JahBless’ Agony

By Dynamo Pebbles

 
As much as publicity is central to an artiste’s career, when a stranger engages an artiste’s work in unsolicited publicity for personal gains, the act becomes an infringement and the ‘Samaritan’ an exploiter. This is the summary of singer JahBless’ on-going ordeal in the hands of yet-to-be-identified schemers.

JahBless has been in the Nigerian music scene for over five years but didn’t debut with an album until November 2009. The album titled Rebirth houses the popular single, Joor. The single which features Lord of Ajasa and Reminisce is filled with sarcasm, pun and humour all at the same time creating the latest addition to streets vocabulary in most states in Nigeria and especially Lagos. The word ‘joor o’ is used to punctuate almost every informal remark which is good feedback for the singer.
But it wasn’t the same feeling when someone alerted Jahbless last month that the same song has become signature to a particular China phone circulated in Lagos Nigeria.

‘I didn’t believe it so I told him to bring the phone which he did. I was mad when I switched on the phone and Joor played as the opening signature”, said Owoloye Olatunde Oluwabukunmi, the singer known as JahBless.

Rather than reaping from such endorsement, JahBless is allegedly being unduly exploited and worse still is the fact that he doesn’t know who to accuse or sue, assuming he wants to. “I don’t know who’s responsible for it. Maybe the Chinese manufacturers or those at the computer village. I heard that they (phone retailers at the Computer Village) are capable of doing such”.

But it’s publicity for JahBless after all, or isn’t it? “I feel terrible about it. Its not working for me”, he said
JahBless is signed to Yes Records and was formerly pop singer 9ice’s right hand man during the latter’s Gongo Aso days when they were both signed to Edge Management.