On social media, all eyes appear to have shifted to a section of fuji artistes who are on one another’s throat over a sensitive issue allegedly stirred up by a maverick fuji act, Alhaji Adebisi Akande (Taye Currency).
The Ibadan indigene Currency is alleged to have, through a recent live performance, thrown a veiled salvo at two senior colleagues whom he argued had risen from the shadow of other fuji musicians.
At the show, clip of which was widely circulated on the Facebook, Currency, whose son is a two-term member of the Oyo State House of Assembly, said Alhaji Sefiu Alao owed his music prodigy to Aare Shina Akanni while Alabi Pasuma, his role model, rode on the back of Akande Obesere to stardom in the early 90s.
Currency’s submission hit teeming fans of Alao and Pasuma below the belt; vigorously, they released the venom in them and drenched him with uncomplimentary words, and threat.
Management of the Abeokuta-based Alao, rather than going physical like its raging fans, issued a statement wherein it clarifies that Currency’s claim stands on faulty legs.
Media Manager of the band, Mr Saheed Ojubanire, who signed the release, accused Currency of distortion of factual details of the trajectory of Alao whom he maintained had no link with Akanni otherwise called Scorpido.
Ojubanire explained, “Nothing could be farther from the truth than the blatant pronouncements, publicly, by Taye Currency that Bab Oko once copied any artiste or anyone, for that matter.”
Pasuma’s management or Pasuma himself, in contrast, is acting a dumb, thereby keeping public in a suspense and heightening the tension among fans and other proteges of Pasuma who are all out firing arrows at the camp of Currency.
A group of traditional worshippers, led by one Ifakorede, performed a special ritual at a spot that looks like a shrine where they were cursing, according to their prayers, whoever is plotting Pasuma’s downfall, a masked reference to Currency.
A fan, who identified himself as Kehinde Obaro, was wholly overwhelmed with rage on Facebook, aggressively telling Currency that his apology is a mere food for a deaf ear to Pasuma’s fanatical followers at home and beyond Nigeria.
Kehinde’s outrage was a reaction to Currency’s new video during the week in which he retraced his step and pleaded for forgiveness.
Speaking in Yoruba language inside what looked like his living room and wearing a dove mien, Currency stated, “people who misunderstood my comment shouldn’t be angry. I sincerely apologise for what happened. Sometimes, we say things that people interpret differently; and that is what I have come to understand. Some individuals have interpreted my words as an insult to Pasuma, but I don’t see how anyone can point to anything I said as abusive. He is my boss. Arabambi, Apesin, Oganla fuji, we are one; so, please, don’t separate us.”
Before his retreat<span;>, when Pasuma’s fans were becoming more offensive, Currency allegedly replied their shots with a reprisal; he gave it back to them and said more firmly that he stood by his statement, even beating his chest that no fuji musician alive, except K1, could dwarf him, in terms of lyrics, fame, flexibility, connection and wealth.
He allegedly added that Pasuma is not old enough to be his father, saying more pointedly that he is only a senior colleague he respects as such.
This remark further provoked the fans and other Pasuma’s proteges led by Alhaji Tiri Leather, an Ibadan based upcoming fuji act, who is said to be harvesting fame through an increasing patronage from the crisis. Other musical sons of Pasuma like, Aremo Sarafa Adigun, Alhaji Musbau Aremu, Otunba Wasiu Ayinde, Taye Cellular and Saheed Arogunmasa also remain unpersuaded, freely throwing insults at Currency as if they were in contest for it.
It is, however, not an outright deficit for Currency in this controversy; he also enjoys sympathy of those who have tied their joy to his music and his personality.
His claim that triggered the crisis has a support of some fans who praised him for his courage to have set the record straight with a view to clarifying positions of each fuji act.
One Alhaj Arems argued that Currency spoke what he called the bitter truth and asked his critics to swallow the bitter pill.
In his article titled “Fuji Star, Taiye Currency Speaks The Bitter Truth : “Elo So Loja” And The Reality Of Fuji Music Industry”, Arems examined Currency’s career and his half a century age and concluded that he is qualified to make that claim as a stakeholder in the industry.
“He (Currency) has witnessed the evolution of Fuji music firsthand and speaks from a position of authority,” he pointed out.
Curiously, while the elders of fuji musicians or the Fuji Musicians Association of Nigeria (FUMAN), the umbrella under which all fuji musicians take a shelter, were expected to intervene, the imbroglio was treated with a deafening silence.
One of the elders, Alhaji Rasheed Ayinde told this reporter that he folded his arms because he would not want to undermine the status of his elders to whom he said he look forward.
“There is Alhaji Ayinla Kollington. There is Olori Omoba K1. It is better these leaves come in first. In a situation where they are not doing anything, wisdom says I should also watch till they respond,” he submitted.
Few hours after Ayinde made the statement, however, what looked as though the interview was being monitored occurred. A visual of a K1’s performance emerged online, featuring him cautioning Currency to tread softly. He asserted that Pasuma, by right, is his father just as the late Dr Sikiru Ayinde Barrister was his (K1’s) father.
K1 declares, “Agbaje (Barrister) was not my musical father but my real father because of my tutelage under his watch. I was loyal to him in his lifetime, and remain loyal after his departure. May his soul rest in perfect peace.”
The Mayegun, thus, charged Currency to go and seek forgiveness from the aggrieved elders.
Fuji music analysts contend that if this raging fire is put out today, there still is fire on the mountain, infering that Currency’s security at public shows, especially in Lagos and its environs, may not be guaranteed, relying on the high-voltage tone of Pasuma’s fans, some of whom have declared him personal non granta in Lagos, especially at Mushin, the cradle of Pasuma.
TheTabloid.net gathered that a number of young fuji and hip-hop musicians sympathetic to Pasuma, are already in different studios, perfecting their respective anti-Currency songs to seek an opportunity to also hit the limelight through socia media followership.
Tiri Leather, tagged as the immediate beneficiary of the feud, is set to drop a release titled ‘It’s Tiri O’clock’ and marketed by the Role Model Entertainment, an Ibadan-based music entrepreneur.
It was further learnt that Tiri Leather has been given a free flight ticket to travel to the UK with a promise of offshore performances as a reward for his public show of contagious love to Pasuma.
In the same vein, A Currency’s disciple known as Asoju Apesin, has recorded a song, video of which is out, seeking resolution of the matter and simultaneously throwing a jab at Pasuma’s loyalists.
Findings have revealed that in spite of the unity chorused by fuji musicians at the Fuji Festival hosted in Lagos in August, there has been an uneasy mum as a result of an interview which the Bonsue Fuji King, Dr Adewale Ayuba, granted Teju Babyface, casting a doubt on the historical supremacy of K1 over his career. In a separate interview anchored by Omoyele Sowore of the Sahara Reporter, K1 frowned at Ayuba’s claim but made no issue out of it.
Similarly, Aare Sina Akanni’s surprise declaration that he is warming up to assume the leadership of fuji, a word regarded as a spite on the fuji establishment, is said to have ignited a cold war.
“You may not believe it, this Taye Currency thing might be linked to Scorpido (Akanni) declaration. Elderly fuji musicians might have been behind Currency’s action to divide the fuji musicians. But I’m happy watching K1 calling Currency to order. This is supposed to douse the tension and possibly end the matter,” the entertainment writer of note, who refused his identity, disclosed.
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