Hear him:
“If Sikiru Ayinde Barrister, AKA Sikiru Ololade Ayinde Balogun, had been born in this day and age of music streaming, I struggle to find an artiste that would have been his peer. The man was just too gifted. If he had existed in this aeon, he would have been the biggest Afrobeat star on the planet (Fuji would be considered Afrobeat by the rest of the world. Only Nigerians would understand the nuanced distinction between Afrobeat and Fuji).
“Fela Kuti was a musical genius and deservedly got his flowers in life and in death. This isn’t to undermine his legacy, but if, like Fela, Barrister had done more tracks in English and pidgin, he could have been as big globally as Mr Kuti.
“Even at that, I will say that Fela is to Michael Jackson what Alhaji Agba was to Prince. For those who may find the above comparison too far off to comprehend, what I am saying is that Fela was like Professor Wole Soyinka, who got the Nobel Prize, but Sikiru Ayinde was like Achebe, not too far behind!
“You cannot listen to Fuji Garbage Series 2 and not be captivated from this quotidian realm and taken to cloud nine by the beats from his gangan talking drums, even if you do not understand a word of Lukumi Yoruba. The man channelled mystic vibrations through his beat.
“You could lose all your money in the stock market, and Barry Wonder would still be able to wipe away your sorrows with his beats and his baritone and sonorous voice.
Late Fuji maestro, Chief Dr. Sikiru Ayinde Barrister
“It was not just the sonorousness of his voice that wowed you. You also got dazzled and frazzled by his pitch switches. He could shift from a bass to a falsetto in a heartbeat.
“I laugh when I hear today’s youth attributing the origins of diss tracks to NWA or Tupac and Biggie.
“Sikiru Ayinde was dishing out diss tracks in the seventies. Please fact-check me.
“Before Tupac dissed the Notorious BIG over his wife, Faith Evans, Ayinde Barrister was dissing Kollington Ayinla over Salawa Abeni.
“The man put so much effort and dedication into his craft that he helped Fuji music cross over to a Christian audience. We urgently need people like that in today’s Nigeria.
“And he was a hot stepper! What! The man could rock some powerful moves. He invented the Garbage dance step in the early to mid-eighties.
“Like Prince, Barrister was the complete package: A singer, composer, arranger, instrumentalist, producer and dancer
“For the joy you brought to my childhood, both here in Nigeria and in far-away California, may God bless your memory, Alhaji Agba, and the family you left behind!
“May Allah, SWT, forgive his sins and grant him al-Jannah Firdaus.
“I still love you and Fuji music to the moon and back, Agbajelola, the great soldier who fought and was almost killed during the Abagana Ambush of March 31, 1968. But for God, who made you survive, we would have missed the blessing of your musical and dance mastery. ”
Bemigho Reno Omokri
Ambassador Designate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to the United Mexican States
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