for videos and performances but now, he would rather hire professionals to do his bidding; including songwriting – one of the bones of contention that played a part in the dissolution of the P-Square group.
‘ I’ m not 100 % a good song writer but it does not disqualify me as a musician. Michael Jackson, Usher Beyonce; people write for them.’
In all truth, Whatever Peter lacks in the songwriting department, he makes up for it in quite a number of ways especially in other music arts. He plays almost every music instrument, he is a walking dance machine and he used to be a professional footballer. When I asked what part of his body he would most likely insure, I already knew what the answer would be. His legs.
He joked:‘ Imagine a Mr. P show and Mr. P comes on stage limping … After the show they will tell him to refund the money.’
In this new era of Nigerian music, Mr P is quite impressed with Tekno, Wizkid, Davido and Runtown especially because of how they remind him of P-square, 2face, 9ice and Styl Plus back in the day. As for the music industry in general, he agrees that albeit slow, there is positive progression.
‘ We have done well so far but some things are still lacking. It may get better but so far we have done really well. A few of us started off selling albums in Nigeria but now, some people even throw their songs for free.“ Just download make I blow.” As long as that is still existing we still have a long way to go. An upcoming American will stick to his rights saying you must download it from here o. They won’ t give you for free. I pray the change will come. We are between 35-40 percent. Not bad but we will get there.’ what Peter loved to waste money on.
‘ Party! Chilling in my house. Instead make I waste the money for club, make una come here. There’ s never a dull moment, anybody that knows me know. I still go clubbing o but I still love the fact that I can stay in my house. Even if I get drunk at least I’ m in my house and not outside.
For new life to occur, something must give. P-Square will forever have a place in the hearts of music loving Nigerians but in a world where even Siamese twins sue themselves for the most trivial of things, this separation may have been written in the stars.
For Mr P, this individual journey is deeper than trying to outdo another. This was mostly about the freedom to explore and channel his creativity in all the ways he had always wanted to.
Of course there are quite a number of things to prove especially as he has been confined to a particular profile all through his career and he is well within his rights to change whatever notion that did not sit well with him.
He said to me;‘ There are a lot of things that people don’ t really know about me but I think time will tell. All they just believe is that I dance but what happens when you realize that I know how to sing? It will come. let’ s wait for it.’
Photography by Image Faculty Styling by Peter Okoye
By far the most intense interview I had conducted, there was still some time to ask questions like