Hip-hop is not for decent people -Remi Aluko, Igwe Fuji

Remi Aluko aka Igwe Fuji

Remi Aluko is a highly rated fuji musician. And in this interview by OSEYIZA OOGBODO BLOG, he

says his ambition is to become a genuine international star.

People see fuji as music for thugs, riff-raffs and suchlike. How do you feel about that?

Let me tell you the truth. Fuji music has really been brought up by the riff-raffs and thugs and we can never, never run away from them. Even hip-hop is not for a decent person, if you want to say the truth. The only thing we need to do with the music we sing is to sing songs to make them change the way they behave and from bad to good because we too, before we grew up, our forefathers have been singing this fuji, you know, it’s from the gbas-gbos and we can never, never run away from them so the only thing we just need to do is to just let them know that fuji has already changed. It’s not still the way they think it was before.

Why did you choose fuji when there’s juju, highlife and others?

I didn’t choose it. It chose me, because my father was also a musician who sang it during the time of were. And there was a time he had a show on our street, I was very young then, and he took me along with him. And every time he had a show around our area then, because they loved him so much, he liked to take me along with him because I’m the only son from him then before I have another brother now.

How easy was it when you decided to take it as a profession?

I can’t say it was easy and that it wasn’t easy. That’s part of the challenges we have in life. And if you want to be somebody in this world, you must have challenges. I came across a lot of challenges but there’s no big deal in that.

What was your most difficult challenge?

I can’t say my most difficult challenge because I don’t know what will happen next. But in the past, I can say I had lots. The most difficult was there was nobody to help you. You always have to struggle for yourself. Like my band boys working with me, we grew up together, started this game together, struggled together, and I thank God today they are still with me and we are doing great now in this business. The challenges then are that someone will call you, come and perform for me and there’s no money and you must, not that they forced you, but you too want to have a name. And during that period, we also have armed robberies going on and we that we don’t have anybody that can support us and we want to make money, when we are packing our instruments from one joint to another, they will say we are armed robbers, they are blah blah blah, but it’s all stories today, so we give the glory to God.

So what is different about you?

The difference about me is that I sing hip-hop fuji.

Between you and Pasuma, who started hip-hop fuji?

Pasuma is my bros, he’s my master, he’s my chairman, we give the kudos to him, he started before us, so we can’t say we’re the one, he’s the first and the master.

What have you achieved as a fuji musician?

Hmn, I achieve fame a little bit but not up to what I want, because I’m still upcoming like I said earlier. My fame is just in this Nigeria alone, to me, and I still need more, more fame.

But you’ve been performing outside the country?

I have, but it’s only the Yoruba community out there that asks us to come. What I want is not like that. What I want is to perform for the white people that they even don’t know what I’m singing and they are feeling me. There’s a video clip I saw of Barrister at a carnival in Canada and the white people didn’t know what he was singing but they were feeling him and shouting. That’s what I call a celebrity, to me, not from one junction to one junction. That is not a star. You are still upcoming.

You are popularly known as Igwe Fuji. Who gave you the title?

Yeah … there was a lady I was dating then … that was way back years ago … and her father is a king and she was the daughter he loves so much and he knew I was the one dating her then, he now said ah, you are the man dating my daughter and I love her so much. He now gave me the title. He said from today on, you are now an igwe, you are a king. And my father, he came from the royal family too, which I didn’t know then. Since then, when they were now calling me igwe, my father now told me you don’t know that you are a king true-true, so that’s how the igwe came about.

But why igwe? Why not oba, since you are a Yoruba man?

I prefer that igwe, because you know all these our Yoruba people, the way we behave sometimes. You know before anybody becomes the king of whatever, I’ve been bearing that name, but I don’t like anything like argument, I hate quarrelling so I prefer igwe to oba.

So you are saying that assuming it was oba, your colleagues will take it up with you?

Well, they may take it up and they might not. It depends on how they feel, but I wouldn’t care if they do or not. But I just prefer that igwe, because I’m a fuji musician, and you know we fuji musicians, we are from Yorubas so we don’t have any Ibo fans, so I prefer to bear that igwe to gain more fans.

And is that strategy working for you, is it helping you?

Yeah, it’s helping me so much, because I’ve gone to perform in Asaba and Port Harcourt. You know we have some Ibos in Port Harcourt and Delta, so it’s helping me really.