2Face Idibia at 50: A Tribute
By Bayo Omisore
The 18th day of September every year is a special day for the Nigerian music industry and for Innocent Ujah Idibia known to all and sundry as 2Face, or 2Baba as he was born on this day. It is now 2025 and Mrs. Rosemary Idibia’s baby has just turned 50. Half a century of life, more than twenty of those spent being the leading light of Afrobeats, the genre whose sound he has helped to shape with four classic albums.
Even for someone such as myself who has known 2Face for as long as he has been in the game and worked with him for more than half decade, writing this tribute on the occasion of his 50th birthday is a huge huge task. I have already undergone a lot of casting my mind back and going through tons of material available in media archives to ensure I represent him properly. This man has certainly lived his 9 lives 900 times over.
But there is a question of how to start the piece. After all, the man has lived half his life in the full glare of the limelight. So there, honestly, isn’t anything new that I will be considering in this piece that will not already be public knowledge. I could dive into his many successes, the awards, the money, the jetsetting lifestyle, the fame and all that comes with it: the wine, the weed and the women. Of course, the women! Conversely, I could do a deep dive of his failings over the years: the accident, the armed robbery, the African Queen travesty (a full book by itself, potentially), and the women. Of course, the women! But what good would that do for a celebration of his Golden Jubilee?
This brings up the question of how to broach the topic of celebrating the man who has spent most of his adult life as one of the biggest exports out of Nigeria. Does one do a bulletpoint of the life of Innocent 2Face Idibia? Does one do the unthinkable that is doing nothing just because of the deluge of reports out there? Or does one find a way to do a great job regardless of the inherent challenges? I choose the latter. And the reason is very simple.
Writing this piece is of extreme importance. Not just for 2Face, but for the entire music industry. A Guy deserves to be celebrated after the tumultuous year he has had. If, for nothing else, because he, against all odds, is still here. More importantly however, because he is such an unassuming man who would prefer for all the good he put into the world to come back to him in its own time. Well, my company Platonique PR handled his PR for a spell. So I know better and will happily carefully curate his life as best as I can.
What I have decided to do, in celebrating 2Face, is tell you something you already know and a story you don’t know. The idea is to paint a story of a fantastic human being. As flawed as the next guy, but over-fantastic dey worry am. I doubt that this story will be the one that changes the perspective of the tens of thousands of people who slander him on social media because they think they know him. But, again, this is not the purpose of the piece. This is a celebration of his life as best as I can under the circumstances.
You have certainly heard that 2Face is possibly the most humble person with his degree of success that you will ever come across. There’s a 2Face story I witnessed that I doubt even he will remember. Back in 2009, as the editor of the award-winning Soundcity Blast magazine, a youth-centric lifestyle magazine that covered music, fashion, arts, culture and the whole shebang, I was interviewing 2Face for a Plantashun Boiz cover story I was writing for the magazine. He had agreed to go to Ilorin to perform to students in Unilorin and Kwara Poly so I decided to travel with him.
Our journey to Ilorin from Lagos was without incident. We were driven down in a fully air-conditioned bus which was provided by the events’ organisers. I joined the crew of Soundcity in a purpose-built Sienna for the production crew. Halfway through the journey I proceeded to join 2Face and his team on their bus for the rest of the journey. It was a relatively good trip. The vehicle was in good shape, and the roads were pretty decent. We arrived on time and were checked into our rooms where we could rest in preparation for the events of the night.
Later that evening, a few local artists hit the stage at about 10:00pm to entertain the crowd while they awaited the man of the hour. 2Face made his way down for the performance at about 12:30am. By now the crowd was, of course, amped up and ready to party. Unfortunately, as these things go, there were opposing gangs in the crowd and the energy of the night was soon going to go from positive to negative. Consummate performer that he is, 2Face is trying to break up the fight, telling the crowd to embrace peace. The show promoters and his management team, in a bid to protect him, attempted to whisk him away for his safety, but he refused to leave the stage. Instead, he burst into one of his many popular hit tracks, this one possibly recorded for such a time as this, ‘One Love.’ Like magic, the fighting stopped, and the people started to chant the lyrics of the song together as one.
By now it was 5 o’clock in the morning. We were to leave the hotel in a few hours by 9:00am. The show promoters had planned an afterparty right at the hotel for the sake of convenience. I imagined that, because of the unfortunate scenes of the night, and by virtue of leaving early, 2Face would retreat to his hotel room. I was shocked when he went off into the club to have a drink and make merry with the people. To be fair to him, we were all gathered at the front of the hotel the next morning by 10:00am. And this is when the drama started.
The show promoters had made no effort to pay the balance for the performance. Nor had they provided a vehicle to take 2Face and his team back to Lagos after the performance. Instead, they had all disappeared. His management started to make frantic phone calls trying to reach the promoters to get them to hold up their end of the bargain. Eventually, one of them showed up with a rickety bus that I personally would not ride in a hailstorm if it was the last bus available. As someone who was just there as a guest, I lost my mind when this thing was presented as the vehicle to transport 2Face from Ilorin to Lagos.
Even now, more than 15 years later, I cast my mind back to that day from time to time. I do not take myself too seriously in general because I think there are too many troubles in the world to overload myself. But I drew the line at the guys offering this scrap of metal to transport THE 2FACE IDIBIA across state lines to Lagos. I remember thinking to myself that ‘these guys are really trying to do this to African Queen 2Face and MTV EMA winner? I was ready to risk everything for this man when I heard a very quiet voice say “make we dey go”. 2Face started going down the steps and headed for the bus that, in my estimation, should not even travel intrastate. I tried to persuade him to join our crew vehicle but he firmly disagreed. That day, my perception of 2Face changed quite a lot, as can be imagined.
Today, when people bandy about the stories of adultery and womanising, all I can remember is Ilorin 2009. I cannot remember ever telling this story before now. But, as 2Baba turns 50, I think it’s only fitting to share one of the reasons why he has lasted all these years. Beyond the looks, the funny, the fame, the money and the women. Of course, the women!
Chief Innocent Ujah (whom Jah bless-no-man-can-curse) Idibia MON, the Tafidan Kudenda of Kudenda in Kaduna State, father of 7, godfather of Afrobeats, philanthropist, activist and all-round good guy. Thank you for the music, the message, the moments. And thank you for being yourself; unique, humble, Innocent.
Happy 50th birthday.
Bayo Omisore is a writer, a serial entrepreneur, a dreamer and a lover of Nigeria. A multi-talented individual, he has worked in the media (interviewing Femi Kuti, Jay Z, Asa); events (concept development and implementation Hip Hop World Awards- now The Headies, and Soundcity Music Video Awards); artist development and talent management (singer Yemi Alade, actor Efa Iwara, Afrobeats legend 2Face Idibia); and PR (D’banj, Banky W).
