All The Ideas That Made Psquare Great Came From Me –
Peter Okoye
Excerpts Of Peter Okoye’s tell it all interview with NET NG
4 years ago, I told Jude Okoye that he needs to step down
as our manager, because I didn’t want to disrespect him
as a brother, but this is business, we have to structure it.
And Jude said to me that there’s a way I’ll talk to him,
and he’ll slap me. So I kept quiet’.
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, then
when Paul posted those lyrics stuff 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 a new management, people feel am
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’.
‘Paul came to me and said if I want Jude to step down it’s
not a problem, but it’ll mean that he (Paul) will 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 all through 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.’
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 collabo alone, he
should be in the video alone, because it got a point where
artistes began to feel if they do a collabo with Paul it gets
a video but if it’s me it doesn’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 gone to do
a song with her, not the campaign song they are promoting
now, another Psquare collabo entirely. So she called me
that she’s been trying to reach Paul to get the CD of the
song from him that he’s already done his part, so I went to
Paul’s house to help ask for it and tell him that I want to
go to their 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
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 only to realize that Paul had
gone to tell 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 tell Peter that 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 comes to decision-making, it has always been 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 never gets to be my own and I
began to wonder if anything is wrong’.
‘I always get Ideas, most of Psquare ideas come from me,
and when I say Idea, I mean materials we need to put out
for people to see, video, stage performances and all. But
when I come up with them, nobody wants 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 any office, no
structure. When this issue started about five years ago, our
lawyer told us the way we run our business is wrong
without a structure’.
‘I’ll give you an instance’.
WHY I FIRED JUDE OKOYE AS MY MANAGER
‘The day I fired Jude was at a concert. It was 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. I
was like that was the same attitude Paul gave me before I
travelled’.
‘So Jude was like if I like I should get out, and I was like
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?’
‘Long before I made up my mind, Paul already said there’s
no more Psquare, If Jude leaves he goes with him’.
‘And 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 spoke a lot, 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’.
No comments:
Post a Comment