Pasuma whose real name is Wasiu Alabi, is one of the most successful Fuji musician around today. He has been in the industry for 30 years and he has done very well for himself. He has many awards under his belt and has performed at big shows globally. The Fuji artiste who has the dexterity of infusing hip hop music perfectly into his Fuji music has decided to churn out a hip hop album and he has so far released 3 tracks which are enjoying massive airplay. Pasuma’s latest single is a rap song, ‘’Ogede Ti Pon’’ the video of which will be out any time soon.
You have been busy for a while now working on a hip hop album. Tell us what inspired the album?
I got the inspiration from the streets, my fans have been yearning for it. And at the same time, I have been one way or the other doing hip hop music for a long time. I didn’t just start today. I can say I am among the people who started Nigerian hip hop. It is not something that it’s new to me. I just took it upon myself to do it and see what comes out of it and I am convinced it’s going to be a positive result.
Who are the artiste you have worked with ?
I have worked with Tiwa Savage, I have done a song with D’Banj too and I am still going to work with Olamide and Reminisce. I will be working with some other stars too. We just recorded seven tracks, we will still record more.
Now that you are tilting more towards the hip hop industry, do you think you will be able to retain your fans who love Fuji music?
It’s not going to affect my fan base. The whole thing is, as an artiste you should be able to diversify, diversity is very important in anything you are doing. They have always known that I can do hip hop, because I have always been infusing it into my Fuji music, which has really helped me to be different from other Fuji musicians. Before now, they have all been yearning for it, they have been asking me when I would drop my hip hop album, and now, my management company AO@21 media and I thought it’s long overdue, we decided to give it to them and the acceptance has been very awesome.
Pasuma as a Fuji artiste and Pasuma as a hip hop act, which do you love most?
I love my Fuji music more. That is where I belong to anytime any day. I am a Fuji musician, but I should be able to do something new. And it is no surprise to a lot of people because we have always been doing the hip hop thing right from when it started. Way back in 1996, you would remember I did ‘’Oya ka keep on rocking, Orobokibo’’ which was sang with a hip hop music group, Remedies.
1996 till now is 18 years, and I believe some of the new artiste making waves today were still in primary school then. So I have always been doing it and I have been doing wonderfully well with it.
So how has the experience been working with these hip hop/pop artistes?
The experience has been wonderful. They all love me and see me as their brother and as their daddy. Like when I met D’Banj, he was like baba Pasuma, I said don’t call me baba, and he was like he has been hearing my music before he even thought of becoming an artiste. So that shows you the respect they have for me.
