I’m not inclined to join the filthy debate on Fuji supremacy. The controversy has never come to a sensible close and may never do. Not even when ego has crept in, and every Fuji artist is now boasting some level of financial security. Good thing, actually!
But whichever way anyone chooses to interpret the unceasing muscle-flexing and the curious resolve to denigrate some elders in their industry, the place of K1 remains immutable and already established. We must acknowledge it because he earned it. It’s not a function of choice.
K1’s style of Fuji is a whole lot rolled into one. Classical, commercial, political, educational, danceable, and entertaining fuji. He not only understands the trade, but he has broken into the business side of it. All of these came after he had done multiple surgeries to Fuji with a view to simplifying it.
But here is the clincher. It’s also an abiding truth. K1 is the only one who sings Fuji today that directly learned under the man everyone generally agreed founded Fuji music. So, what’s the debate about?
I had a chat with one of the children of the late Ayinde Barrister some years ago and our discussion picked on this timeless rivalry, especially the history of Fuji as sometime told by K1 in one of his albums. Her response was interesting.
“K1 didn’t actually say anything out of place. Daddy confirmed the story, too. Daddy just didn’t like that K1 told the story without clearing with him. K1 didn’t misplace any fact, really. At least, that much I know,” she said, scoffing at supporters, who were warring online.
Come to think of it, if K1 wasn’t considered good enough to tell the Fuji story, then who? Besides, what could be more dignifying as a form of recognition than when K1 sang, “Ori e sha l’ere ti yi pa de”, which means Barrister was not only the founder, but the game changer in Fuji music?
Today, no one who sings Fuji has K1’s kind of contacts, connections, money, exposure, and achievements. That, too, is not also subject to debate. So, ki lo wa fa congestion ni Fuji highway?
Abeg, I get better things to do, jare.
