On Wednesday 17 October 2020, a video of the music stars surfaced on Peter Okoye ( Mr P.) Instagram feed.
The video featured the two brothers Mr P and his twin brother Paul Okoye ( Rudeboy) hugging out the 5 years of separation and presumed end of the brotherly musical collaboration which started way back in 1997.
P-Square as a music duo was born in a modest Catholic school in Jos, Nigeria, called St. Murumba College. Peter and Paul, identical twins, started singing, dancing, and miming songs by MC Hammer, Bobby Brown, and Michael Jackson in their school’s music and acting club.
Born Paul and Peter Okoye, on 18 October 1981 the popularly known as P Square, lived the life of superstars. They began break-dancing in 1997, inspired by their idol, the late Michael Jackson, and created a group named Smooth Criminals.
Read Also: El Hadji Diouf, Jay Jay, Appiah, Kanu, other soccer legends storm Bauchi for football talent hunt
Peter and Paul went back to music school in 1999 to improve their keyboard, bass, and rhythm guitar skills. At the time, their work included soundtracks for films such as Tobi, Moment of Bitterness, and Evas River.
That year they had to change their names from Double P, P&P and Da Pees, before finally settling for P Square.
Their first album, Last Night, received a KORA award nomination in the Most Promising African Group category just three months after its release from the Timbuk2 music company in 2002.
In 2005 they released their second album “ Get Squared” which had local award winning songs like Story, Get Squared, Busy Body, Temptation, Omoge Mi.
They went on to make great albums such as “Game Over” in 2007, Danger , hosted “The Invasion “ concert which is described as the mother of all concerts in Nigeria.
The split
In 2016 the duo split up due to disagreements in the business with their brother Jude Okoye , who was their talent manager at the time .
Peter Okoye in an interview with Net Magazine, said he wanted to restructure the way the business was run in their music label “square records” suggesting to Paul that their elder brother should step down as their manager.
The idea didn’t go down well with both Jude and Paul Okoye with the latter stating that the only way forward was to go solo.
Word got out at the time that the duo was going to split and according to Peter a lot of senators, governors intervened in settling the dispute.
“Three of us were once in a private jet to go and see someone who wanted to resolve our issues, and we didn’t speak to each other throughout the flight. At the end of the day, I swallowed my pride for peace to reign and allowed Jude to remain as our manager.” Peter said.
Peter also recalled some other incidents that led to the break up including an incident with Tiwa Savage of Mavin Records and accusing Paul of being too weak to stand up to Jude.
The duo were back together that same year but the reunion was short lived as they had Altercations which almost came to blows as witnessed in a viral video of the brothers at the office of their lawyer Festus Keyamo.
In November 2020 while the duo had their birthday parties separately, Peter’s wife Lola Omotayo asked that the brothers reconcile on her social media handle but was quickly confronted by Paul.
“At the age of almost 50 you think you can still be manipulative and always in control as usual, well I’m not there anymore, Jude is not there anymore which is always what you wanted.”
He also accused her of being fake in the public to attract sympathy and stated he has not been in contact with her for four years after the split.
Peter Okoye is married to Titilola Loretta Omotayo. The couple are already parents to son Cameron and daughter Aliona. Paul Okoye is married to Anita Isama and they have a son Andre.
Join BusinessDay whatsapp Channel, to stay up to date
Open In Whatsapp
