Revolutionary Fuji musician K1 the Ultimate will spend all of 2012 blessing God and thanking fans, as he takes stock of an enduring career that has lasted for decades.
The Fuji godfather and veteran
bandleader sat down with NET on Saturday January 7, 2012, to talk about
the secret of his longevity, the many hurdles and stepping stones, and
what tomorrow holds. Not at all looking his age, the 54 year-old
performer ran up the stairs as he led us to his suite. When he opened
his mouth to speak, he commanded the English Language like a maestro –
quite fascinating, for someone originally with limited formal
education. Apparently, self-development has been the lucky charm of the
Fuji giant, who started out as a ‘packer’ with the late Fuji founder Sikiru Ayinde Barrister.
While working over the years to redefine his music and his brand, KWAM 1
obviously understood the importance of education and the English
language for someone who fancies global attention – and he’s spun the
language, more than anyone in his genre. At home with issues across all
sectors and continents, and extremely eloquent, the Fuji leader
understands the importance of staying ahead, if he’s to lead his
followers right.
INTERVIEW/STORY, COURTESY OF NIGERIA ENTERTAINMENT TODAY
It’s surprising that you are
marking 40 years in music, especially since you aren’t 60 yet. Your
first major album Talazo was released in the mid ’80s, so how come you
are celebrating 40 years today?
Not mid 80′s but in the early ’80s. My
first album was in ’79 and by the count till today, that’s over thirty
years. It wasn’t the first day that I started doing music that I made my
first album. Before Talazo in ’84, I had
about three series of Talazo. Talazo was a series I started 1980. Before
Tala ’84 and the Talazo series, I had released my first album in ’79
titled Iba, that was when I went on my first pilgrimage. All albums till
date have been released under Omo Aje Records.
Many artistes have come and
gone, but like King Sunny Ade, you seem to be one of the few that have
been consistent over the decades. What’s your secret?
The secret is that it has been the grace
of God, there can’t be any other secret. You know you are there doing
something continuously, you should know it’s the grace of God; there’s
nothing more extraordinary about you than another being. When the
history of music is being talked about in America, the Jackson Five
comes to mind. The foundation of the Jackson five, to what Michael
Jackson later became to America and the rest of the world. So that also
is the case with K1 the Ultimate Wasiu, all in the mid 70′s to 80′s up
till today.
You kept rebranding, from Wasiu
Ayinde Marshal to KWAM 1, to K1 the Ultimate; why so many changes, and
has it worked for, or against you?
It’s a very good thing with a lot of
good favours. The advantages are very high. Rebranding is very good to a
product. A good product truly needs some touches. You don’t leave a
stone unturned. You keep on turning and turning to discover good sides
to it. It is showbiz, show and business; the two interwoven, so that’s
what we are doing and that’s one factor that has kept us going over the
years.
You have been described as the
man who revolutionized Fuji Music, the man who introduced a lot of
Western instruments into the genre without compromising the quality of
the music. What would you say is your most important contribution to
Fuji music?
I have three major contributions to Fuji
music. One: my utmost belief when I started was that Fuji music must be
lifted up to another level which is what I did. It became something so
fascinating to the youths of then and I was able to carry them along. We
all grew together and every youth that has come right after us has
followed the same trend and that’s why we were able to enjoy the
followership among the young ones till date. When I started, I lifted it
up from where I met it. I created the first upbeat tempo of Fuji music
and was able to give it a kind of followership that most music forms
didn’t have. We were born to see music as being enjoyed by our fathers
as serious, including the disco of then. The younger ones did not really
have a style they could call their own. The elder ones discouraged us
and were always like ‘you want to listen to music? Go and face your
studies’. Two: I kept that trend, doing something at first is no
problem, but sustaining it is difficult. So I was able to sustain it
whereby everybody coming after me, they joined the trend, you know, like
Ayuba came in and the rest. So it was the trend I set that I maintained
by the grace of almighty God, now everybody is joining in. The third
one is that I was able to infuse a lot of instrumentation and package it
in such a way that I did not lose touch with the originality of the
music. These are the three major things that gladden my heart and I
thank God for giving me the grace to do that.
What have been your most difficult challenges?
Truly there must be challenging
situations but those ones that are of note is the fact that I’m at the
middle, I had the likes of Barrister and Kollington,
who are much older than me as my senior, and I have those younger ones,
so you can imagine the pressure. So when I want to step up those ones
ahead of me will be slowing me down and those ones below… they see me as
a role model because I am the man that created a path for them, I am
their pathfinder and they are really finding everything easy so anything
they want to do with Fuji music, they find the terrain very conducive
for them and very free because someone has done it for them, so I’m in
the middle and you can imagine the pressure on me from the back and from
the front. Also, not having the government to help the industry is a
challenge to me.
Why have you never really favoured music videos?
Let me first of all answer this question
by correcting the assumption that we don’t want to do videos. Huge
investments are paid in music entertainment but there are no
governmental concerns into the area of securing those investments. You
can then imagine pirates enjoying 95 per cent profit of the job. The
spirit is not there, when somebody puts in that money, a marketer puts
that money to produce, you too you put effort down to get a job done,
you are not even in the spot of getting 2% of the money before somebody
who did nothing makes about 70% just at a go. The investor, producer and
the artist are unable to believe the fact that they made just about
five per cent. So the success of the whole thing lies in the hand of
somebody who has no investment at all. The musical video is only for
promotion on the TV. Promoting who? Promoting who has 95 per cent of the
profit or still promoting the three or five per cent which will be
shared between the investors and I? So I’m not thrilled. It is the
number one point that kills music globally. But among us we left many
things unattended to which killed a lot of things in totality here.
How are you celebrating your 40th year on stage? Are there any concrete plans yet?
Number one is that I had always wanted
God to lead me to this point so starting from now, there’s going to be a
lot of programmes, there’s going to be book presentation, you know a
lot of activities that would span into eight weeks. We are in a
celebration year. This year marks my 40th year on stage, it’s my year!
If God spares your life for the next 40 years, what would you hope to achieve?
Well, looking at my age I’m almost 55 so
adding forty that’s 95, that’s too much (Laughs). Whatever years are
left of my life, I want to be thankful to God for giving me the grace to
live a good life and the ability to impact positively on the lives of
people. So the one thing I want to see is that I stay around longer, to
be a good role model to people, to advise them, to counsel them
especially the youths and I hope to be always there for them. You know
people go to South Africa to see Nelson Mandela to seek inspiration from
the man who was able to come out good after going through years of
torture and apartheid so yes, I want to be able to spend the rest of my
life being of help to people.
Are you going to retire at any point? Not just recording albums but from performing?
No way, I still have very strong bones
and as long as they can still function optimally I will continue to
perform and do that which I’m known for which has brought joy to
countless people over the years.
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