Thursday, May 21, 2009

Tunde Kelani Thumbs Up One Thousand Miles




Frontline and multiple award-winning cinematographer, Tunde Kelani, has described a yet to be released movie, One Thousand Miles (Egberun Maili) as one of the flicks that will take the Nigerian movie industry to the promised land.

Speaking on the movie, which parades movie stars like Bukky Ajayi, Bayo Bankole and Ayo Mogaji, TK, as the veteran producer cum director is fondly called, said that having watched the preview of One Thousand Miles, he was impressed that the future of Nollywood is bright.

"Although you cannot find a perfect production anywhere in the world, this is not a bad movie. Another aspect of the film is the fact that the director has his own style, which of course is impressive.

"If every other movie can at least be of this standard, I can assure you that our movie industry would have been bigger than this," Kelani noted.

Directed by upwardly mobile Dotun Taylor, (Aroba), One Thousand Miles features Alhaji Ahmed Abubakar and Funmi Fiberesima as lead characters.

Defending his decision to use upcoming artistes as lead characters in the movie, Dotun, who also produced the movie in conjunction with African Urban Cinemas, said the idea is borne out of his creativity.

"Most of the stars we know are like dry clays that cannot be remoulded. Most of them are stereotyped. But with these fresh clay (referring to the upcoming artistes), I can creatively mould anything that suits my imagination," he said.

It was gathered that the multi-million naira rated flick will be premiered in Nigeria and other parts of the globe soon...Nigeria Films

Actress Omoni Oboli Rejects N90Million; Shuns Nude Role In Hollywood



The deal was highly sumptuous and tempting. A whopping $500,000 for a lead role in a high budget movie that will cost the producer $40 million in America’s Hollywood.

But she rejected the offer. Sultry Nollywood actress, Omoni Oboli, stunned many when the news broke recently in Los Angeles, USA, that she has rejected a plum offer to play a lead role in a movie that would have launched her into international stardom.

It was gathered that beautiful Omoni was approached by an American producer doing a movie about the saga of women in Africa. She was said to have been offered the lead role with a fee of $500,000. In her script were three completely nude scenes where Omoni would be expected to play a character having sex with three different men.

According to the reports, Omoni, who is married and has three kids, turned down the script and spurned the princely $500,000 (N90 million) offer. She said she would only take the role if the three nude scenes are removed or modified by the American producer.

But the producer, who is not ready to alter his script, refused and Omoni reportedly turned her back on the steamy role, and walked away. The deal would have shot her straight to a multi-millionaire status and made her the highest paid actress in the history of Nollywood.

When contacted on phone, the actress said that it was embarrassing that the outside world still thinks that with enough pay, you could just bend down and do any trash. "I made it known to him (the Producer) that in my culture, you are only subject to your husband.

I truly love my husband and he does too," Omoni said. Sounding a note of warning, she said, "I don’t believe actresses in Nigeria have gone so low to get this kind of pay, but there are some who believe that acting nude can help them get a house in VGC or Lekki; they should, however, think twice."

It was gathered that reactions have trailed her rejection of the role. Many considered the rejection strange given the global economic situation and considering that some Nollywood actresses will stop at nothing to make that kind of money or star in a Hollywood movie.

Omoni is one of Nollywood’s newest acting divas. The graduate of Foreign Languages from the University of Benin has featured in many top Nollywood flicks. She also featured in Kunle Afolayan’s latest movie, The Figurine.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Ruggedman seal nokia deal.....gets award named after him in UI




Dont be surprised when you buy the Nokia 5800 xpress music phone and see Nigerias award winning and pacesetting rapper Ruggedmans song titled "Club Rugged" as one of the ring tones.The song is taken off his 2008 Hip Hop World Awards Best Rap Album titled Ruggedy Baba.


Ruggedman was paid in Dollars n Carl Racca of Orangotang was the one who helped in brokering the deal.Apart from the ring tone deal,it also involves a tour of a couple of european countries to be confirmed later
Just another feather to his cap as a great artist.This is coming just after Ruggedy Baba came off hosting one of Nigerias biggest reality music tv show Star Quest 2009 powered by NB Plc and went ahead to compere gsm giant,MTNs 2009 Project Fame Official Media launch and is currently on tour with NB Plc on Star Trek 2009.

