The recent demise of young singer/rapper, Promise Ileriolowa Aloba aka Mohbad and the controversy that preceded and has trailed it has thrown up secrets and muck that lie underneath the multi-million dollar Nigerian music industry; but just how deep is the muck? Gboyega Alaka writes.
As the reality of Promise Ileriolowa Aloba Aka Imole aka Mohbad’s demise settle in with Nigerians and indeed the global music community, two or three of his statements stand out, almost prophetically.
The first was that he would be more popular in death. That started coming to past even before his spirit left his body. Before his death, only the youth demography and ardent music followers knew his name, although most of his hit songs resonated. Many knew his songs, sang them and even danced to them, but not all of them knew his name. But one week after he breathed his last, virtually everyone in the nation space called Nigeria knows that a songster has passed, and that a lot of controversy preceded and trailed his death.
Protests, processions and rallies demanding ‘Justice for Mohbad’ have also been held across the country; while messages have been coming from as far as the United states of America, Germany, where a procession also held for him, Peckham in London, even Kenya, where a lady got so emotional that she put up a video, in which she stated that Sammy Larry, one of the main persons been fingered in Mohbad’s harassment and bully, was hiding in the East African country and called on the authorities in Nigeria to investigate, fish out and punish anyone culpable in his death.
What’s more! His photos have adorned billboards in Times Square, with crowds gazing in awe at a needless loss of a blooming star. Suddenly, three of his songs- Peace, Feel Good and Ask about me now sit atop Billboard’s Top 10 trending songs.
Even the football community is not left out. Spanish football club Cardiz FC wrote: We continue to be shocked and saddened by the news of the death of Nigerian rapper @iammohbad_. …We wish for rest and justice for the family…Your star will shine brighter than ever in the sky. RIP Mohbad
The second notable statement was that should he die, Marlian Records should be held responsible. Hundreds of thousands of fans and people did not even wait for any form of investigation to commence before they sprang into action, castigating and condemning Naira Marley, his recording company and his goons.
One other message he unwittingly passed was rechristening himself Imole (Shinny light). He had told Beat 99.9FM in an interview that he gave himself the name Imole, when he sang about Imole Oluwa in one of his Christian songs, and fans immediately started calling him Imole, which he gratefully accepted.
That name has turned out prophetic, as his death has beamed a searchlight on Nigeria’s multi-million dollar music industry. Before now, the much the world knew about that industry were the beautiful globally trending music, alongside its fame, glam and huge financial rewards it was bestowing on Nigeria’s talented youths, who may otherwise have been wasting away.
But today, courtesy of the controversy that has trailed Mohbad’s death, many now know that behind all that glitter and promise is a sordid muck. Most parents who have been excited about their wards’ talent in music and had been waiting for an opportunity to have them ‘blow’ through some big recording contracts, are now having a rethink.
Like an observer recently put it, this could be the reason Burna Boy’s mum has remained glued to her son’s side, managing him and literally keeping an eye on him.
Died or killed?
With the numerous videos of harassment and bullying making the rounds, purportedly by thugs of musician and record label owner, Naira Marley, it is difficult not to conclude that he was hounded to death.
In one of the videos which captured his travails, he could be heard running for dear life, panting and calling on Nigerians to save him from the Marlian hounds: “Everybody in the whole world please help me, if I die, na Marlian Music Naira Marley kill me. I don’t know these people have been hating on me.’
In another video of him on a hospital bed, he could be heard in tears talking of drinking a certain water given to him by men of the Nigeria Drug Law enforcement Agency (NDLEA), while blaming himself for being too trusting.
His mother would later echo the two allegations above during a condolence visit by chairman, Senate Committee on Entertainment Economy, Senator Elisha Abbo, alongside actress Tonto Dike and Iyabo Ojo, when she narrated how her son told her that the NDLEA people gave him a certain water in a bottle.
“He said he started feeling differently immediately he drank that water,” she said in tears.
She also shared stories of how Mohbad repeatedly cried to her about the constant threat to his life by Naira Marley and his gang.
“Please get me Naira Marley to come and answer to what he did to my son. He (Mohbad) told me how he was always threatening him. That is all I ask; help me look for him. …He told me that whenever he went for a show, they would be harassing him and beating him up. Shows that he was supposed to attend, he would not be able to attend for fear of being cornered and beaten up. And Sammy Larry; I don’t know him. But now that you powerful people have come, I know you can fish him out. He enslaved my son till death. When my son was with Naira, he never gave me any money. In his fears, he would be telling me, ‘mummy, please don’t let them kill me.’ That was what he kept saying until his death.”
Responding, Senator Abbo pledged that the police would investigate the matter and bring whoever was responsible for the late musician’s death to book.
“The police will investigate this. I am not a policeman, but I want you to know that the police will do their job, and nobody that is actually found guilty (will go free). … Nobody will cover anybody. A life has been lost but it’s not just about the life but the incident surrounding his death. We have heard a lot of stories, that he was living in fear, that he was being molested, running from pillar to post; so anybody that is found wanting in his death, the law would take its full course.”
