In an interview with netng,Paul of Psquare gives shocking revelations about what is truly happening with Psquare,how they started fighting 2 years ago and also shared their properties among other issues.
What Is the real story
behind this Psquare controversy?
‘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.‘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.’‘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.’‘So, a few hours after, Paul came to
me and said if I want Jude to step down it wasn’t a problem, but it meant that
he (Paul) would go solo. The first time
word got out about Psquare breaking up, a lot of people called us; senators, governors, and people like that. In fact, three of us were once in a private jet to go and see someone who wanted to resolve our issues, and we didn’t speak to each other throughout the flight. At the end of the day, I swallowed my pride for peace to reign and allowed Jude to remain as our manager.’‘I and Paul stay together in this estate and the last time I saw him was about a week ago.’
word got out about Psquare breaking up, a lot of people called us; senators, governors, and people like that. In fact, three of us were once in a private jet to go and see someone who wanted to resolve our issues, and we didn’t speak to each other throughout the flight. At the end of the day, I swallowed my pride for peace to reign and allowed Jude to remain as our manager.’‘I and Paul stay together in this estate and the last time I saw him was about a week ago.’
But you live in the
same premises. Why is this so?
‘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.Something happened at Mavin
Studios last year that broke my heart. 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’.‘Now hear this, 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.’‘So I told Paul that
when next he does a collabo alone, he should be in the video alone, because it
got to a point where artistes began to feel if they did a collabo with Paul it
[would] get a video, but if it was me, it [wouldn’t] get a video.The last
collabo we did was with Flavour and I refused to do another one. Even Flavour
had to speak all the Igbo he knows to convince me before I agreed to do it.
Only for my brother to come and tell me that ‘shey I thought you said you won’t
appear in any video that I did the collabo alone? Why did you appear on this
one?’. I was sad but I knew another one will come’.‘So Tiwa Savage called me;
apparently Paul had done a song with her – not the campaign song they are
promoting now, another Psquare collabo entirely. So she [said] she’s been
trying to reach Paul to get the CD of the song from him [because] he’s already
done his part, so I went to Paul’s house to help ask for it and tell him I want
to go to the studio to do my verse and he said he doesn’t know where the CD
is.’‘I went to the Mavin studio to meet Tiwa. When I got there, she asked for
the CD and I told her Paul didn’t give me any CD, so I called him again and gave
the phone to Tiwa and [he] told her on phone that the CD is at Omole, so I got
into the studio, recorded my verse and when I finished, everybody was clapping.
I was surprised to realize that Paul had [told] them that I don’t sing or write
songs.’‘I felt really bad and betrayed, but I covered up for him. I jokingly
asked Teebillz if they gave him Red Label and he said yes, so I was like you
guys caused it, and we laughed over it. So when my assistant went to pick up
the CD, Paul and Jude started shouting at him to ‘ask Peter what is he doing at
the Mavin studio? He knows how we work.’ 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! A leader leads, he doesn’t
destroy.’
Can you narrate what
actually is the problem between Psquare?
When it came to decision-making, it was always a Triangle
formation, and the highest vote wins. I never used to complain because we were
all okay, but what has changed now is the fact that we’ve grown. You can make a
certain decision based on how we used to do it and it may affect everyone as an
individual, but it gets to a point when the decisions taken are never my own
and I began to wonder if anything was wrong.’‘Most of Psquare ideas came from
me, like [the] materials we needed to put out for people to see, video, stage
performances and all. But when I came up with them, nobody wanted to accept it.
I didn’t complain because people still love what we do, but then again, there
wasn’t much competition in the industry back then.’As time goes, we should get better; it shouldn’t be
same triangle deciding, because if we continue that same way, we’ll lose it.
All I want is a proper structure in the sense that, we need to have proper
management, business managers and all.’‘As I speak to you right now, we don’t
have an office, [we have] no structure. When this issue started about five
years ago, our lawyer told us the way we run our business is wrong.’‘I’ll give
you an instance’.‘We had to go perform somewhere once, and because I had a
slight argument with Paul, he said he wasn’t going. It was the wedding of the
President’s daughter. When I got to the airport my brother wasn’t there, and I
[didn’t know] how I was going to explain to the President that we [couldn’t]
perform. I made up my mind to go with the band, perform like that and lie that
my brother was sick. So we left for Abuja, and when we got to the hotel, my
assistant manager called [to say] he was on the way to the airport with Paul,
so we had to wait for them to land in Abuja and that was why we couldn’t make
it on time to the reception.’‘The president was mad. In fact, Mama Peace
(Patience Jonathan) was really mad. But we eventually made up for it with a
performance at the Gala night. Only for Jude to [tell me that] Paul said he
wasn’t going for a show and I still went [without him]. Imagine if Jude had a
proper structure and we had contracts? That wouldn’t happen. And it was more
because the show came through me. If the show came through Jude, it wouldn’t
have happened. I don’t have a problem with doing things as a family, but
structure and proper organization is important too. The name Psquare is very
big outside but inside we have no structure. I see people like Audu of
Chocolate City, Mavin Records, even Ubi Franklin, and I wanted us to have a
structure like that. Psquare is just up there because of the grace of God.’
