“Many Artistes Avoided Me When I Needed Their Help” – Lord Of Ajasa

News broke a few weeks ago that veteran Yoruba rapper Lord of Ajasa was down with peptic ulcer and needed funds for treatment.

A few of his friends and colleagues came together to raise some funds for his treatment and new report have it that the rapper has returned home for now until his surgery.

Speaking with Saturday Beats spoke on the people who helped and those who did not.

In his words:-

“I would have had the surgery done, but the doctor said we should delay it to enable me rest for a while. I have lost weight and I need to regain my strength,” he said.

“I am very happy that they did this for me. In fact, I am still shocked at their quick response to my condition. I pray that God will remember them in their time of need,” he said.

On a few other acts who abandoned him:-

“I am surprised that they changed their attitudes toward me. I don’t want to mention names now. They know themselves. Some of them are well known to members of the public.

Although I have done a lot for these people, when I needed help from them, they were nowhere to be found. Some of them even avoided contact with me. I am very disappointed in them. All I can say is that in this music business, some people are ingrates.”

On leaving the music industry, he said:-

“That is not true. I did not withdraw into my shell. I have been busy working on a new album and attending shows. Before I fell ill, I was spending a lot of time in the studio working. I have a new album in progress. I was planning to shoot the video when this illness came.”

On his entry into the industry:-

“Eventually I went into music out of sheer passion, not love of money. Many of the artistes I knew at that time didn’t care much about getting rich. Wealth wasn’t the motivating factor for us, unlike today’s artiste’s who go into music because they want to get rich.”

“The rap music that we are listening to today, especially in Nigeria, is quite different from what we had in the past. It is no longer as exciting as it used to be,” he said.

On the quality of rap now:-

“In the past, rap artistes virtually struggled to survive. The first time I was paid N10, 000 to perform in a show, I was very excited and happy.

I think it was sometime around 2000 or 2001. At that time, N10,000 was a lot of money for somebody who was used to struggling through thick and thin to earn a living.

There was no record label in those days. We were doing it on our own. Nobody believed that music would ever be a money spinner.”