Sound Sultan Obituary

Whether it was using his music to address social issues, correct the ills of society, educate the young and old, or producing and starring in movies and playing basketball to the level of owning a basketball team, Olanrewaju ‘Sound Sultan’ Fasasi did it all with his talent.

“Sound Sultan was an extraordinarily talented creative who blessed the world with his multiple gifts of rapping, singing, songwriting, acting, comedy, basketball and so much more,” the editorial board of Nigerian Entertainment Today (Netng) and organisers of the Nigerian Entertainment Conference (NECLive) said in a statement on Sunday, July 11, 2021, after his family announced his death.

For more than two decades, his art confronted issues ranging from corruption and bad governance to anti-social vices, the traditional stereotypes of the female body, and other social issues.

A family statement said he passed away at 44 following a hard-fought battle with Angioimmunoblastic T-cell Lymphoma (AITL).

AITL is a rare tumour of the lymphocyte, and lymphocytes are parts of White blood cells that help in fighting infections. It was first reported in medical literature in 1974.

“When they become tumours and infiltrate parts of the body, especially the bone, they displace the normal ability to fight infection and also displace the cells that carry oxygen (Red blood cells) from the bone marrow,” a medical consultant with the Ondo State Ministry of Health told Neusroom. “The cause remains unknown but it could be genetic.”

He was born November 27, 1976 in Jos, Plateau State to a Muslim household from Iseyin in Oyo State and raised with his five other siblings in Satellite Town a former middle-class estate along the Lagos-Badagry expressway, in Lagos.

The Fasisi brothers and their wives. Photo: Facebook. 

He lost his father Liadi Alarape Fasasi on July 4, 2003 and mother Adeyinka Ajarat Fasasi, almost three years later, on March 29, 2006.

“My father was my number one fan. I remember that I’ll be writing my songs, and he’ll be around to make contributions,” he told Thenetng. His mother “had a good voice and used to sing a lot. Apparently, she used to work for some label where Barrister [late Sikiru Ayinde, popular fuji singer] was signed. So, she’ll always go on and on about Barrister.”

He was a Muslim devotee who held his faith very close to his heart till his last days.

Sound Sultan bagged a degree in geography and regional planning from Lagos State University (LASU) in 1999. Before then he had attended the Federal Government College, Ogbomoso in Oyo state. At LASU and FEGCO, he juggled music with basketball and he was the captain of the schools’ basketball teams.

“I started music in the year 1991 in secondary school. When I started miming, writing my own lyrics and by 1994, I had time for myself. I left school, then I started writing songs and poems,” Sound Sultan told The Nation newspaper in 2010.

By the time he left FEGCO in 1993, as the school is popularly called, his love for music had grown bigger but he never failed to credit his elder brother, Dare ‘Baba Dee’ Fasasi, who’s equally a talented creative and singer, for the big influence he had on his music and creative career.

Sultan (right) visits his alma mater, FEGCO, in April 2009. Photo: Facebook/Fasasi Olanrewaju. 

“It was Babadee that really brought me into this industry. I was doing strictly rap because I was listening to KRS-One’s [American rapper, Lawrence “Kris” Parker], ‘Naughty by Nature’…but Babadee was the first person that mixed English and Yoruba rap together. That was in 1989/1990. When I saw how well accepted it was, I started mixing my own too,” he said.

Sound Sultan, like P-Square, was also a product of the Benson & Hedges talent hunt and he began generating buzz in the music world from the late 1990s after winning the Benson & Hedges ‘Grab the Mic’ Talent Hunt in 1999. Before then he had won some musical competitions but Benson & Hedges shot him into stardom.

The Benson & Hedges Talent Hunt was arguably the biggest musical competition in Nigeria in the late 1990s to early 2000s before the rise of MTN Project Fame, Nigerian Idol, The Voice and other competitions that now dot the Nigerian music space.

Sound Sultan (2nd right) presents a Keyboard to P-Square when the singing duo won the Benson & Hedges Talent Hunt in 2001. Photo: Instagram/IamKingRudy. 

