Fuji music star, Alhaji Wasiu Ayinde Olasunkanmi Anifowose a.k.a K1 De Ultimate, has insisted that Fuji music was not created by his late boss and mentor, who introduced him to the genre, Alhaji Sikiru Ayinde Barrister, famously known as Mr. Fuji.
Not only that, K-1 asserts that the music was not also named after Fuji Mountain in Japan as claimed by Barrister.
He said this and much more on Tuesday, February 28, 2017, at Airport Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos at this year’s edition of the interactive session among music stakeholders, ‘Ariya Repete’ to showcase the importance of Yoruba traditional music- Fuji and Juju In propagating Yoruba culture, packaged by Goldberg Lager beer.
The wealthy musician, who turned 60 on Thursday, March 2, 2017, said it emphatically that Ayinde Barrister’s history of Fuji is completely faulty as many had practiced the genre before him.
“First, let me knock late Sikiru Ayinde Barrister’s history of Fuji. He wasn’t the one that created the genre as he claimed. And that he named it after a mountain in Japan is also not true. He’s my mentor, my boss . In fact, I started living with him since I was eight years old.
“This Ayinde Barrister and I had discussed many times before his death. Fuji was started by Lagosians and they used to call it ‘Faaji’, Fuja affliating it to Fuji as a common slang then. Also, a lot of people had also practiced the genre before Ayinde Barrister. So, he was not the creator but the turning point of Fuji. He only changed the face of Fuji, he didn’t create it. That’s contained in one of my albums, Fuji Flavour.”
Meanwhile, according to Wikipedia, when Ayinde Barrister left the army, he became a full-time musician and proceeded to start a full-fledged band of 34 percussionists and vocalists called the “Supreme Fuji Commanders”. In 1966, Ayinde Barrister released his first LP record. During the time, he usually played with his band at events around Ebutte Meta and Lagos mostly to Muslim clients. He released further records under the label African Songs Ltd before starting his own label Siky-Oluyole Records. Among the LP’s released under African songs is Bisimilahi (1977) and Ile Aiye Dun Pupo/Love In Tokyo (India Sound) (1976). By the early 1980s, Ayinde Barrister and Fuji music had become accepted by all religions in the country.
He went on to record various albums including Iwa (1982), Nigeria (1983), Fuji Garbage (1988) and New Fuji Garbage (1993) under his imprint. He had a bitter feud with another Fuji singer, Kollington Ayinla in 1982. Ayinde Barrister had a couple of successful shows in London in 1990 and 1993 performing what later became known as the Fuji Garbage sound.
-with additional reports from Encomium
