Nigeria’s embattled dancehall artiste, Cynthia Morgan, who now goes with the stage name, Madrina has stated that part of the problem that caused her fallout with Jude Okoye and his record label was lack of emotional connection.
Cynthia’s contract with Northside record label owned by Jude, didn’t end well and the singer blamed her career hiccups on Jude and her formal manager Joy Tongo.
In her latest interview with OLAITAN GANIU of The Nation, few days ago, Cynthia spoke on the crisis with Jude Okoye, her upcoming projects, relationship with other music acts and her regrets so far.
While speaking of the lack of connection between her and Jude, Cynthia said:
“To shock you, Jude didn’t know where I was living for the first two years of my contract, so there was so much that I couldn’t take as a person.
She was then asked, “Are you saying a lack of cordial relationship affected your contract with him?“
Cynthia replied;
“Yes, as an artist or creative person, we are very emotional people. You need people to understand you so I think that is where we got it wrong because Jude didn’t really know me. He just had an idea that he had an artiste. At first, when I wanted to get signed to him, I heard some people saying, ‘Oh, he went through a lot with May D’. But I felt like I’m not May D. Probably, because he felt hurt by someone, he has to transfer the aggression to other people just for him to feel better. Personally, I don’t have any more issues with Jude, I decided to let it out of my mind and I have moved on. I saw it as a life lesson for me. There was even a point in time when I said ‘if this is how music is, I’m not gonna let my kids do music.’ It was that terrible, but I overcame it. So, my message to the whole world now is that I’m a different person and I respected the Okoye family until all of this happened but I would like to move on.”
She was also asked about her recent outburst on social media.
You recently took a shot at Joy, your ex-manager, Jude Okoye and his brother, Paul of PSquare, on Instagram, could you share your reason for this?
Well, I reacted because I didn’t watch Jude’s interview until about two weeks ago. When he aired the interview then, I had all the things I was dealing with, mentally. And, again, I didn’t even know that you could actually do an Instagram live video and then save it and watch it afterwards. Firstly, I wasn’t interested in anything he (Jude) had to say, so when I heard he went on Instagram live, I just thought, ‘Oh, he did a live interview and then it’s over with.’ But when the video starting trending and people started tagging me, I had to watch it to found out the false claims and lies he said about me. I did hear and read a lot of stuff, but this recent incident was something I couldn’ take as a person and I felt I need to talk about it so that people can know the truth and my side to the story.
But your ex-manager claimed that Jude got you a Range Rover and also bought your mother land in Benin. How true is this?
That was a big lie. I bought the car myself, he didn’t buy the car for me instead I bought it from him. I will be sincere with you, I didn’t watch the whole interview but a lot of people would call you that he said this and that. At some point, I just got confused and turned off my phone because I was really tired of the whole rumour. About him saying he bought my mum land, I didn’t watch that part but Jude never bought my mum land.
Going by recent happenings with you and Jude Okoye, would you say signing with Northside INC was a blessing or curse to your music career?
Well, I wouldn’t say it was a blessing. Let me be realistic, it was more of a curse because I went through a whole lot. I’m a very private person because I feel like life is a journey. And then people will only relate with you when you are somebody, they do not care about you in the period of struggling. It is just like gold, it goes through fire because nobody will buy when it’s still raw. So, I saw it as a learning process for me and I moved to the next episode. I did learn a lot (Laughing). It was deeper than music.
So tell us about your contract with Northside INC?
“Yes, I did sign a contract. It could have been the same contract but some parts were edited or words were missing. There was a part where he said that the label always fund my project with 50 percent; that never really happened because I funded my project hundred percent. The other party never invested up to 50% as mandated in the contract. This, by the law of the agreement, is a breach of the contract signed. Again, yes, I did sign the contract but he wasn’t the one that prepared the contract, it was from Joy Tongo.
“Let me clarify this, I was signed to Joy’s label and that is the part people need to know. Joy had a record label but she didn’t have the resources and funds so she threw it out to Jude to ease her stress. That was how I got signed to Jude in 2013 and the contract expired in 2017. And I never said to him, ‘I’m done with your contract.’ Jude was the one who breached the contract unlike what he was telling people that I breached the contract. No, that was a big lie. In the third year of my contract, Jude came up with the idea of me signing a new contract and then I resisted. I think that was where the whole problem started. So, in the fourth year of my contract, I went ahead to shoot a video of ‘Put Out’ with my own money. I later sent it to him but he didn’t respond. So that was when I knew he meant ‘if you don’t sign a new contract, we’re not working with you anymore.’ For me, I was fine with it.”