As if to drive home the need to sanitise the industry, the senator said: “My son is into music, so it is Mohbad today, tomorrow it could be another person.”
The senator also handed the deceased’s mother some huge sum of money in a sealed envelope. He said it was his personal gesture to “support the family because when you lose the bread winner of the family, it is always very difficult.”
He also promised to report to the Senate President, and relate with the Minister of Art, Culture and Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa, to follow up on the matter once she returned from the United Nations General Assembly mission holding in the United States of America.
Foremost music promoters, Paulo, also spoke of how he took him for a UK tour in London, and how he was literally unsettled all through, even asking for security.
Paulo also said he never knew the artiste was going through something as serious as that.
Popular singer, songwriter, Samklef, lending his voice, would later state that one of the reasons Naira Marley never wanted Mohbad to leave was because he was Marlian Record’s best songwriter, even writing some of Naira Marley’s trending songs.
Music promoter, Olumide Ogunade, known professionally as I D Cabasa, would also state in a trending video that the music industry could not pretend not to be aware of what the young singer/rapper was going through, and that he was at a point contemplating bringing him closer to himself for guidance and even getting him police protection.
Samklef would again testify: “He faced a lot of physical, spiritual and mental and emotional battle. He said he also had family issues, the frenemies, business enemies, internal vulnerability and external threats. He faced all these. He was fighting a battle but he was still able to sing and make people happy.”
A media practitioner and social commentator, Ayobami Ladipo, who obviously followed the young artiste closely in his lifetime, also testified to his struggles.
Speaking on TVC breakfast programme, YourView, Ladipo said: “He left Marlian Records and released another record under Imolenisation. The last couple of months have been quite chaotic for him. After his death, we now saw videos of him being harassed on set in June. And the sad part was that the young man was talking to us with every of his song; talking about what he was going through, what he had gone through, his fears, his worries, the uncertainty about his tomorrow. … It was so bad that he actually recorded a song about life after death, saying that when he was gone, people would love him more… he had a premonition; he was basically living in fear. He wasn’t certain about his tomorrow.”
A couple of lines in one of his songs succinctly captured his travails, when he sang: “I know there is a day when all my pains will go away/till then I party away.”
Reports also said he became suicidal and almost jumped out from a story building at some point.
Was Mohbad into drugs?
A school of thought has also urged circumspection, querying the kind of life the late artiste led. What kind of person walks with a Naira Marley, going by his widespread notoriety with drugs?
Could it be that he suffered from past drug intakes while with Naira Marley and other industry friends known for notorious drug habits? This is not forgetting his brush with the NDLEA.
Going by some of his lyrics, one could tell he was a church boy who got corrupted by the reckless life of the industry.
But did he have any choice, when the industry is in the solid grip of certain godfathers?
While it may be easy to blame Mohbad for joining the Naira Marley train and getting enmeshed in the life of drugs, booze and fraud (yahoo), and probably cultism, it may be important to take a look at his background. Where was he coming from?
In some of his songs now trending, he spoke of his life journey: of how his dad earned no salary, how for ten years he was impoverished for lack of money and his step mother compounded his woes; how landlord was on their neck and his brothers went hungry; and of his own reckless truancy as a polytechnic student, which he later regretted and apologised to his dad in his song, Sorry.
He sang of how all these hardships drove him into internet fraud and how he abandoned his God-fearing Christian background, capturing it in one line: Omo Pastor ti wonu aye (pastor’s son has been swallowed by worldly life).
One could therefore conclude that music was the only way out for him, a survival and liberation thing for him, like he reflected in another of his lines. Possibly, he wasn’t aware of what he was getting into when he joined Marlian Records and took the ‘dangerous’ decision to opt out when he found he could no longer cope?
Questions, questions…
Autopsy carried out on body
In a swift response to the general clamour, the police during the week exhumed Mohbad’s body. Recall that many had condemned the hurried interment of the star, wondering why the father was in such a rush when he wasn’t even a Muslim.
Reports also say an autopsy has been carried out on the body and that results are now being awaited.
In the meantime, the world waits.
Industry of cultism, slavery?
Cabasa would however carpet as fallacy of generalisation the raging allegation that the music industry is ridden with cultism, occult practises and enslavement. He added that it is not true that no one could survive in the industry now without going through either or all these.
“I have run a record label before; when I was running Coded Tunes with my guys, it was never a cult, and it was never intended to hold anybody to ransom. And I will say this too, that it is hard, with the way things are now, to actually hold anybody to ransom.”
But in the rage and anger that is sweeping through the country, Cabasa’s may just be a lone voice, or one of few who are not pandering to the popular theory/sentiment.The wave of protests and Justice for Mohbad demonstration is a testimony to that.
In a particular video trending on the social media, a certain young artist who deliberately hid his identity, lamented how he was frustrated and hounded into hiding by big players in the industry, even tagging the industry ‘devil land,’ where nobody with fear of God or religiosity could thrive or survive.
