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According to
Musiliu Peregrino Brimah, Majek Fashek’s first outing was in Ghana
where he performed a series of concerts. While there, he won the
Nigerian Music Award. On his return he played concerts around Nigeria
and eventually left for the United States of America, where he signed
up with the InterScope Record label that also had Snoop Dog in its
stable.

Brimah picks up the
story. “Majek played at the famous Apollo Theatre in Harlem, New York
and, in the appreciative audience were Carlos Santana and other top
musicians. He was a big hit because they had never heard a band play
reggae with talking drums; his diminutive dancer, Pogo, who also played
shekere, thrilled the audience. The Jamaicans in particular, inventors
of reggae music, were shocked. Generally, Majek was well accepted on
the American music scene and he appeared on the famous David Letterman
Talk Show. He made a record in America which was favourably reviewed in
music journals as well as the upscale Esquire magazine. He was
described as the new voice of international reggae! When Fajek came
back to Nigeria, the first thing he did was to kiss the ground.

“I again advised
Majek to be closer to God. We went to a party in Ikeja where Sunny Ade
was playing and when Sunny saw Majek he started praising him in song.
Later, I told Majek I did not like the way he was behaving as he was
always restless and, that, if he had lost the key he should look for
that key that controls the mind. I asked him if he was taking drugs and
he said: no. Rather, he told me, he had read the spiritual book, ‘Seven
Books of Moses’ on the way to America. I have not seen Majek since
then. All I hear now are stories.”

The first Oxygen

Musiliu Peregrino
Brimah himself had to move on with his art. He designed the label for
the new Punch newspapers’ record company, Skylight Records. He designed
album covers for Ebenezer Obey, Orlando Owoh, Christie Essien-Igbokwe,
I.K.Dairo, Oriental Brothers, Kabaka, BLO, Manu Dibango, Tee Mac, Dele
Abiodun and Jonny Haastrup, amongst many others.

He delved further
into his passion for identifying and producing young talents. He worked
with a young group, Special Branch from Festac and, one of the members,
Tony, brought Paul Play Dairo. “I interviewed Paul Dairo,” Brimah
recalls, “and gave him an assignment to do the Johnny Cash song ‘I can
see clearly/now the rain is gone’; and sing it in the style of Seal. He
did the song and I was overwhelmed by [his] talent. So, I formed a
group which I called Oxygen, with Paul and Tony in 2002. Paul brought
in Slam and Bayo and, they all had talent. We were doing Hip Hop and
Hiplife; a mixture of highlife and hip-hop. We were doing fantastic
sounds and we were about to release our sound when Paul did ‘Mosorire’
for his father. I had already gotten Oxygen a record deal in America;
but Paul went to Kenny’s Music who released Moserire and it became a
big hit. That was the end of the first Oxygen.”

The second Oxygen

Brimah did not give
up! “I formed another Oxygen group,” he reminisces, “with Modog, Cool
Irie and, then a fellow producer told me he wanted me to meet a girl
called Asa who had talent. When I auditioned Asa and heard her voice I
was fascinated. With her in this new group called Oxygen Track 2, we
did a recording at Ayo Bankole’s Mainstream studio in Surulere. After
we shot the video, Asa told me she wasn’t too happy with the behaviour
of some of the other musicians so she decided to go solo. I continued
working with young musicians and, I worked with OJB who later produced
the hit ‘African Queen’ for Tuface Idibia.”

Brimah’s Peregrino
Music has continued to produce cutting-edge innovative popular music in
Nigeria and Ghana. Two of such products currently in the market and
making waves are ‘Ekute Oyingbo’ by Kaduna-based King Suleiman and
‘Ikebe’ by Katsina Rankies, based in Nima, Accra, Ghana. The lyrics in
both recordings are in Hausa and English.

When will he
release his earlier musical experiments with Oxygen and other groups?
“I think the time is right now,” he responds. “They were unknown
musicians then and the music industry then had not become what we made
it to be.” What are the special factors that now drive the Nigerian
Music industry? “These young musicians are money-spinning machines
today, not like before. The publicity, their involvement with
telecommunication companies and the fact that their music now has
international appeal has made all the difference!”

Celebrating Nigeria and Ghana

Musiliu Peregrino
Brimah’s pet project now is the Nigeria-Ghana Music Festival scheduled
for November 2010. It is a project that has gestated for some time. “I
first conceived the idea back in 2004/5. Then in 2007 I went to Ghana
to see the then President of the Ghana Musicians Association, Sidiku
Buhari, and told him that the purpose was to develop our culture
through music. He liked the idea. I then talked to Tee Mac who was then
President of PMAN and he too liked the idea. Then in 2008 I went to the
then Minister of Culture and Tourism, Adetokunbo Kayode, and the
Ministry gave me approval for supporting African Music and Culture.

“I then went into
collaboration with CBAAC and we did a promotional mini-documentary for
the Nigeria-Ghana Music Festival with the theme, ‘A Bit of Yesterday,
Today and Tomorrow’ and aired it on the Music Africa programme on
Silverbird Television for nearly two years. In the promotional film, we
talked about the Beats of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow including
Highlife, Juju, Afrobeat, Fuji, Kpalogo, Adowa (both from Ghana) and
others. We have done enough publicity and we believe this is the right
time to do the Nigeria-Ghana Music Festival because of Nigeria’s 50th
Anniversary and Kwame Nkrumah’s centenary. The theme of the Festival is
Integration and Development because Nigeria and Ghana are like
twin-sister countries!

“We are looking at 10 musicians, four from Ghana and six from
Nigeria. We are definitely planning on having great musicians from
Nigeria and Ghana. Already, some state governors are part of the
sponsorship we have received. We plan on using the Lagos City Hall and
more details will be available as we embark on the final advertising
and awareness push very soon,” Brimah concludes.