Sound Sultan immediately built on his success at the competition by releasing his breakout single ‘Mathematics’ (Jagbajantis) in 2000.

Long before artistes began to measure impact and success by number of streams and views, ‘Mathematics’ broke music charts and earned him a place in the history of African music. With Mathematics, he won instant fans and became the favourites of many Nigerian millennials.

But Sound Sultan didn’t regard ‘Mathematics’ as his first hit single.

“People always say it’s Mathematics but if you ask me I would say ‘Gengen’ because I used it to win every stage I stepped on, every talent hunt stage I stepped on. That was the song that won me the talent hunt, Benson and Hedges ‘Grab the Mic’ in 1999. I won some other small, small ones. It was ‘Gengen’ that I used then, but of course Mathematics did justice to the thing,” he told The Nation newspaper in 2010.

Following the success of his breakout single, he was signed to Kennis Music, the number one record label in Nigeria in the early 2000s. When he left Kennis Music in 2007, he partnered with Baba Dee to float Naija Ninja, a record label, production outfit and clothing line.

Naija Ninja was home to Da Rapper, Young GreyC, Blackah, Karma and Sean Tizzle. Kenny Ogungbe of Kennis Music told Channels TV that Sound Sultan co-wrote Sean Tizzle’s hit single ‘Sho Lee’ released in 2013.

Naija Ninja artistes with Sound Sultan. Photo: Thenet.ng. 

In 2004, Sound Sultan landed his first international feature alongside 2face Idibia and Faze in Wyclef Jean’s ‘I am Proud to be African’ from the ‘Welcome to Haiti: Creole 101 album’. He confirmed in an interview that he wrote his verse on the song in less than 10 minutes.

From ‘Jagbajantis’ to ‘Craze World’, ‘Back in the Days’, ‘007’, ‘Ole’, ‘Motherland’, ‘Orobo’, ‘Bush meat’ to his last and eighth album ‘8th Wondah’ released in 2020, Sound Sultan consistently used his music for education and social commentary. They won him multiple awards and earned him an invite to a special dinner with the Queen of England, Queen Elizabeth II, at Buckingham Palace in 2014.

President Muhammadu Buhari in a statement affirmed that Sound Sultan “was kind, generous, and deeply passionate about issues in the country, which was reflected in his music and art. As an avid basketball fan, he made telling contributions to the development of local basketball in the country.”

In ‘Motherland’, he advised Nigerians in the diaspora to always remember home and not engage in criminal activities.

“Take a song like ‘Motherland’; I’ve heard of loads of people who just started coming home after they heard the song. That gives me joy, because that’s why I wrote the song in the first place,” he told Thenetng.

In 2020, he said “Mathematics was meant to raise awareness and correct some things. That those things are still happening 20 years later makes me sad.”

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos said ”Sound Sultan was a bundle of talent who used his God-given gift to advance the course of mankind.”

Outside music and acting, Sound Sultan also made a great impact in basketball. He played basketball for the Dodan Warriors in Lagos and partnered with investors to become a co-owner of the Lagos Islanders basketball team in 2014.

It is not surprising that the Nigerian national basketball team D’Tigers dedicated their first ever victory against the U.S and Argentina to him.

“You saw this day coming when Nigeria would become a dominant force in global basketball. Ironically, the day we won against @usabasketball, was when you gave up the ghost. RIP,” the Nigerian Basketball Federation tweeted on Tuesday, July 13, 2021.

Sanwo-Olu said “his music, artistry and interest in sports were all donated at every point for the development of humanity.”

Millennials who grew up at a time when pop music was only starting to find its feet in Nigeria appear to feel the impact of his death more. In the early 2000s, the industry was dominated by music artistes from Ajegunle, the slum community in Ajeromi Local Government Area of Lagos and its neighbouring semi-middle class community, Festac in Amuwo-Odofin LGA.

