With the impending break up of Nigerian pop duo, Psquare, and the buffet of drama drowning what was until recently Africa’s most beloved pop group, NET’s Dayo Showemimo holds a phone conversation with the man who held them by the hand, eventually becoming their first-ever manager after they won a Benson & Hedges talent hunt in 2001.
Howie T, now a record label and experiential marketing executive, was Psquare’s manager from 2001 to 2005, when their brother Jude Okoye, a former musician himself, took over as the band’s manager.
Here’s what Howie T told Nigerian Entertainment Today in 8 quick points.
1. ‘Well, the guys in question are adults, married with children, so I think we should respect their opinion. And the truth is, I believe they know what they are doing’.
2. ‘When I saw Peter’s Tweets, I called him and even went to see him to talk to him about it. He said Jude is the problem that he doesn’t have any issue with Paul’.
3. ‘He told me that in a normal setting, a manager is supposed to be their employee and not the other way round, but Jude always uses his influence as their elder brother to boss over them. He also said managers collect between 15 – 25 % of an artiste’s income but in their case they share everything equally and he’s not happy with that sharing formula’.
4. ‘In my opinion I think Peter is just trying to prove a valid point. He told me that he turned down a show Jude got them in Finland and when they called them for the Dubai show, he told the organisers what it takes to get Peter and Paul, what it takes to get Peter or Paul alone’.
5. ‘Secondly, things like this messes up an artiste’s creativity, Peter is a composer, dancer and singer, when they sit down to vote on songs that’ll make their album, Paul and Jude vote for more of Paul’s songs than Peter’s and these are the things that pisses him off’.
6. ‘It has gone beyond just beef now, there’s a lot of ego at play’.
7. ‘In my opinion, for peace to reign, why can’t Jude just leave them alone, Peter has told me that if they change Jude today, there’ll be Psquare tomorrow and sadly the only person that can talk to them is their mother and she’s dead’.
8. ‘Well, 20 children cannot play together for 20 years’.
Source: The NET
