Blackface: I wrote ‘African Queen’… I decide who sings it and who doesn’t

Ahmedu Augustine Obiabo, Nigerian dancehall and reggae singer better known as Blackface, says he gave Innocent ‘Tuface’ Idibia, his former partner under Plantashun Boiz, a defunct music group, the permission to sing ‘African Queen’.

The Benue state born singer also averred that he owns the song and has the rights to decide who sings it and who doesn’t.

On the heels of the duo’s legal battle and his criticism of Tuface for allegedly stealing the song from him, Blackface recently dropped his own version of the 2004 hit track.

In an interview with TVC, the songwriter dismissed claims that he did the remake of the song to get back at his former partner.

He also wondered why he can’t be allowed to do his own version of his song.

“It’s not the first time two people have made different versions of a song. And, basically, when people do versions like that, it’s either maybe somebody feels that the song wasn’t rendered properly or somebody feels like the song could have been done in a different way,” he said.

“I decided that so many people are recording African Queen. There’s a guy called Sadike in Jamaica. I’ve never heard of him but he recorded African Queen. Lyrics got twisted. It’s like when you write something and people are singing it in a different way. I had a picture of what the song is.

“So when people started changing it, you yourself that created it would have your mind telling you that this is not the way you wanted it to be. So, there’s no other way to express myself towards the song. I just had to record it again for people that really love the music.”

“The remake doesn’t have anything to do with my feud with Tuface. He has already done his own rendition. I think he’s done it like about twice or so. I gave him the right to sing the song. So I have an edge on the song than him. If I didn’t say ‘you can sing the song’ there’s no way he can do it.

“There’s no reason why anybody should ask me why I should sing my own song. There’s no case of hard feelings here. I wanted to sing the song the way I feel like. I was excited last week when I saw Johnny Drille singing ‘You and I’, a song that was in the Plantashun Boiz first album. It doesn’t really mean that they own the right to that song. I wrote the song, I decide who sings it and I decide who doesn’t sing it.”