A 2013 interview by a defunct newspaper reveals the mysterious fall of the late music icon
This interview is very revealing. It exposes some of the dealings of Majek and his belief of worldly powers.
Only a few people knew the late music icon Majek Fashek better than his cousin and former bandmate Amos McRoy, last name Osifo, now pastor of Seed of Abraham International Christian Centre.
As cousins, McCoy and Majek started their music careers together and were part of the group called Jastix along with Black Rice who was the lead singer.
One of the main gigs of the band was as the in-house band of a music show ‘Music Panorama’ which aired on NTA Benin. Jastix also toured with The Mandators during this period.
When the Jastix disbanded, McRoy and Majek focused on their solo careers but also remained very close.
In an interview by Musa Jibril for the defunct Entertainment Express newspaper, McRoy gave a detailed revelation of the mysterious fall of Majek who at that time had already hit rock bottom.
Spiritism
“Prisoner of Conscience was released to instant success. Success doesn’t change a person. It brings out the real you. Till tomorrow, Majek is still the same person in terms of humility, in terms of carriage and the rest of it. His problem: he listened to wrong advices. That is the root of his current predicament. Many people think Majek’s problem is drug-related. Truth is Majek’s problem is spiritual. Majek strayed into spiritism. Once, while on stage, Majek said, “Oh, Fela is my boy. Bob Marley is my boy”. He made that statement during a Rothmans Show at Tafawa Balewa Square and Dede Mabiaku, Fela’s protégé, went berserk. It took the intervention of Eddie Lawani to calm him. Dede didn’t quite understand what Majek was talking about. He was taking it from the physical sense, whereas Majek was talking spiritual. Majek went into spiritism at a lightning speed – like jumping from kindergarten straight to the university. Without a linking bridge. He was not properly schooled. So he couldn’t keep the rules. Majek totally “crossed the line” after the release of Prisoner of Conscience. Those days, we were sharing the same duplex at Anthony Village. I would see the Guru Maharaji people come to visit him. The same Guru Maharaji we all know, just starting out at the time. The Hare Krishna people also came. I thought “oh, this guy is popular, that’s why they are coming to him for one favour or another.” I didn’t know that it was deeper than that.”
Success of Send Down the Rain
“Majek released his album in April 1988. I released mine a year after. We were under the same management. We rehearsed at the same place, using the same band as back up. One day, we were coming from rehearsal; he was driving his Peugeot 505 car. One of our backup singers, Monica Omorodion (who now lives in the US), said “Bros Amos, why is your record not making waves like Majek’s, or The Mandators, or Kimono?” Majek looked at me in the rear mirror and said, “Don’t mind Amos. He doesn’t want to ask me the road I passed to become a star. He thinks it is good record that makes someone a star”. When he made that statement, I gave him a knock from behind. “My friend shut up there! What are you doing that I am not doing?” I said. He switched to Benin language. “This is not the Majek you grew up with”, he said. Still I did not understand.
“It took me 10 years to connect the dots. Not until we went to Cote d’Ivoire in 1998 that Majek told me certain things, that I became aware, in hindsight that “Okay, that is what my brother was talking about back then.”
“The song “Send Down The Rain” had a spiritual force behind it. That was one of the things he told me in Cote d’Ivoire. Based on what he told me, I think he “crossed the line” before he released the album. In Cote d’Ivoire, I asked him certain questions. His reply was: “Amos, are you that naive? I released Send Down The Rain, everywhere that song was played, rain must fall. Even in summer while we were on US tour, I played Send Down The Rain and rain fell. I released Free Mandela and that month Mandela was released. I did fire (Majek Beware) the week that record was released was the week the Rodney King incident happened. That song, Fire o! Fire o! was played for almost two months in all the TV and radio stations in Los Angeles during that Rodney King episode. So, are you that naive? Don’t you reason?”
“He started mentioning spiritual books. Then he told me: “You don’t know, I have got to the level of de Lawrence”. That was when I understood from which perspective he was talking when he said Fela and Bob Marley are his boys.”
“While we were growing up in the church, we were competing spiritually by fasting. There were three of us – myself, Majek and Friday Omagbon, who is now late. If Majek fasted for three days, Friday and I would go for seven days dry fasting. That was how we grew up. We were competing spiritually. Once in a while, God revealed things to him which he shared with us. And those things came to pass as they were revealed to him. If he had not gone into music, he would most definitely become a minister of God. If you listen to most of his songs, like Holy Spirit, or Righteousness Take Over The Earth, he was more or less a gospel artiste.
Source: Pulse.ng
majek was a legend with a golden voice from heaven….. i love him and most his hit tracks like holy spirit