Will Olu Maintain too swallow his pride … and return to Puffy Tee?

Almost imperceptibly, music artists who blew big-time after working with certain producers and then ditched those producers have started returning to them as virtually all of them, except for Timaya, suffered a decline in their careers after ditching the producers who made them.

The names of artists who ditched their producers is not a secret. Some of the most popular among them are 9ice, Timaya, AY.com and Iyanya.

If you’re familiar with the four artists mentioned above, you’ll know that all four of them became successful only because they each worked with a producer who understood them and was thereby able to produce their music successfully.

In the case of Timaya, he was discovered in Port Harcourt by the acclaimed K-Solo who brought him to Lagos and accommodated him in his studio where he recorded Timaya’s debut album, True Story, which became very successful.

But how did Timaya pay him back after a while. Simple answer. He walked away from K-Solo without whom he might never have been successful and they even had a public war of words at one time.

Timaya has however been luckier than 9ice, Iyanya and AY.com because after leaving K-Solo, he experienced a little lull before he started recording smash hits again with Young D.

Unlike Timaya, 9ice hasn’t done well since he left ID Cabasa, the producer who unarguably played the biggest role in 9ice’s phenomenal success. All the songs he has done without Cabasa haven’t really lived up to what was expected of them.

The same thing with Iyanya. After he won the maiden edition of Project Fame West Africa and became a national celebrity thereby, much was expected of him. Surprisingly, recording success evaded him for five years until he recorded with an unknown producer, D’Tunes, and the songs they did became monster hits.

And after he became really successful, he calmly packed his bags from D’Tunes’ life to other producers who tried their best for him, but they were just not like D’Tunes.

Of the four, AY.com is the one who has had the least success. When he suddenly became recognized with his smash hit, Pass Me Ur Love, produced by and featuring Terry G, a school of thought opined that his success was just a fluke, that he couldn’t sing and that it was Terry G’s proficiency as a producer that made Pass Me Ur Love become the success it did.

Despite people feeling that way, and AY.com probably knowing in his heart of hearts that the song only turned out well because of Terry G, he elected to stop working with Terry because of preventable reasons.

And with his walk away from Terry, so also did his career nosedive.

Now, the news is openly everywhere that all these artists have retraced their steps. Timaya is once again working with K-Solo, 9ice with Cabasa, AY.com with Terry and Iyanya with D’Tunes.

There is however one artist whom everybody is waiting to hear the news that he’s back with the producer who made his biggest hit.

The artist is none other than Yahoozee singer, Olu Maintain, and the producer in question is Puffy Tee. Puffy and Olu worked together at a time when Olu was seriously on the decline after the breakup of his group, Maintain.

Broke and unsure of what the future held for him musically, Puffy came to his aid, helping him out financially and eventually rendering him the best possible help ever, the recording of a song, Yahoozee, that became immensely successful.

But like Iyanya, AY.com, Timaya and 9ice, Olu also ditched Puffy and his career has gone downhill since then. Though he has been trying his best to make a comeback by shooting big budget music videos outside the country, music lovers are not really feeling him.

And with his colleagues returning to their producers to save their careers, maybe it just might be wise for Olu to do same too fast.