Ogbonna Amadi
Posted to the Web: Saturday, October 14, 2006
His movements may have been impaired by the torturous beating his body and mind had received over the years, but the rainmaker I saw on stage at the recently concluded Thisday music festival held last weekend, can still hold his own against some of the best musicians in the world.
His songs are still very much intact and still convened some of those deep spiritual and prophetic meanings that placed him only on the platform reserved for great musicians like the late Robert Nestor Marley and Fela Anikulapo- Kuti.And over the years his once flourishing career which took a dip for the worse after his celebrated and controversial separation from his former record label Interscope Records, had been dogged by rumours and yet more rumours of his love for drugs.In this exclusive interview he rested all those rumours and more.
People say America is hell, do you agree with the opinion?
America is a nice place to live in and they are very organised. And if you are living there, you got to know how to work with the system and if you don’t know how to work with system, that’s when you get to see the other side of America.My brother, you won’t remain a happy man if American shows you its wicked side. Take the America police for instance, they hardly take bribes from anyone and if you are arrested, then you are on your way to jail.A couple of times Babylon arrested me when I was in Brooklyn, New York when l was hanging out with some gangsters.
They always talk about the law of Kama and it’s very mystical for me to come to jam here in Lagos with Buster Rhyhms, Snoop, Jay-Z and the rest of the guys that were here to play in Nigeria. You see these guys were all area boys who grew up in the hood in Brooklyn. They all struggled to make it from the ghetto to the top and that is why I’m grateful to my friend Azuka and Charles Novia my local record label executive. They made it possible for to once more believe myself after all the tribulation that l passed through.
Why would the great Majek hang out in the hood with questionable characters?
Yeah, it’s because my music and its inspirations are drawn from the hood and my kind of music is better described as music of hope, Jah music. We that play Jah music, we can’t discriminate, we have rich friends and we have poor friends. In every rumour there is bound to be some level of truth you know. But unfortunately the Nigerian media over blew some of the negative sides to stories about me, and this was not very good for me in America. If the American media had followed the footsteps of their Nigerian counterpart, I wouldn’t have survived America.
The American media kept their mouth shut and didn’t write bad things about me and that explains the reason I survived and have continued to live in America. The real fact behind my continued stay in America is the fact that I’m a major artist in America. I have been on Interscope records, I have been on the Good morning America programme and I have also featured on a pay T.V. that is watched by over 50million Americans
Can we talk about your state of mind because most Nigerians believe there is something wrong with you?
My state of mind? It’s cool. I recorded a song a long time ago saying a living dog is better than a dead lion. I’m happy with my state of mind because I’m still alive and I still have more than fifty unreleased songs. What this means is that, my sojourn in America has not been in vain. Right now I also have an American management in Hollywood. My business in America is still on and my music, you can find in all the major stores in America.
I have a website that is constantly updated by my very hard working America-ltalian team. When Charles Novia came for me, he impressed my team of managers, He dealt with us like the white guys would.Like the old saying, an old soldier never dies, l see myself as a soldier of God and my state of mind is perfect.
What really was the problem between you and your former record company Interscope?
When I left Nigeria for America to take part in that year’s Reggae sunsplash held in America and Jamaica, I was still with Interscope records if you’d remember and Snoop Dog who is a big act was recording for a subsidiary label of lnterscope called the Deathrow records.
But along the line, I had a problem with my record company lnterscope and l couldn’t come back to Nigeria without putting right my deal with them. They put my contract on hold because some silly people had gone to tell management some silly stories about me.
Now let me tell the real reason for my quarrel with lnterscope.
Interscope wanted me to do a sound track, cover version for a movie and instead of the company taking me to a big studio manned by real professionals, they took me to a home studio owned by jazz musician, Herbie Hancock in his house. I refused. And I told them I wasn’t comfortable with the arrangement. So l didn’t record the sound track and they lost millions of dollars as they claimed.
I’d thought, after we’d settled the problem that every thing was over, but the white guys were to my surprise later, very unforgiving.When I left Nigeria, I discovered that there was a lot of vacuum missing in my life and to compound my problem, I didn’t have a good management in place. And this was to prove my failure in the area of negotiation s with Interscope. When my problem started with them, I didn’t have anybody to fight for me. And for anyone to survive in America, you got to have a good management in place. It was very careless of me to have made such mistake and while my problem with Interscope lasted I discovered that I was tied to them and so couldn’t leave nor continue to honour their term of contract.
You see my contract with Interscope stated that I record three albums for them and since we’d reached a point of no return, l couldn’t move to other contracts if I failed to honour their contract.
But luckily for me Virgin records came but again Interscope scuttled that dream because they refused to let me go. You know the difference between the white man and the black man is that while the black man is very forgiving the white man is not.God finally came to my rescue when my friend and widow to late Bob Marley, Rita damned the contract with Interscope and gave me a deal on Toff Gong records.Cassandra and the Bob Marley kids signed me on and that gave birth to the release of the album the rainmaker. After the release, l went on a tour of most of the major cities in the United States.
Demonic attack
After this brief success, demonic forces came after me and that’s really what set me back in life. But God was on the throne and with his spiritual guidance, l was able overcome the power of darkness. Today I make bold to tell you that I’m back and ready to take the world by storm and that also gave birth to the new album ‘Little Patience’.