You’ve said a lot
about Jude being the problem, and how you’re the minority. But, really, as
Peter, what do you bring to the table?
‘It’s really sad that people have labeled 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%.‘However, not writing songs does not disqualify you from
being a musician. I can tell you for free that a Nigerian wrote two of the
songs on Rihanna’s new album. I’ve travelled a lot and most times people ask,
‘which one are you, the singer or the dancer’? And it’s really sad.’ ‘In
Psquare, I am the creative person, I can sit-down and tell you what people want
to hear, what they want to see and what they want to learn from Psquare. But
it’s not something to brag about.’‘Jude directs all our videos.’‘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. I sent my manager to a
meeting in Senegal to meet with Universal music about getting us deals, and
when he came back, the way they responded to him wasn’t encouraging.’‘So I had
to send Diouf (the footballer) to help get the documents and convince my
brothers before we could pull through with the deal. After some months, we
started making money. Meanwhile, while filling the forms, Jude filled
everything as Psquare. So the first payment came and we shared it. The second
payment was bigger, and we shared it too. That was when Paul said we had to
re-fill the form and give proper credit to the songwriter (Himself) and said if
the form wasn’t brought back, he would expose me and tell the world that he
writes all the songs. The next day he went online to post those lyrics. So my
question is, when he was doing that what did Jude do about it? Absolutely
nothing!‘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.‘You
know they say change is constant, you can’t stay in one spot. As the industry
moves, you move. So I won’t say the problem we have is money. I think everybody
is just dragging power unnecessarily. Imagine Jude telling me that he’s in
charge of Psquare and there’s nothing Peter and Paul can do about it, and I
look at Paul and he’s quiet about it. I’ve never seen where a manager talks to
his artistes anyhow. If there’s an issue you should call us aside quietly to
talk about it.’
Why did you call out
Jude on social media?
‘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.’‘So how do you expect me to be managed by the same
person we’ve been having issues with, who is now the manager of the other
group? There’ll surely be conflict of interest.’Recently] Jude called me, after
I had said he was fired. He called me on a Thursday to say ‘Hope you know we
are going to the embassy tomorrow for that show in Holland.’ I know about the
show, [because] it was already booked before the issues started, so I told him,
‘Bro you are not my manager, talk to my manager.’ He said, ‘Noted.’ The next
day, they went to the embassy with the new group members, which means they had
already set up their interviews at the embassy because it’s not possible to get
an appointment in less than 24 hours. I traced the organisers and told them
Jude represents only Paul. I told them this is what it takes to get Peter and
Paul, Peter alone or Paul alone‘So 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.’ I told him I came to talk to him about what’s
been happening, but it was turning into an argument so I left and I travelled
out. I was away for over a month, knowing that we didn’t have any shows at that
time. I went to Turkey and London to rest my mind, my friend Samuel Eto’o
invited me to come.’
How did you fire
Jude?
The day I fired Jude was at a concert. The day I came back,
we had a show, so I went straight to the venue in Lagos and told Jude I want to
talk to him, and he said I should say anything I want to say in front of
everyone, [which] was the same attitude Paul gave me before I travelled. So
Jude said if I like, I should get out, and I said ‘guy don’t embarrass me.’ He
said who are you, because you think you are Psquare? So I told him openly that
if he cannot resolve me and Paul’s issue, he doesn’t deserve to be our manager,
and he said I should get out. There and then I told him ‘You are fired’! He
looked at me and said, ‘You fit fire me?’ That was when I entered my car and
started tweeting. How else can you take him out?’‘[In fact,] long before I made
up my mind, Paul had already said there’s no more Psquare, [and that] if Jude
leaves, he goes with him.’‘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, so I had to structure myself too. And I didn’t want to allow the Psquare
name to fade before moving on. Look at Don Jazzy and Dbanj, when they broke up,
they waited for like 6 months and had to start again. Now, that Psquare just
broke up, let me use the name to move on quickly, because there’s no time.’
What would have been
your mum’s reaction?
‘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.’
How do you intend to
carry on as a solo artist?