Ruggedman is about to shoot another video with Dede Oji who was behind the sensational Bangin video which is getting heavy rotation on tv stations nationwide n in Europe and the internet.
University of Ibadan,come 28th of May will be hosting its first ever students award night tagged "THE UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN STUDENTS AWARDS".

It is designed to encourage students in their academic persuits and extra curricular activities and to discourage social vices on campus.

There are different categories in this award but the most striking one is The Ugochukwu Stephens Ruggedman award for Most Talented Student.This is the first time in Nigeria where an award will be named after an artist.Ruggedman has always been a pace setter and here it is happening again.

Ruggedman who himself has won numerous awards as an a list Nigerian artist is honoured and proud to have an award named after him and has vowed to be present at the event to show his appreciation and support--Seun Oloketuyi

Confessions of Felix Lebarty !


“Having children here and there is not a good way to go. I have done it in the past and it’s not a good way of life. Polygamy is the behaviour of the negatives. It’s not godly. I got myself involved with seven women. I tell you, it was a demonic experience. It was God that removed me from that problem. I do not wish any young man to undergo what I have gone through. And if you tend to bite more than you can chew, you can lose control.”
— Felix Lebarty



Felix Lebarty, remember him? He is that crazy, lover-Boy “old school” singer-turned-pastor, who rocked the Nigerian music industry in the 80s.

‘Lover Boy’, as he was fondly called then, was the darling of many women. According to the Benin, Edo State born star, he recorded new songs whenever he fell in love with a lady. Songs like ‘’Ifeoma’’ and ‘’Chichi’’ were testimonies to the rampaging lifestyle of the then Nigeria’s king of pop music.

Felix lived a jet-age life, always on the fast lane with expensive cars, and beautiful women at his beck and calls. And when the going got tough, he epitomised Billy Ocean’s song (When the going gets tough, the tough get going). And he got going. He relocated to the United States, where he allegedly became a cab driver.
This is his story.

Yesterday

Yesterday, l had good music. Yes, good music because yesterday was entertainment. Today, it’s kingdom light; spiritually oriented. You know every man has God in him. When he wants to reconcile himself to you, He is the only one who can do it.

But I can only share my experience with you. I remembered when I came back from the United States, I realized that what we were doing in our family- worshipping idols did not glorify God’s work.

At that point, I was no longer comfortable with the practice. I started meditating on our relationship with our Maker. So, when I came back to the country, I wanted to be religious. I thought about Christianity and Islam. But the only thing that took me away from Christianity then was the absence of love, tolerance, unity and other ingredients of Christianity. I saw pride among Christians as at that time.

So, I was judging Christians based on what I perceived from the outside. That was why I opted to become a Muslim in the first place. Because from the outset, each time I beheld Muslims, they were always bound by the ties of their religion.

They believe that they are brothers in one ‘God’ and one religion. And that’s exactly what religion is all about. But to Christians, it’s every man to his own destiny. At that point, I had no choice than to embrace Islam. Islam is a good religion.

I have never felt the kind of love and sense of belonging that the religion bestowed upon me in my whole life. What I’m trying to say here is: Islam was so beautiful to me. That was why I embraced the religion. In my six and half years sojourn as a Muslim, I went to Mecca, and familiarised myself with the rudiments of Islam. In fact, I still enjoy Islam till date.

But when Christ appeared to me, it was through a trance. I beheld a tarred road and I saw a ‘spirit-being’ pointing at me, and saying, ‘You are going to receive a divine revelation. When I woke up from that dream, I was terrified.

My love for reading Koran immediately disappeared. And I found myself in search of The Bible. I prayed continuously till the following day when I approached a man of God who lived within the neighbourhood. He was amazed when he saw me with The Bible. That was it till today. I have never gone back to Islam again. The Holy Spirit now took possession of me and taught me everything I needed to know about the kingdom of God.

I’m like the Saul of The Bible, later renamed Paul, who was persecuting the Children of God, but who was later arrested by Jesus Christ to become the champion of the gospel of salvation. I never liked Christians. But I love Muslims very much because of the spirit of oneness and love that they share together. Today, the things responsible for my inability to love and cherish Christians then, I now know.

I thought I knew everything. But I did not know I knew nothing about His ways. As a human being, when you work against the will of God, you definitely will become an obstacle to yourself. Jesus Christ instructed us not to judge anyone for judgment belongs to him. But I didn’t take note of that instruction. I was judging Christians from the outside based on my knowledge and the happenings amongst Christians. I received Christ about eight years ago. And my ministry started shortly after two years. I went to the Bible school and I left about two years ago.