Was it really true you had a problem with your papers in America and why?
In America for most immigrants to get the green card, they needed to marry an American. And when it’s time to get the green card, you have to go for an interview with the woman and if your answers don’t tally with your partner’s, nobody will give you a visa. In my own case I was lucky, for I had this Irish boy called Mike who was my personal lawyer and he lived in New York. He got me my visa designating me in the application as artist extraordinary. He was the one that packaged my application.Now when your application is approved you needed to go for a final immigration interview before the papers are finally released to you.
And that was when Aibtonia came to me in America to return and do some shows and market the rain maker album. Out of excitement I followed him home. When I was about to return to America for the interview my manager warned me not to come to America with an entry visa for if I did, I will never return to Nigeria and if I do come out I will never return to America.He advised that I do my immigration interview in Nigeria before returning to America. And because of this little mistake, I had to overstay in Nigeria before I finally got my papers. I was a financial wreck during this period.
How true is it that you were on drugs?
I’m not on drugs and at no time was I ever on drugs. I don’t take drugs but I drink and that’s why we have the Nigerian Breweries. In Nigeria we have a culture and tradition, and in everything that we do alcohol plays a key role. I wont say I’m perfect, I don’t drink too much but I drink and I smoke a little weed. But l don’t take hard drugs.
And you don’t do cocaine, smack and all that stuff?
NO, if l took those things, you won’t see me again and I’d sold every thing that I own on earth. When you say hard drugs, it means if you are a million and you are involved in it, before you know it, you’d start selling your houses and if you don’t stop you may end up pimping your wife too.The first thing l learnt when l arrived the States was to stay away from hard drugs.
So how did you get into alcoholism?
I’m not an alcoholic. But I got into drinking during my growing up days while living with my mother in the city of Benin.When we were growing up as a young kid l had contact with my ancestors and we used alcohol as libation during our commune period with the ancestors. We used just as the Bible said, and we didn’t abuse it. It’s only when you abuse whatever you take that it gets to you. In America I resided in Brooklyn and we have slang called chilling. Alcoholism was not really my problem but the spiritual thing which l explained to you earlier. I came in contact with some demonic spirits, but the Lord was on my side and was able to help me out and control the demons.You know I’m. not just a reggae musician, I’m a rock musician. And to be a rock musician there are so many things involved.
I count myself lucky that I was able to escape the scounge of drug affliction in America. When l was a resident in Los Angeles, I had millionaire friends who were seriously into cocaine and all that hard stuff. I was lucky l was a drinker, otherwise l would have messed with ‘coke’. These white boys can afford to mess with coke anytime because they have the money but I couldn’t because not only didn’t I have the money, I preferred my booze.
Nirvana, Jimmy Hendrix were some of the rock musicians killed by drug overdose. I knew all these and so couldn’t have endangered my life and career.While the reggae musician takes weed, the rock musician prefers the harder stuff.So like I said earlier I chilled a lot with my friends because I didn’t want to steal from anybody. In Brooklyn we chilled out because we didn’t want to steal from anybody. Buster Rhyme and the rest of the bigger and luckier musicians who once lived in the hood all chilled at one time. The way we do it is to buy a jug of beer and get some weed and chill out in the hood.
There were stories too that you were in a rehab too . . . ?
No, that’s not true.
And what’s the relationship with your wife and family, are you still together?
Yes and still very married. You see in America, the woman has too much freedom. If you marry an African from back home and you take the woman to America, after a few years, she’d get used to the law and that’s when your problem begins.
In Africa if your wife insults you she could get a slap for that, but here if you try it you’d be shocked to see your wife carry the phone and dial 911 and Alagbon go just appear. And Alagbon for here no dey take bribe . If you don’t go to jail, they will restrict you from seeing your wife, can you imagine that?
I had to start learning American culture, how to be a good boy. So any day my wife gets on my nerves, I’d just pick up my clothes and go to chill out for her to cool down. Right now my wife is fine and doing very well, but taking her to America affected me a bit too. But I don’t regret it very much.
And Randy your son and his younger brother . . . ?
Oh Randy is a very big boy now. He’s twenty-five years and doing well. He drives his own car and he is into computer science too. And my younger boy Destiny, is into hip hop and in high schoolIt’s been seven years since the last time you came back and during the period a lot of younger musicians have taken the centre stage, do you feel threatened?
A musician that is threatened is a musician that doesn’t know his job. I give thanks to the most high for I have been able to take my music beyond the shores of the country. My music is not just reggae music, l have my style. So what I’m doing is like Fela Kuti, it took him years to develop Afro beat, and I’m developing my own music called African rock reggae mixed with kpangolo. So I already have my style and I’m not competing with anybody. I’m not coming to be anybody, Bob Marley or anybody, I’m Majek. I and Marley have something in common and that is our prophetic message. No musician can threaten me here in Nigeria.I have been on stage with some of the biggest names in the industry and I have paid my dues.
And do you have any message for the young kids?
They should stay on the path.
The path is not my name, but the path can be my name if l can respect the path and hold it down with the path.
But the path is not my name.
The path needs humility.
The path needs discipline.
The path needs the fear of God.
And that’s how you can get to the promised land
So what I’d tell the younger ones are to stay on the path and what is the path, fear God and always obey and listen to him.
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