‘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’.‘Before I did the Olympic deal, I’d brought some deals for Psquare. The
people endorsing Psquare only see Peter and Paul, but behind [the scenes] its
Peter, Paul and Jude so the price goes so high that it never works.’‘But when a
deal comes to my table, it’s not like they called Jude and I went behind to
talk to them, the deal came directly to me from Jude’s friend. He called me and
told me about it, and before then I had already established my own beverage
factory and the deal coming was from PZ, which means I could do more business
with them, so should I lose that deal because they didn’t call Jude?’‘I asked
them why me and not Psquare, and they said they couldn’t afford Psquare, and
the brand was tailored to fit one person. So I went back to tell Paul and Jude
and they didn’t say anything. They didn’t ask me not to do it. Don’t get it
wrong, we’ve been doing different private businesses, the only difference was
that the Olympic deal came out in public. I’ve been doing mass housing projects
on my own, Paul has been doing real estate, Jude has been doing his own thing,
he even [set up the] Northside record label, so it’s not like it’s the first
thing I’m doing alone. It’s just the first one that went public.’‘So even when
I decide to open my beverage factory, people will still ask why I am doing it
alone without my brother.’
A lot of people feel
this is all a publicity stunt,how true is that?
‘I hear lot of people think it’s all a stunt, and that’s
what I really want to put an end to. It’s not a stunt at all. It has been going
on for a while’.‘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. I am moving
on because people are already getting tired of this Psquare brouhaha. Now I
have my manager, Olatunde Michaels, and I expect everybody to respect that. I
am a family man, a musician, singer and dancer. If I don’t move on, Psquare
will collapse and there’ll be nothing left’.‘Already Paul has done two songs
without me but no one is saying anything, he did a song with his artiste ‘Muno’
with his name as Rudeboy did they feature me? He did a song with Tiwa Savage,
did they feature me?’‘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.’‘Because I announced new management,
people feel I’m the one going solo, but Paul has already gone solo. He’s moved
on and didn’t need to announce any new management because he still works with
Jude, so I had to announce mine and believe it or not, people are booking me
for gigs already.’‘And guess what, 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’.‘I’ll
also consider releasing solo songs and even albums. Truth is – in the last
album Paul did some songs alone, I did some songs alone. ‘Bring It On’ was Paul
alone, ‘Eje Ajo’, ‘Shekini’ was done by me alone’.Remember the 4 songs ‘Free
For Fans’ that we released, those songs were removed from the last album and I
leaked them’.‘I have some songwriters already, V-Tek writes for me, and I’m
still bringing up more’.‘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.’‘After sharing everything, I called Paul again and spoke to
him about a proper structure. We’ve been with people like Akon and co and we
see how it’s done. Right now, Psquare has millions of dollars in royalties
hanging in the air.’‘All our endorsement and shows are shared equally between
the three of us as well.’‘After what it took to share our properties, I was
embarking on a project, so I needed more money and I wanted to sell my house in
America and buy something smaller, because I spend close to $30,000 to maintain
that condo every year.’‘So I called my caretaker to begin the process and she
told Jude and Paul to send their data page and passport photographs, but they
refused because they know I wanted to the sell the house. And see the value of
dollars now. The house was valued at 100M then, but if I sell it now, I could
make extra 250M.’‘And we already signed paper works and document of the house
that it belongs to me but Jude ignored it, so I called our lawyer, Festus
Keyamo to inform him about the development. He called them and they both
refused to pick his call, so he sent them a text and requested that we should
have a meeting, but Jude replied him and said no need for a meeting that the
America house will be sold.’‘Paul said we agreed and signed on how to share but
we haven’t really shared it yet, after all Jude is still holding on to the
documents.’‘Three of us have properties close to each other in Parkview and
that’s why I want to sell my own and move to Banana Island.’‘I can’t really
understand why they don’t want a structure, to me I think it’s ignorance, and
if I decide to do it, it’ll seem like I’m looking for trouble.’
How true is it that
your trouble started after you married your wife Lola against your late mothers
wish,how true is that?
‘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.’‘Now let me shock you: our wives, the
three of them are the closest set of people you can imagine. Even with all
that’s going on. It’s really surprising. Somehow, they respect themselves and
stayed out of the whole drama and I respect them a lot. And that’s somehow what
has kept us together for this long, otherwise Psquare would have ended like two
or three years back.’
Why did you refuse to
do a collabo with Cynthia Morgan?
‘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. Ask them they’ll tell you.’‘I remember 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.’‘Oscar (Producer of ‘Collabo’ ft. Don
Jazzy) called to tell me that they can’t sign the deal, because he heard it’s
causing problem in Psquare. Meanwhile Cynthia and Simi were both going through
the contracts I gave them only for them to return it two days later that they
can’t do it.’‘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.’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. I just don’t want to have a manager that feels he’s in
control because he’s my elder brother. And because of the legacy that I want
Psquare to be remembered for, that was why I went to talk to Paul the last
time. I don’t want us to start doing beef songs, or we see at the clubs and we
don’t greet each other, or ignore our kids and stuff like that. And even if
Psquare breaks up, I still want us to have our relationship as brothers. If
I’ve regretted anything in my life so far, I swear to God this is not one of
them, I’m happy because I’ve been in pain for a long time.’‘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.’
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