Sound Sultan, Azadus and the defunct music group – Plantashun Boiz which comprised of Innocent ‘2Baba’ Idibia, Faze and Blackface, were some of the most prominent artistes who rose from Festac and their music dominated the airwaves in the early 2000s.

An undated photo of Sultan, Plantashun Boiz (2Face, Faze and Blackface), Jazzman Olofin and Annie Macaulay with Wyclef Jean (left) during his visit to Nigeria. Photo: Facebook/Fasasi Olanrewaju.. 

It was at Festac that Sound Sultan discovered Iledare ‘Jaywon’ Oluwajuwonlo when he first moved to Lagos and mentored him to stardom.

“I was on the street of Festac attending carnivals, trying to make money, I had no name and face, it was just my voice he heard and he said he liked it and that was it,” Jaywon told Neusroom.

“He showed me so much love and care, and did something no one else has done for me. He was the first person to show me major love in the industry when I was still on the street trying to do things on my own.”

Aside from Jaywon, Sound Sultan said he also mentored the now defunct P-Square, Wizkid, Dbanj, Timaya, Asa and “so many artistes that are big now, when they were budding artistes.”

“You don’t have to wait for your fire to die before igniting another person’s, while your fire is burning you can use it to ignite another person’s fire, so they could feed off the good energy that you emit. That’s why I’m always here,” he said in an interview.

And that was exactly what he did to Jaywon and others. He ignited their fire and watched them glow.

“He was the first to hear my song and gave me a verse without knowing me nor having any prior relationship with me. That was what actually motivated me, I felt like if Sound Sultan can like my song then I can make it, then I started following him,” Jaywon said.

Ayeni Adekunle, founder of BlackHouse Media (BHM), who was friends with Sound Sultan for more than 20 years, said “his values, many talents, genuine passion, kindness and mentorship will continue to be sources of inspiration for all of us.”

Throughout his career, he was never embroiled in scandal, and some of his colleagues confirmed that he was always at peace with everyone.

Sound Sultan got married to his longtime girlfriend Chichi Mora (now Farida Fasasi) in October 2009. Photo: Facebook/Fasasi Olanrewaju.. 

Jaywon said he was always looking out for everybody and “I was very careful about drinking when I was around him because I know he does not drink nor smoke. He was a perfect person.”

“From afar, Sound Sultan cuts the figure of a well-bred young man, who achieved stardom by dint of hard work and managed to remain relevant without falling to the entrapments of fame and youthful exuberance,” Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo state said.

Whenever he appeared in public, it was in his signature hat which he said he started wearing as a student because he was shy.

In addition to being a music icon, he starred in some movies. He co-produced and starred in a star studded comedy film ‘Head Gone’ in 2014 and in 2018 produced the stage musical ‘Jungle Story’. Until his death, he played the role of Rotimi, a lawyer, in the popular comedy series, ‘Flatmates’ on AfricaMagic.

He got married to his longtime girlfriend Chichi Morah (now Farida Fasasi) on October 1, 2009, after courting for seven years. They welcomed their first child Zara in the same year and had Mayowa and Bidemi some years after.

A family portrait of Sound Sultan, his wife, Farida and their three children – Zara, Bidemi, Mayowa. Photo: Instagram/SoundSultan. 

He is survived by Farida and their three children Zara, Mayowa and Bidemi.

When his health began to decline and reports emerged in May 2021 that he was treating Cancer at an American hospital, Jaywon said “I’m very sad that I didn’t try hard enough to speak with him. I sent him a message but I didn’t get his usual comical response. When I saw a video he shared on IG of him and his children, I believed he was fine and I kept praying for him.”

Olanrewaju Fasasi was laid in his final resting place at Brooklyn, New York, the United States on Sunday, July 11, 2021.

He would be remembered for many things, but his music that educates and addresses social issues stand out among them all.

“In him, Oyo State lost a truly great but humble artiste and ambassador. We lost an individual who tried his best to positively impact his society through entertainment,” Makinde said.