| P-Square | |
|---|---|
P-Square's Danger (album) cover |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Peter and Paul Okoye |
| Also known as | Paul & Peter |
| Born | 18 November 1981 Lagos, Nigeria |
| Origin | Ifite Dunu, Anambra State, Nigeria |
| Genres | R&B, African hip hop |
| Instruments | vocals |
| Years active | 2004–present |
| Website | P-Square |
P-Square are a Nigerian R&B duo composed of non-identical twin brothers Peter and Paul Okoye.[1].
Contents |
The story of P-Square began in St. Murumba secondary school, a small Catholic school in Jos, Nigeria. Identical twins Peter and Paul joined their school music and drama club where they began singing, dancing, and miming songs by MC Hammer, Bobby Brown and Michael Jackson.
They later formed an acappella quartet called "MMMPP" (M Clef a.k.a Itemoh, Michael, Melvin, Peter and Paul). Drawing inspiration from their music idol Michael Jackson, they began break dancing, formed the group called "Smooth Criminals" in 1997. They droped M Clef from the group "MMMPP" which later was changed to "MMPP". Their artistic talent and precise dance routine soon made them household names in the city of Jos, where they performed at school functions and other occasions.
Later in 1999, Peter and Paul returned to music school to develop their skills on keyboard, drums, bass and rhythm guitar. Their work includes the soundtracks for a number of films like Tobi, Mama Sunday, Moment of Bitterness and Evas River.
Later in 1999, they applied to the University of Abuja to study Business Administration. The Smooth Criminals disbanded when its members left to various other universities. Subsequently Peter and Paul formed their own group, variously called "Double P", "P&P", and "Da Pees", until they eventually settled on "P Square". They are managed by Bayo Odusami aka Howie T, a seasoned concert promoter and the CEO of Adrot Nigeria Limited.
In 2001, "P-Square" won the "Grab Da Mic" competition, and hence Benson & Hedges sponsored their debut album, titled Last Nite, which was released under Timbuk2 music label. P-Square was also nominated as "Most Promising African Group" in the Kora Awards three months after the release of their debut album. They eventually won the 2003 Amen Award for "Best R&B Group".
In 2005, P Square released their second album, Get Squared under their own label, Square Records. This album was marketed nationwide by TJoe Enterprises, although they were still managed by Howie T of Adrot Nigeria Limited. The video for the second album held the #1 position on the MTV Base chart for four straight weeks.
They have an ever growing fan base across South Africa with a particular stronghold of die-hard fans in Cape Town.
The group has performed alongside the following international artists like Ginuwine, Sean Paul, Akon and Busola Keshiro. The members of P Square are now located in Lagos.
Late in 2007, they released their best selling album so far, Game Over. It has sold 8 million copies worldwide.
In 2009, P-Square released their fourth studio album, Danger. The album features collaborations with 2face Idibia, J Martins and Frenzy. The first single called "Danger" is a hip hop song with cutting synths and a frog bass baseline similar to an Eminem song. The video affirms this with the presence of clowns and staggered movements in front of the camera reminiscent of comical videos by Eminem. They are also known for the close resemblance which the twins have to American R&B Superstar, Usher Raymond.
On 4 April 2010, P-Square was named the Artist of the Year at the KORA All Africa Music Awards in Ouagadougou, Burkina-Faso while they were in London for a Concert at the Troxy, and they will receive a whopping sum of $1 Million Dollars as the Award Winners, in Ebebiyin City.
The duo are reported to handle most of their production/beat making in house. The band has been faced with many controversies for their habit of sampling western songs and popular hits in their records. They have addressed the issue many times in interviews as well as in the lyrics of their songs.[2] Technically speaking, P Square does more in the line of reconstructing the drum patterns, chord progressions or lyrics of the sampled songs as against actually cutting parts of the song and directly sampling into their production. This accounts for the largely electronic feel of their sound.
Some of the songs which have been called up on this account include "Get Squared", "Game Over", "Danger" and others.
P-Square attracted headlines when they reportedly turned irate when they were notified in the middle of their at the Guinness Show performance by the organisers about some change in plans which would affect the length of their performance, and that of the next act, 2face.[3]
As reported by a news site vanguardngr.com, the info apparently stirred up resentment as Peter immediately said "I don’t know why, anytime a foreign artiste comes to Nigeria, they (show organizers) wanna treat us like slaves in our country". Although initially they continued their performance but midway through, they threw their microphones to the ground and angrily stormed out of the stage saying, "We are leaving; they don’t want 2face to come on stage" They were said to have immediately left the premises of the show, but after intervention of the show organisers, they came on stage later with 2face for a performance, but later on were apologised to.
Record producer and singer Akon recently signed Nigerian artistes: Wizkid, Tuface and P-square as representatives of his record label Konvict Muzik in Africa. He revealed this in December 2011 in Lagos at the unveiling of Citron energy drink which took place in footballer Jay Jay Okocha's club Number 10. They join international artistes; Brick and Lace, T-Pain and Lady Gaga in the Konvict Muzik family.
The multiple award-winning twin brothers were officially unveiled as the new ambassadors of the Mike Adenuga owned telecommunications outfit in Lagosin 2011 , but the mouth-watering amount was not revealed.
With the deal, P-Square has joined other Glo ambassadors which include, entertainers like Uche Jombo, Rita Dominic, Mike Ezuruonye, Desmond Elliot, Monalisa Chinda, Funke Akindele, Sammy Okposo, Nonso Diobi, Ramsey Nouah among others.
According to the Group Chief Operating Officer of Glo, Mr. Mohammed Jameel, the list of the company’s ambassadors could not be complete without P-Square, saying “that is why we are proud to present them as the new Glo ambassadors today.”
He said further that for some years now, Globacom has been watching with keen interest, the exploits of the Okoye brothers in the local and international music scene, and could not help, but include them on its list of ambassadors. The deal has further cemented the fact that P-Square is indeed the most successful Hip Hop group in Africa.
Just a few months ago, the group emerged the Best African Act at the coveted KORA All Africa Music Awards held in Burkina Faso. The award attracted the mouth-watering sum of $1million (N150million).
They recently returned from a very successful one and half months musical tour of the United States of America, which ended in New York City on 24 July, 2010. The duo have been so successful that even the President of Burkina Faso, whose country hosted the last KORA Awards, ordered that they should be flown in his private jet. Apart from this, P-Square has invaded so many homes, hearts and phones with their hit songs, which have either become a national anthem of sort on the lips of so many people and ring tones on so many phones.
Won
Nominated
15 http://www.zieplay.com/playart/play.php?artist=P-Square