location was on the roof of the Nationwide Theatre, with panoramic view of Lagos giving me a vibrant backdrop.

It gave me a chance to see the opposite aspect, probably the most genuine aspect of Majek.

Stardom had crept into each breath of Majek. He would get up in his home as if he was going right into a live performance corridor with the bells jingling. He would have probably the most private discussions with you speaking patois/ pidgin however nonetheless sustaining movie star affectation. Nonetheless on the roof of the theatre , in between takes , Majek will transfer near his mom and lapse into very deep Benin language. He would trade jokes with the lady in method you’ll know no person on the face of earth bonded with him like his mom. Together with her , he was not a star. He was MAMA’s boy.

Majek’s slide into the abyss was lengthy and painful. It unfold over 25 years or extra. I’ve two vivid recollections.

It was at Lekki Sunsplash. Africa’s largest live performance within the solar, owned by Dapo Adelegan. Fela Anikulapo Kuti was the most important attraction. Majek Fasheke was the second. It was FELA’s custom to maneuver to the seaside together with his 27 wives two days to the live performance. I used to be taking pictures the entire live performance , so I moved my crew two days to D -Day getting candid photographs of Fela’s life with the queens and interviews with him and his tribe (story of one other day).

Live performance day, Majek was presupposed to play earlier than Fela. His band was all set however no Majek. Dapo Adelegan and his dynamic staff- Ali Baba , Kunle Onime and many others if I’m not mistaken , had been working helter skelter. Sending varied autos from Lekki to Allen Avenue to drive him on stage. Lastly Majek got here. Disoriented. His efficiency wishy washy, forgetting even his lyrics. It was unhappy.

The final time i noticed Majek was a few years in the past at Chris Okotie’s church Family of God. As I approached him , he squinted his eyes and when he lastly noticed by the haze he shouted OMO ITA AGBALAGBA !!!!

The person in entrance of me cannot be Majek. The enamel had been principally gone. The Rasta locks had been all gone changed by attachments. No method I might be 10 years older than this historical man in entrance of me. My coronary heart sank. Unique Majek had a complexion of a half caste. His pores and skin at all times shone like glass. It has all withered.

I didn’t wish to write this eulogy as a result of of the promise of unhappy recollections overcoming the nice ones. However I made a decision to jot down it to ship a message to our present tremendous stars in Nigeria. Fame is a drug. Celeb is a most cancers. In case you permit it to manage you.

As I write this I keep in mind Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix. Janis Joplin. Michael Jackson. Whitney Houston, Prince, Amy Whinehouse and lots of who turned idols , who turned celebrated globally however who in the long run succumbed to the drug named fame.

Wizkid, Davido, Burna Boy. Phyno Taste, Gold, Tiwa Savage, Yemi Alade. Falz . Mayorkun, Hearth boy. Olamide, Rhema. and lots of lots of our stars “blowing” , you should be taught from Majek’s odyssey. Watch out for probably the most devastating most cancers named FAME.

In conclusion. Majekodunmi Fasheke was a present to the black nation. He was a present to human consciousness.

A firstclass musician and guitarist. Our personal rain maker. Drench them in heavens. ELEWON (prisoner) , the way in which all of us name him , thanks for elevating our consciousness.

Take off the hand cuffs now. You’re free endlessly!!!!

*Hundeyin is the CEO of Dudu Productions and TV and film producer and a former politician

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