My music

When I was playing my music in those days, it was God that was in control. All the melodies that I was using in those days came from God. But the difference was that those messages were not messages that came from the heart.

They were mainly commercial orientated messages: what people wanted to hear from me. That’s the difference between now and yesterday. Now, what is coming out of me are God’s words. It’s eternal, and is bound to outlive humanity.

Yes, when things got tough, I travelled to the United States where three of my children are presently residing. They are also into music. My first son plays the keyboard. The same thing is applicable to the second son, while the third son plays the drums. I didn’t influence my children to go into music. It’s a matter of choice and talent.

An irresistible lover boy

When I was the Felix Leberty that you used to know in those days, I was a complete mad man. I didn’t know what I was doing. And all those women that I dated at that time endangered their own lives. Because they did not enjoy any material thing from me.

All they got from me then was heartbreak and abandonment. You cannot go out with a man who does not know God and benefit anything from him. So, practically then it was a life of lies. I didn’t even know what happened to those women, because they had to run for their own lives. They left me the way they came to me. They didn’t get what they wanted from me.

How can a lie reveal anything to you? A lie is blank and it’s darkness. And that’s what I represented in those days. The Felix Leberty of those days was the glory of God that squeezed himself into darkness. When you are in Christ, that’s when a lot of women, men, demons and atrocities come knocking on your door. Today, I see women as my sisters. I have a lot of respect for them now than before. My past was characterised with a life of lies. Sometimes, I wished it never existed.

For me, the Felix Leberty of yesteryears is spiritually dead and gone. What you are seeing today is the transformation of the light of God in me.

The Abacha Story

Till today, I still believe in the late Gen. Sani Abacha’s family. I hold on to what my spirit confirms to be right. Even in the South here, somebody like T.B. Joshua is not loved by many Christians. But suddenly, I have started developing a lot of interest in him, following the fact that a lot of bad things have been said against his ministry. And because people don’t like Joshua, I have started developing interest in loving him.

I believe that T.B. Joshua is a nice person. I also believe that he might have had a wrong beginning. But that does not give anybody the right to judge him. The Biblical instructions are simple: love one another and never judge anyone.
Relationship with Tabansi

Tabansi is my father, right from the outset. He was the first man that God used to give me the breakthrough in life. He took me to England, where I recorded my first album. I came into stardom through Tabansi. God has also used him to provide me with a place to start off my ministry in Lagos.

My relationship with him is very cordial. That’s the kind of message I wish to pass on to the younger artistes: that when you are following a particular route, don’t venture to destroy it. Because if you dare destroy the route, you probably have succeeded in destroying your own tomorrow.

Mothers’ Path

My mother was a Princess of Oloku and the Ogun deities. Like I said earlier, if anybody had preached to me concerning accepting Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Saviour, I wouldn’t have listened to that person. Then, I was wholly committed to my mother’s magical powers.

In fact, anywhere I was billed to travel then, I would first and foremost seek my mother’s protection; bathe with that dirty water before commencing my journey. But when I received Christ into my life, I confronted my mother one day, to ascertain whether she was my God.

Her answer was to the contrary. But you see, when you have a heart of truth, the Lord will surely find you out. As far as I’m concerned, all those idols in my mother’s domain had died physically and spiritually. From the day my mother perceived I was called, there was a kind of disagreement between two of us. We happened to be two different people.

But do you know what! My mother died last week. And she died disappointing those deities. She died in the Lord. She died instructing us to learn to love one another.

The deities have forever been cancelled in our family, even before my mother passed on, even though I believed so much in my mother’s black powers then. I believed that the reason I was doing well in my musical career then was because my mother was strongly behind me. I was not afraid of any eventuality. But I was proved wrongly thereafter.

My Children

I have so many children I cannot be proud of. But I still love them in spite of the circumstances surrounding their births. Yet, I do not like the way and manner through which I brought them into this world. It was not the right path that I followed.

I should not have been the only young man at my age who enjoyed having children here and there. I want to use this medium however to warn every young man that if you do not have the necessary means to cater for a woman and her problems, please don’t have anything to do with her sexually.

For my children, I don’t need to disown them because they are my blood. But their mothers? I cannot claim to have any right over their lives. It was the devil’s handwork.

