On Thursday, March 17, THENETNG’s Ayeni Adekunle (Publisher) and Dayo Showemimo (Chief correspondent) had an interview with Peter Okoye of Psquare at his Lekki home.
During the interview, the 34-year-old musician talks about the on-going Psquare brouhaha, music career, business and family. See 22 important excerpts from the extensive conversation below…
1. ‘The truth is, the fans should be happy that we were able to drop the ‘Double Trouble’ album in 2014. What’s happening now should have happened then.’
2. ‘The issue was the fact that I was in Psquare and it felt like I was in fear. If I don’t do this, Psquare will break-up, if I don’t do that, Psquare will scatter.’
3. ‘Four years ago, I told Jude he needs to step down as our manager, because I didn’t want to disrespect him as a brother, but this is business, [and] we have to structure it. And Jude said to me that there’s a way I [should] talk to him, and [threatened to] slap me. So I kept quiet.’
4. ‘Truth is, I’ve not been in talking terms with Paul since December 2015 and that was why I travelled in January because I had a lot on my mind.
5. ‘Psquare featured on songs with J-Martins, Bracket,LKT, 9ice and these 4 songs were done by Paul alone, but guess what, did I appear in the videos, YES. We have other collabos with Kaha, Darey,Ruggedman. I did these songs alone. How come they don’t have videos? Paul refused to appear in the videos.’
6. The last collabo we did was with Flavour and I refused to do another one.
7. ‘I was surprised to realize that Paul had told them {at Mavin Studio} that I don’t sing or write songs. The next day, I went to Paul and told him how I felt when I heard what he said. Only for Jude to say that he made Paul the lead singer of Psquare 8 years ago!
8. ‘It’s really sad that people have labelled me ‘Dancer’ and they don’t really know what I do for Psquare. Kudos to Paul, I’m not a good songwriter; in fact, I’ll rate myself 30%, so when it comes to song writing, I give it to Paul 100%.’
9. ‘This whole thing began when Paul went online and started posting lyrics of most of our songs on Instagram [and saying]that he wrote them all, just because Peter brought in something to the table. I had been trying to bring more business for Psquare. I didn’t know it was going to cause problems.
10. ‘I remember I once told Paul something when Jude became our manager; he was using the term ‘Our Money,’ that was when we made our first 1 million [naira]. I called Paul and told him that our former manager used to make about 15%, and now that Jude is our manager, let’s think of a percentage that we’ll be giving him and put it on paper. Paul said it’s not necessary. He probably went to tell Jude about it. I’m sorry to say this, but I think Paul is weak.’’
11.‘On December 14, 2015, we sat down to have a meeting hoping to set a proper structure in place, but Paul noticed that it wasn’t working the way he wanted, so he said he’s starting a new group. I thought he meant he wanted to start a record label, and he was like no, he’s starting a new group that he belongs to. And Jude simply said, ‘anybody stop you?’ He picked up his phones and walked out of the meeting. I felt it had already been discussed behind me. I later found out that Paul was already recruiting for the group and Jude is their manager. At the moment I hear they are called ‘The MVPs’ I don’t know what it means yet.’
12. I went on social media to protect our careers, because if I didn’t do that, Psquare will not release any material anytime soon, they’ll be busy promoting their artistes. And I remember going to talk to Paul about it before I went on social media. I went to his house, and he was in his room with his friend, [whom I asked to excuse us, but] Paul said, no, his friend should stay, [and that] anything I want to say should be said in front of him. So I said, no, you know we are brothers and he was like, ‘oh, na now you know say we be brothers.’
13. ‘Before I announced my management, I wanted my mind to be clear, so I went back to Paul, this time we were alone and we [discussed things]; I told him I had no issues with him, but he needs to stop letting Jude use him as a shield. Both of us started shedding tears, and when we finished he still said he hopes I’m not here to tell him that I still want Psquare, and I told him I want to move on, because he already has a manager (Jude) and I don’t.’
14. ‘To be honest with you, I feel if our mum was still alive, we would have pushed her to her grave with this whole thing. It’s really sad that even with everything going on, I still stand with Paul.’
15. ‘It still boils down to the fact that Psquare was not structured. Music is like football, Messi has his manager, Neymar has his manager, Suarez has his manager, but when they get to the pitch, they play as a team.’
16. ‘When Jude didn’t come to my wedding, people started saying we broke up and then others said it’s a stunt. When Paul posted those lyrics on Instagram people thought it was a stunt too, but the truth is that this is not and has never been a publicity stunt. I am telling you the truth.’
17. ‘Last week Yemi Alade sent me her album track list to help her share on Instagram, guess what I saw, she had a song with Psquare that I didn’t even know about. Only Paul did it.’
18. I’ll still perform Psquare songs, nobody can stop me, nobody can stop Paul too, we didn’t have a contract with Jude, so I have the right to perform Psquare songs especially the ones I took part in.’
19. ‘Because of what was happening, it was like two against one, so I said let’s share our properties. When I said that, Paul said if we want to share our properties, Jude must get the same share with us otherwise Psquare will split and I was like ‘SPLIT-AGAIN?’
Our lawyer came and told Paul that it’s wrong to share it equally with Jude, but he insisted, so we divided every property we owned in Lagos, Jos, America, Abuja. In-fact the right and left wing of the Square Ville mansion belongs to Paul and Jude now. So that was how we shared all our properties equally among the three of us about two or three years ago.’
‘People think we changed when we started having wives. Before my mum died, she was at St Nicholas hospital on the island, and my sisters were living in this house (in Lekki), and every morning before my wife goes to work, she’ll leave home at 5am in the morning to go and stay with my mum even before we get there ourselves. And when she closes from work, she’s back with her again. So I just laugh when I hear people say my mum didn’t like my wife. It’s my wife and sister that prepare my mum’s meals in the kitchen.’
21. ‘When I set up P-Classic records because people were saying Psquare haven’t helped anyone, I saw the success of Tiwa Savage and I was close to signing Cynthia Morgan and Simi. Paul came to the studio and said he heard I’m signing Simi and Cynthia, I said ‘Yes’, and he was like ‘What will people see Jude as’, and I gave him example of Drake and Young Money, Cash money.’
‘Two weeks after, I was shocked to hear that Jude had signed Cynthia Morgan, and she knows deep down that she’s never going to get a Psquare collabo.’
22. ‘The truth is I feel happy it has come, because I’ve been staying in Psquare out of fear for the last four years. The situation now is, if you want Psquare to perform, you’ll have to get in touch with two managers. I don’t care if you pay Paul’s management more than you pay me – once we are able to agree, Psquare is still there.
‘It’s good if we go and do stuff separately so that even IF we come back we’ll have respect for each other. I wish Paul the best and I wish Jude the best as well.’
