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UNOFFICIAL 
STOP OVER
Majek is Nigeria's king of raggae and would forever be my star.
Nigerian Majekodunmi Fasheke, otherwise known as Majek Fashek, is
(along with South Africa's Lucky Dube) Africa's prime proponent of
reggae. But while Dube keeps the music close to its Jamaican source,
Fashek lights a polyrhythmic fire under the familiar reggae beat, with
ferocious talking drum volleys and multilayered percussion. Though
influenced by Jimmy Cliff and Bob Marley, Fashek's initial love (and
the music he first sang) was Indian film music. He began playing
guitar while in secondary school in Benin, forming a band called Jah
Stix, which made the club circuit in Lagos. In 1988, he struck out on
his own. The African release of his first reggae album, Prisoner of
Conscience, sold 200,000 copies and spawned two singles that rode high
on the Nigerian charts for over a year.
Bursting on the international scene in the early 90s, Majek, Nigeria's biggest reggae star, made local history there when his song "Send Down The Rain," did just that every time he performed it in drought-stricken regions. With an almost Hendrix-like persona, Fashek captured audiences touring with Sunsplash, and at major venues worldwide.
Fashek was actually born in Benin City, the heart of the Ancient Sini
Kingdom, now in Bendel State of Nigeria - Africa's most populous country.
His mother is an Edo woman from Benin. and his father, a school principal,
was a Yoruba man from Ilesha in Oyo State of Nigeria. After his father
died when he was just 11 years old, Fashek's mother, educated and very
liberal for a traditional culture, became a businesswoman, supplying
concrete to road contractors. Fashek's family wanted him to become an
engineer at first, but he had already succumbed to the spirit of music.
From the beginning, his mother would bring him along to participate in
ceremonies celebrating her traditional religion, where mainly women would
play the Olokun rhythm used for worship of the goddess of the river.
Playing the heavy rhythms and intricate syncopations on maracas, Fashek
says he'd "bring down the spirits".