They thought they loved me. But they never did. Even though I have parted ways with all of them, somehow, some of them are still very happy with me. Right now, I have only one wife, and she bears my name, Helen Lebarty.

There are three people in my life that I cannot toy with: my late mother, Tabansi and Chris Okotie. One way or the other, these three people affected my life...Vanguard News Paper

Lord Of Ajasa Gets Baby Boy




Rap music star, Olusegun Osaniyi, popularly known as Lord of Ajasa, is currently in a joyous mood as his wife, Funmilayo, was delivered of a baby boy, last Saturday.

It was gathered that the wife was delivered of the bouncing baby boy on Saturday morning, at a private hospital in Ikorodu, on the outskirts of Lagos state. Speaking this morning, the highly excited singer said the birth of the child is apparently the best thing that has happened to him in life. “I’m very happy and I thank God for this magnificent gift. This is a natural award that is bigger than what any human being can give.

“I did not win anything at the Hip Hop World Awards held in Abuja, even though I thought I would, but on that day, God blessed me with a greater award,” Ajasa said. The Fenu So crooner tied the nuptial knot on a low-key level at the Ikeja Marriage Registry, in March, this year. The couple met in 1999 and decided to walk down the aisle 10 years later. Ajasa’s wife, who was pregnant during the secret wedding, is a final-year student of the Lagos State University (LASU), Ojo.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Ali Baba again in He, Them and I


PLANS are in top gear for a comedy and music show that will shake the entertainment industry and the country tagged Ali Baba Again in “He, Them and I” .The show according to its producer, young and creative Bunmi Davies , will be a reference point in the showbiz industry in the country.

Davies further revealed that the He stands for the rave of the moment in the Music industry, D’ Banj and the them stands for Ali”s lieutenants in the comedy zone and in the music industry –these include Julius Agwu, Okey Bakasi , Basket Mouth, 9ice, Gbenga Adeyinka, Yibo Koko, among others. While the I literarily stands for the king of comedy himself, Ali Baba.

In the words of Olujuwon B.P, the publicist for the show, Ali Baba Again in “He,Them and I “ will be different and unique from every other comedy show in the country because for a very long time Ali Baba has not done a solo show, the last time he did one was in the year 2005, tagged, Share Offer, which was a success, for years he was busy planning , his fans can be rest assured that they would get nothing but the best .

The show is slated for the prestigious Expo Hall, Oceanview, Victoria Island, Lagos, on friday12 and Saturday, June 13, 2009. When asked why the show will last for two days, Bunmi Davies said every other comedians do show for just a day and a day will not be enough for the King, this is part of what makes the show greater than other shows, coupled with the fact that there are lots of artistes that will perform, so one day is not enough and since the first day is a public holiday, we cant afford to deny Nigerians the opportunity to catch funs,” he concluded.

Ali Baba started off several years ago as a stand up comedian and over the years he has brought glamour to stand up comedy in the country and this has led to discovery of many talents, he is regarded as the King of comedy , because of his contribution which cannot be over-emphasized. “As at the last count several corporate organizations are showing interest to be part of the show,” said Bunmi.

Lagbaja’s New Albums Hit The Streets!




THE much-anticipated two simultaneous albums from Africano-musician, Lagbaja are now ready for release.

Titled ‘ Paradise ’ and ‘Sharp Sharp’, the albums were released into the Nigerian market on Monday, May 4, 2009.

As is characteristic of Lagbaja, all tracks on both albums have various slants and characters, but the common denominator remains the traditional African drums. Lagbaja’s saxophones also feature prominently on the new recordings; and it’s the first time since ‘Cest Un African Thing’ (1996) that the saxophone is taking such prominence on Lagbaja’s studio recordings.

Listeners will hear Lagbaja doing remarkable sax solos on ‘Paradise’ and ‘Sharp Sharp’ – songs like “I Rho Whe”, ‘Bling Bling Panda’ and “Sobolation” and have the saxophone blazing while tracks like ‘Paradise’ and ‘Sharp Sharp’ actually have the saxophone in the intro section of the songs dueting with the lead vocals.

The traditional African drums- the mainframe of the Africano-genre- is also conspicuously present throughout both albums. And, interestingly, most of the songs were recorded live. Lagbaja is an advocate of live music; believing musicians should play their instruments as opposed to the recently prevalent practice of completely ceding music production to the computer.

The albums were recorded in Lagos at Motherlan’ Studios; and in the USA at Bennett