Speaking in Yoruba language, he alleged that most of the current industry leaders are exploitative people, who would go to any length to take advantage of young and upcoming artistes, even threaten them with death if they refuse to fall in line or cooperate.
He said it was in the course of his spiritual battle with a certain industry leader that he had to transit from a practising Muslim to a Christian member of the Cherubim and Seraphim church.
“Those established artistes have been cheating us, exploiting and victimising us. …Music industry is a devil land; so if you are a son of God, religious and you want to go there, you are deceiving yourself. You’re done. Because you must be ready to join them. It’s not a Bible thing. Nor a Qur’an thing.”
He went further: “I can tell you for free that it was depression that killed this Mohbad guy. They so pursued and annihilated him. It was so bad that if any promoter invited Marlian Records for a show and specifically requested Mohbad to perform, they’d tell him he’s not well, that he had mental problem. But it’s not true, they just wanted to make sure he no longer got jobs or had any opportunity to earn a living. He left them, started his own label, yet they went after him.”
Interestingly, he singled out Wizkid’s StarBoy Entertainment Company as being different, citing how Wizkid once bailed him out of his trauma with five thousand dollars with which he rented the apartment he still lives in.
But does that make Wizkid a saint?
A Yoruba saying goes thus: “What faces one person is definitely turning its back on another.” While he is full of praises for Wizkid, stories abound, including that of an artiste, Alo Innas, who allegedly claimed he left Wizzy’s enclave when he noticed he had a shrine that he consulted before signing any artiste.
Whether true or false, Wizkid only dismissed his allegation with a one-line tweet: ‘Alo Innas could not take risks;’ neither denying nor confirming the allegation.
The anonymous artiste in the rant also asked why artistes are leaving their record labels in droves if conditions were good. “Where is Lil Kesh… where is Chinko Ekun? Why did Adekunle Gold leave YBNL?” He asked.
He even alleged that most of the established artistes are signing young brilliant talents to get them to write songs for them, after which they start mistreating them or dump them, outright.
If there is a bit of doubt in that anonymous artiste’s rant, what would one say of the testimony of singer Harrison Tare Okiri aka Harrysong, who publicly alleged that his previous record label, Five Star Music, owned by E Money, tortured and abused him to the verge of death.
“If not for the grace of God with the help of some very few good men, I would have also died in the hands of my former label.
“The torment, attacks, abuses and operations back to back, just because I have served and wanted to move out and grow a little for myself.
“It was hell for me. The general public believed everything they said about me then, fans, supporters show promoters bullying me everywhere.
“In fact, one of my friends said he will buy drinks, celebrate if I die of hunger and depression.”
He, however, admitted that his life and indeed career, was preserved courtesy of a few individuals who supported him and refused to swallow the falsehood being spread about him.
“I’m alive today just for the few that stood by me because they know the true story and refused to be influenced by lies just to kill an innocent man.”
He thus warned record label owners to desist from practices likely to resort to the killing and destruction of young talents.
Artistes/record labels fight not new
Interestingly, the Mohbad/Marlian Record’s saga and other artistes currently battling their label owners are not new. To put it mildly, it is legendary.
Though deep in history, the story of a young King Sunny Ade’s battle for freedom against his mentor/label owner, Chief Bolarinwa Abioro of the African Songs Limited (ASL) will never be forgotten; not with the advent of the internet, which now preserves history and enables access with just one click of the finger.
That story tells of how recording companies or record labels have always been exploitative. That can be the only reason ASL would sign KSA, sell his album for N6.00 and pay him only 20kobo per album, which further dropped to 15kobo, after the chairman deducted publicity and other running charges.
That of course later created disaffection and animosity between the two parties, culminating in a prolonged court case that resonated and the involvement of young Gani Fawehinmi now late on KSA’s side.
One could say that King Sunny Ade was lucky it only ended in court and the record label wasn’t the type that obtains in today’s world, where non complying artistes are threatened, harassed and bullied into submission.
Recall that news of artistes’ disaffection with Kennys Music also abound, despite that company’s well-acknowledged reputation as the harbinger of the current success in Nigeria’s music industry.
The case of Kizz Daniel with his then record label, G-Worldwide Entertainment, which forced him to change his name from Kiss to Kizz; and the N500million breach of contract suit slammed on him, is fresh. Wizkid also left Banky W’s Empire Mates Entertainment unceremoniously, setting tongues wagging.
There was also Cynthia Morgan who accused Jude Okoye of Northside Entertainment of stripping her of everything she had amassed, while Okoye in turn countered her by going public with a copy of her contract with the outfit.
Others include Brymo and Chocolate City, Runtown and Eric Many Entertainment, Temmy Ovwasa and Olamide, D’bannnj and Mo’Hits.
Will Mohbad’s death and the secrets and lessons it has thrown up, plus the intervention of the police and the government herald positive changes?
With the level of volatility and recurrent disagreements in the industry, experts and observers are advising upcoming artistes to be circumspect and not be desperate to sign for a label, even when they desperately desire the breakthrough.
“My advice is always get a lawyer before signing any contract’,” Ayobami submitted in that TVC interview.
But will they listen?
