‘Don Jazzy betrayed me’ – D'banj Speaks at last!
The perception is that you’ve
become arrogant, unreachable, proud. You’re not the D’banj we used to
know; not the D’banj I used to know – and most people in the media will
say this is true
Obviously people will say stuff – but
this is me. I can’t keep up with everyone, no matter how much I try.
But I understand where I’m coming from. I cant forget my roots – all the
interviews I had yesterday, I was ‘bigging up’ DJ Abass, he gave me my
first show in London. You saw me giving Jazzy props in my interview
earlier. That’s me. If I was arrogant I wouldn’t have been the one even
chasing Jazzy around since he told me last July that he wanted to
scatter Mohits. Last time I saw him
was on February 19 at Irving Plaza. He didn’t support the show, and he only came on stage when SID and Wande were performing. I wanted peace.
And even my mom, who had supported us
from beginning, who gave us the house we stayed in (in Michael Otedola
estate, Lagos), the Previa bus we used and paid for Tongolo video, spoke to his parents last December; ‘this is what your son said o’. I remember my mom saying to me, ‘if you guys have been together all these years, and no wahala, then if you need to part, I hope there’ll be no wahala.’
She was very particular about that. I had enough proof to have come out
and speak; this thing has been on for a long time. But I don’t want to cause any wahala. I don’t want to spoil
anything. I don’t want trouble. Right now, I just want to be able to
move on and do my business.’
‘The signing (away of my shares in
Mohits) was already being discussed before April 16. If I kept quiet
from January till now, what would it benefit me to leak anything?
Remember all the stuff about my password and all? We know where that was
from, I really wouldn’t want to think it was from him, my brother, but
it could be from anywhere, but I don’t want to call anyone’s name’
But were the emails forged?
Everything in those emails were facts.
And I don’t even think the mails favoured me in any way. It’s not the
exact mails that were sent and signed, but there were elements of truth
in the mails that were published.’
Why did you tell Ebony you own Mohits?
I never wanted to have any interview. It
was on the eve of my US show. I was told I should do the interview,
because they’re very troublesome. I had to do the interview for the sake
of my show the next day. I was guaranteed that there’d be no politics
questions. I had not been in the country. And I had been under
pressure. Sadly, when that happened and I was being attacked in the
media, none of my guys came out to support me.
Looking at all this, what are your regrets?
The truth is that if nothing went wrong,
you’d have still heard all this good news and Mohits would take the
glory, I didn’t come out in eight years to say anything. Everyone made
their contributions. There were no issues, as long as it worked. My
mistake was thinking that we were one. People don’t question their
brothers and sisters.
How do you feel about Wande Coal and Dr. SID taking sides with Jazzy?
I won’t be too quick to judge Wande Coal.
I hear it was Jazzy that tweeted those Wande tweets.
I don’t know how true that is, but I know he had our social media
accounts. As at a month ago, I couldn’t access any of my accounts.
My password was changed on Twitter and Facebook.
Then Universal intervened. I’m about to be verified on Twitter now. I’m
not really a social media person, so it was Don Jazzy and some of our
other guys that were running it. Wande himself knows the truth. He
cannot talk to me like that. The whole Mohits knew who ran the label
businesswise. They knew who to come to when they needed to get money
out, after we recorded the album. Who knows the factory where Dansa was
made? But you will know the marketing manager. The car he’s driving, I
bought him a brand new Prado from Phyllis and Moss after he crashed the
car he won from Hiphop World awards. I bought six Range Rovers last
year. I bought D’Prince an LR 3 last year, he crashed it, then I bought
him a Range, and it’s true that I bought two Bentleys. Because of Jazzy.
But after July last year, after the issue with Jazzy, I bought myself
the Aston Martin.
You bought that? I thought that was a gift?
I bought it.
How were you able to fund all that?
In the last nine years, there are a few
people and corporate bodies that God has helped me build relationships
with, either individuals or banks, or even corporates that are involved
in the growth of the industry. I’ve enjoyed their support, and even now
that we’re going global, we’re pooling the funds together from all these
places.
Could you possibly be Nigeria’s richest pop star? A billionaire?
Vanity upon vanity. Money is material.
In terms of what we’re doing, you’ll call me a Trillionaire, because
this vision is too big for only me. With the help of the industry, the
government, people like you Ayeni, we will not only be billionaires, but
trillionaires, and not just me, but every little kid that has same
talent like Beyonce, or Nicki Minaj. And with the standard of the UMG
worldwide, we can pass people out from our own Universal Music Group
Africa, Universal Def Jam Africa, and everyone should jump on this ship
with us. It’s not the Titanic.
There’s been a lot of confusion – what label exactly are you signed on?
My album comes out under my label/GOOD
Music/Island Def Jam. I’m funding the D’banj album, in America, through
GOOD Music/Island Def Jam. GOOD Music is Kanye West who is co-executive
producing with me. The deal comprises of Island Def Jam, in US.
But in UK, it is under Mercury.
My first single will be released in Europe on May 14. My work will be
released in Africa through Universal/Def Jam. We don’t have these
structures in Africa, and they’ve seen how much money they’ve lost.
They’ve seen what I’ve done with Mohits. I made my pitch to them; I’ve
made them realize how much they were losing in the African region. Over
150m Nigerians, over 800m Africans. 2% of that is 8.5m. They were not
making anything except from S.A, which has been the US of Africa. So we
will be launching this label in Ghana, in partnership with Vodafone,
launching in Nigeria in partnership with MTN. Def Jam Africa will be up
soon; Kenya, SA, and North Africa will follow.
Why are you risking all this? What if you burn your fingers and lose everything you’ve worked for?
Lose out? Well, I am happy I even have
something to risk. To whom much is given, much is expected. Look at
Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Jay Z, Kanye West, these people take it to the
max, take it to where they believe that they can push it to. In the
first instance, coming back to Nigeria with Jazzy was because I was a
risk taker. And I wouldn’t say I’m throwing everything away. I would say
I’m putting everything back in, in order to rip into the future. I get a
broadcast from Tonye Cole everyday. He says when you tell people this
your vision, know that it’s not for you alone – it’s for everyone. It’s
like what Fela did. If what I’m doing doesn’t work, but sows that seed
that will germinate in three, five years, it means my name will be
written in gold.
Some people have tried this before you, unsuccessfully. Do you have doubts and fears sometimes?
My last album was in July 2008 – no
album in four years and I know what I still command in those four years.
The momentum for me to be able to do this is because I see how much it
took me, I saw the benefit, it’s God, and the favour of the
relationships we’ve built. Plus, I don’t take no for an answer, I don’t
take negativity. It will work in Jesus’ name. If not, I wouldn’t have
landed in the UK and hear Oliver Twist on the radio. Nor would I be in
the mainstream media with them saying I’m pioneering afrobeats. I said
to them ‘Oh hell no, that’s Fela’s music. Fela is the legend.’ So I pray
to God – I beg my fans, it‘ll be good to do half a million downloads.
It’s possible, it’s a different market. Platinum in UK is 300,000. I
believe with the support of my people in Redding, Coventry, Dusting,
Hackney, Thamesmead, Abbeywood, we can do it.’
