So to start with, I am not a hater. I do
not wish any evil on Don Jazzy or Michael Collins. If anything, I can be
categorized as an interested onlooker
when I want to be passive or an
invested businessman active in the
Nigerian music industry for the past 18
years. In addition, I am a writer. I have been
told I am a very decent writer. Or
maybe I’m living on past glory. Either
way, I had another title I was working
with. But I decided this one would
attract the eyeballs I desperately need to get the attention I so desperately
crave. Finally, I understand the workings of
PR. Hell, I handled the PR of Mo’ Hits
in 2006 when the only talent was
D’banj. Back then, Wande was a
dancer, Dr. Sid (I plead the Fifth) and
D’Prince was a model. I do not wish death on Michael Collins. I however
think the Don Jazzy brand is dead. Or should be rested. I’ll tell you why. Do you remember Don Jazzy?
Remember that Soundcity advert. I
remember the first day I met D’banj
and Don Jazzy. This must have been
either late 2004 or sometime in 2005. I
had been in the business as a journo for a few years by then so I knew
them. We had done a story on Mr.
Solek at Hip Hop World in 2003. Jazzy
had worked as the keyboardist of the
band but he had moved on to music
production working under JJC. He was very quiet; never uttered a word. You
could have been forgiven for thinking
he was mute. Back to the Soundcity advert. Don Jazzy didn’t say a word. Just whispered in D’banj’s ear while D’banj
handled his business. It was brand
new. It was refreshing. The ratings of
the newly-established Soundcity music
channel went through the roof. D’banj
and Don Jazzy became the perfect example of a match made in heaven.
Cobhams, if he could see them back
then, would have known they were
going places. So much so that Dr. Sid,
a University of Ibadan-trained dentist
and self-appointed administrator of eLDee’s Trybe Records, was happy to
abandon that project and his album
project to work under the tutelage of
these relatively unknowns. After that, the communication from the
Mo’ Hits camp was that Don Jazzy was the boss. He was being driven
around town by a university graduate
who earns an enviable salary working
in an oil company (Fifth). Jazzy didn’t
speak in public. He never granted
interviews. He asked simply that whatever you wanted to offer to him
should be offered to his ‘children’.
(Note that he had been calling his
artistes his children since the Mo’ Hits
days. Nobody questioned it then
because this is the Don we’re talking about here.) In fact, once, I was at the
crib of one of the Mo’ Hits people, and
he told me I had to leave because
Jazzy was coming. I was genuinely
curious and somewhat impressed.
Impressed because they kept the charade going even off-camera.
Curious because, well, so could it be it
wasn’t a charade after all? Remember all those award
ceremonies where someone from Mo’
Hits would win an award and spend
half the speech time praise-and-
worshipping Don Jazzy? Or when Don Jazzy himself would win an award for best production and his wards would
mount the stage to receive on his
behalf even while he was seated in the
front row in the same building. Guys,
let’s be honest, these are the images
of Don Jazzy that made him the brand he is today. Those days when he only
worked with his Mo’ Hits people and a
literal handful of associates. In the real world, a don is a crime
boss, crime lord, mob boss, kingpin,
criminal mastermind; a person in
charge of a criminal organization. He
typically has absolute or nearly
absolute control over his subordinates, is greatly feared by his subordinates
for his ruthlessness and willingness to
take lives in order to exert his
influence, and profits from the criminal
endeavours in which his organization
engages. Replace the word ‘crime’ with music and you have Don Jazzy. Mo’ Hits was an organized entity. At
the head of it all was Don Jazzy; the
Capo di tutt’i capi, the Godfather, the
boss of all bosses. Complete with his
staff. D’banj was his Underboss. Dr.
Sid, being the most educated and exposed of the lot, was the
Consigliere. The other artistes were
the Caporegimes. The management
and the other stragglers and hangers-
on were the foot soldiers. In the golden
words of Christopher Wallace, “things done changed!” Fast forward to January 1 2016. Now I
am not interested in who was right or
who was wrong. For me, the
