Here is the latest component of the interview with Richie Adewusi, former publicist of the late reggae musician, Majek Fashek, published last Saturday. The duo’s relationship lasted six years until they split in January 1993. Extracts:
What are your memories of him?
I don’t forget that Majek showed up on the same level with his bell and handcuffs. Once, there was an incident with the guy who intended to offer him security and open the handcuffs. It has become a real challenge when we had to look for the key. After this incident, I took control of the key. So I was with him every single time he leveled up and back.
You said Majek had tried the occult, when did you first notice?
Majek played big concerts and won a lot of coins, and I gave him coins, most of which were in coins, but he didn’t know what he was doing with those coins. I told him I needed to buy a new car because he was using a Peugeot 504 and he said he’d be killed. Arriving at this question of the occult or not, Majek lived a life of concern, concern for his circle of relatives and concern for a constant war between his mother and his wife, and was very afraid. He refused to buy a new car. He went to the United States to signal the deal with Interscope Records in 1992, and I told him not to come in and stay because if he did, there were three passes in the entertainment industry that could ruin it. I told him that the past was homosexuality, occultism and drugs. I told him never to stay in this country and I warned him that: ”Once one of the three passes catches you, you’re addicted. I explained that Fela, Sunny Ade and others have never lived in the United States or the United Kingdom, because the formula was ready to slow their growth. I told him they would never allow him to rise above the kind of music they were projecting. Unfortunately for Majek, they saw him as the new Bob Marley. He came back here and we did some concerts and at one point I told him I had to move out because the neighbors started complaining about him. I needed to live in a great community, so I started looking for a position to live for it. At that point I had to do it for an exhibition and before I came back, I discovered a position in Olowoira around the Berger axis. The position belonged to Chief Femi Ojo. Boss Femi Ojo was an auctioneer and really enjoyed Majek.
When I picked up Majek at the airport, he came to greet me with a hand gesture and asked him what it meant. He showed me the mark of Satan and carried the Christian cross upside down around his neck, which was satanic. I asked him what was wrong with him when I took him to see his new home. At the new residence, some of the musicians he traveled with said, “Yes, Majek, we can start here,” and I wondered what they were looking for in the first place. Majek had made a stopover in Satan’s church and this was his true turning point. Anyone who says he joined an occult to write down or before releasing the prisoner of conscience deals with bratant lies.
Majek used to chase his musicians to come with a cigarette, not to mention Indian hemp, but after his scale in the United States, he smoked to prove his toughness. Chief Eye had agreed to sell him the assets for 300,000 naira, but after discovering his enthusiasm for creating Satan’s church, I swore to slur at the sale. It was between September and October 1992, and billed to return to the United States on November 3 to sign the Interscope recording agreement.
His schedule coincided with my classic wedding date at Ekiti, but I had to make sure he embarked on the trip. I had to make sure he got to the airport and checked in. My wedding was at Ekiti but I was with Majek at Lapasss until 6pm. I only attended my classic wedding for a few minutes at 10 p.m. After the wedding, we had two exhibitions and Majek came back. At that time two decisive occasions occurred: Shell Petroleum hired Majek to perform at his New Year’s Eve party in Warri, and I confronted him for his refusal to buy a car. I asked him what he was doing with his cash and he said he was building a space for his mom. On the way to Warri, the day before the show, we stopped and saw him pass out on his mom and the keyboardist told me that the space his mom had come out of was his circle of relatives at home, not built through Majek. I was pretty upset.
I to find out what he was doing with his cash and take it signed as my percentage due. So, for Shell’s display at Port Harcourt, I asked that all invoices be made on behalf of my company, and agreed to pay us 60% in advance and the remaining 40% in the form of a bank transfer, which they said we can recover on arrival. Before the screen, I showed him the 60% advance and explained the payment terms, but he insisted that he could not play a screen without receiving the full money. Shell had arrived to take us to Port Harcourt while the organization was being charged for traveling on a luxury bus, but Majek insisted that she would not play without charging for the bank wire. Finally, he missed the flight when I went to Port Harcourt earlier on an advertising flight.
I was involved when the technical organization arrived to install the level tools in Majek’s absence. It didn’t arrive until midnight and the organization arrived in Port Harcourt around 4am on a Hummer (E20) bus. I asked him what had happened and he told me he had told them to cancel the luxury bus and get the money back. Meanwhile, the entire reserve that day was wasted and they were not satisfied. So he kept asking for cash and told him that moving the bank was with me. I showed him that, however, I was still asking for cash, so I’ve decided to collect my dues. He kept complaining and I got really angry. Majek directed on the show, ending with Send Down the Rain. He got out of the bar, got in the car and headed straight to the hotel. For the return to Lagos, we all had to take the bus down the road and I didn’t say a word, but he kept making jokes. Normally, when we were traveling, he would take me home or I would park in front of his space and drive home after the trip, however, for this trip, I did not allow him to take me home. It was Christmas and I told him I’d deposit the bank wire in the bank and it would be available in three days. But the next day he gave the impression and I said the same thing.
Newlywed, I traveled with my wife to the East to make a stopover at my mother. But we return to Lagos in January to find the door of my ajar component. I saw things weren’t where they were supposed to be. I met my owner and asked him what had happened and he told me it was Majek who came here with the children, claiming that I had his cash. I told my landlord what had happened and he told me, in this case, that I deserve to avoid it, but I refused. I sought to calm my wife when Majek appeared in spite of everything; said it was the guys in the organization who had damaged my door, but I refused to stop it. I told Majek that if we went to the bank and saw the manager, and he showed that the cash was on my account, we were done with the others. At the bank, the manager showed Majek that the cash was there, confirming my claims. I left it to the manager, went to the counter to pick up the total 40 consistent with a penny and went home. I took my 25% and gave the balance to the landlord to give it to Majek. I also left an instruction to my landlord that, before handing over the cash to Majek, I would have to return my passport internationally. My passport was with him for our proposed vacation to the United States. Looking back now, I’m sorry I acted that way, but at that moment I didn’t find your funny moves. So it wasn’t a thing yet that led me to be a part of it.
After leaving Majek in January 1993, did you completely break your ties to him? Did he notice you succeeding afterwards?
Are you still in touch with Majek’s circle of relatives and plans for his funeral?
Well, I’ll start with your last question, I mean, I just wish and seriously, I just want them to combine and not obstruct Majek, even in death. I don’t like what happened or what’s going on, and I don’t need sensationalism, but I’m afraid of how some of those things are handled. Yes, I’m in touch with the family. When I heard about Majek’s death, of course, I was devastated because what tied us up was heavy. When I heard about her disappearance, I was devastated because when Kimono died last year, no one expected it. I made the decision to write this new eBook just to profile those other people because I didn’t communicate about those other people. When the incident happened, Femi Akintunde Johnson looked for me to communicate, but I refused and told him that when I’m ready, I’ll tell my story and now that he’s dead, he can’t answer the things I’m going to write. but, of course, most of those things, other people know it. Majek said most of those things, but other people never listened. In an interview with Charly Boy in Zoom Time, Majek said, “Charly, you know I wouldn’t lie, I did non-secular things but I didn’t obey the regulations and that was the key to everything. Majek entered the non-secularism and occultism at this point in Satan’s church, but Majek was stressed for not obeying the regulations. You have an organization that is subject to strict compliance and now you have someone who does not obey the regulations that join that organization. So others who say he read seven eBooks or something have no idea what Majek has been through. What happened to him went beyond his wildest comprehension, and his challenge was that he was not disciplined enough to comply with the regulations, to comply with the contract with the label and that was his biggest flaw and his main problem.
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