Former member of the ‘Remedies’ musical group, Eedris Abdulkareem has disclosed how the group, which was once the toast of the Nigerian music industry, was formed.
He made the disclosure in an interview with The Punch published on Sunday.
According to him, the group was formed after a chance meeting with late ace broadcaster Steve Kadiri.
Eedris revealed that he was living inside an uncompleted building when he was first introduced to his group mate, Eddy, and Tony Tetuila joined a year later.
He said, “I used to be known as Mr. Remedy before I left Kano. Everyone who knew me in Kano then called me Mr. Remedy. When I was leaving Kano, I told my mother that I was going to Lagos to meet with Kenny Ogungbe and Dayo Adeneye, and that once I saw them, I would become successful. She advised me not to sleep with another man’s wife, not to backbite and that I should be prayerful.
“When I got to Lagos, I couldn’t go to my father’s house because he is a polygamist. I have learnt so much from that experience and I would never advise anyone to marry more than a wife. Though we are in good terms now, it wasn’t easy then.
“When I came to Lagos, I slept under the bridge at CMS, Lagos Island, for six months. God later directed me to go to Raypower in the Alagbado area of the state. He told me that I would see Kenny Ogungbe or D1, and that one of them would help me. On getting there, I couldn’t just walk in since I didn’t know anyone there. Meanwhile, there was an uncompleted building in the area, and I started living there. From there, I monitored Kenny and D1’s cars. One day, the late Steve Kadiri called me and asked what I was doing there. I told him I wanted to meet Kenny and D1; that I had an idea I wanted to sell to them. Since they were having a concert at the Yaba College of Technology that day, he asked me to come along. He introduced me to Eddy Montana and asked Gbenga Awe to produce a beat for us. He advised us to stay together, but that in the future, we could decide to go our separate ways. We went to a studio in Alagbado and we recorded Shakomo.
“While I was still staying in the uncompleted building opposite Raypower, Eddy went back to his family house. With the help of Steve, I was eventually able to see Baba Keke one day. Unfortunately, he wasn’t in a good mood and he sent me out of the studio. When Steve returned a few hours later, he asked me to come in again and that was how Shakomo was released. Eddy heard it and rushed to the studio. That was the revolution that created Nigerian hip-hop today.”
He added, “Tony joined us a year after we started. He told us that he would speak with his sister to bring in money to invest in the group. We were struggling seriously and we needed the money to stabilise things. We were only interested in his money at that time and we collected it. You cannot blame us; we were just young boys trying to do something meaningful with our lives.”