Plantashun Boiz and the days after

 

Plantashun Boiz was a sensational hip hop and R & B group that dominated the music space in the late 90s and early 2000s. It was one of the few groups that thrived then: Remedies, Blacktrybe, Osadipe Twins, Zule Zoo, Twin X, Danfo Drivers, Maintain, Styl Plus etc. So if you remember Faze's "Dem be two later become three..." lines in his song Faze Alone after their break-up in 2004, then you sure have little knowledge of how the group was formed way back in their uni abi poly days in Enugu. Faze joined the train when the group (Tuface and Blackface) moved to Lagos. All the while, they released two albums: Body and Soul (2000) and Sold Out (2002), on the stable of Dove Records, consisting of scintillating tunes like "You and I", "Say you Believe me", "Ocean of Passion" and many more.

Like they say, "Ogun omode o le se re fun ogun odun (nothing stays the same forever), never! So, in 2004, in search of bigger opportunities, Tuface left the group to go solo on another label. Guess which? Kennis Music. And the centre couldn't hold anymore so the remaining two left also to go solo. 

In May 2004, Tuface dropped his first album Face to Face which redefined Nigerian hip hop in its entirety with heavy local content and infusion. Shortly after, Faze followed with Faze Alone. The project was an immediate success on the stable of Westside Records, selling over three million copies. Brother Blackface followed suit in 2005 with Evergreen which revealed his core--reggae.

Though in 2007, the group came together to release an album, Plan B, the relationship has never been the same since their broke-up. After that encounter, in 2016, Blackface initiated a (legal) battle with Tuface on song theft (African Queen) and royalty claims. Tuface filed a counter suit of defamation instead and it got messy. The matter came to a head in 2019 after a group of individuals involving Tuface's manager and Blackface's lawyer mediated in an out of court settlement. While Blackface promised not to publicly accuse 2baba again, 2baba agreed to make all the necessary corrections and amendments that had prevented Black Face from receiving royalties. 

Till today, Blackface is still optimistic about the group coming together again--a rare firm believer in what is dead and gone you will say, right?