happenings of the early morning
January 2 2016 made the Headies.
They set the tone for the year. This is entertainment dammit. Are you not
entertained?!!! If you ask me, Don Jazzy had no business speaking to Olamide. I have
seen enough Mafia movies to know
that no Don that understands his worth
would get so emotional as to entertain
the thought of passing such a
message on a public stage. That job is left to his Consigliere, in this case Dr.
Sid, who is already disliked intensely
for his supposed role in the Mo’ Hits
breakup via the leaked tape. People
would have talked. But Jazzy would
have maintained his self-respect. He opened himself to ridicule the minute
he opened his mouth on that stage. I can trace this handfalling back to
when Jazzy decided to start appearing
in songs after the bitter divorce from
D’banj. The Don Jazzy we knew and respected from a distance fell from
heaven and became human. In fact,
the Kokomaster showed his disgust
over Jazzy’s features after their falling
out. I very much doubt this would have
happened if they were still together. Not that I think they knew any better
then, but they had one script and they
kept it simple by sticking to that story. Of course, with the breakup and the
subsequent interviews granted by
D’banj, too much information was
shared in the public space that caused
irreparable damage to the carefully-
crafted Don Jazzy image. I think Don Jazzy should have moved on to the next stage. Or developed a next stage
to move to. He certainly should not
have done Loya or Konga or
Jantamanta (wtf?) as Don Jazzy.
That’s not the Don Jazzy we were introduced to. In truth, while we loved and respected Don Jazzy for his mystique, his music- making prowess and his relationship
with D’banj, there was only so much
he could achieve as a brand. However,
this new guy is fun, is funny, seems to
be humble, is extremely generous and,
as such, is an endorsement magnet getting business from an endless list
of companies. As it should be. As a
businessman, it makes every sense
for Michael Collins to be this new guy
with access to millions of advertising
dollars. But he cannot expect to eat his cake and have it. Something has to
give! In conclusion, I think that as the head
writer in this story, Mr. Collins needs
to kill the Don Jazzy character. It has made him money and fame. But
perhaps its time to quit the ‘mafia’ and
live a normal life. So, on a lighter note. What name should Don Jazzy go with now? My Guy Jazzy? That’s your round-the-
way friendly neighborhood guy.
Easygoing. No airs whatsoever. Daddy Jazzy. Re his kids. Judge Jazzy. Respected by all and
lays down the law. Yet approachable
in his manner. A friend to everybody
and a friend to nobody. Bro Jazzy. The senior brother who
opens his door to any and every. Just in case you need to praise me or
you take exception to anything in this
article, you can find me on Facebook
as Bayo Omisore and on Instagram,
Twitter and Snapchat
as@ibayoomisore.

Lalastica!!!!!!!!! Kill don jazzy

Yawns

you should have just posted something like "don jazzy is very bossy and that's not so good" instead of this long thing nah....


anyway, you kinda right tho.

vault:
you should have just posted something like "don jazzy is very bossy and that's not so good" instead of this long thing nah....


anyway, you kinda right tho.

Please summarize it for me

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful....

Daddy Jazzy may be a better alternative.

He has lost the "Don" effect the moment he decided to go completely social.

He lost some respect the moment he replied Olamide on the stage as you posited. Reekado or The Prince should have done the hatchet job.

He drained the last bit of the supposed "mafialistic" honor left, the moment he was first to proclaim the end of his rift with Olamide, with no written apologies by Olamide through the same medium he spat the venom. Olamide was still teething when Don Jazzy and his Mohit crew sold out concerts.

True to fact, every hard man is only forming. Everyone wants to be in the limelight. everyone wants to be loved. There are few people who retain the "Don" title till death.

Nice article.

Mtcheeew

myfantasies:
Please summarize it for me

don jazzy behaves like a boss towards others...... his level of superiority to his followers is overwhelming...... lobatan

Pls replace don with dumb [size=8pt][/size]