9ICE + TONI PAYNE = PUBLICITY STUNT OF THE YEAR

What you are about to read is the truth and nothing but the truth. Maybe I should swear to that, wouldn’t be necessary. They say the truth has a way of revealing itself, even the yorubas have a saying that “ti iro ba lo fun ogun odun,ti otito ba di de ni ojokan,a ba”, (if a lie runs for twenty years,the truth will catch up with it in just one day of running). In the case of  9ice & toni payne make that a month.

I must confess that those two love birds had me fooled for a second. One minute we were all complaining about 9ice’s “tradition” album and the next minute he says he says he is separating from toni payne. How much of a co-incidence is that? They say where there is smoke, there is fire. What really happened was the question on everybody’s lips, so I decided to find out and what I found out wasn’t pretty.

Contrary to what 9ice would want you to believe, tradition is not really doing good in the market. I know he said it on facebook or somewhere that he sold 950,000 copies the first week or so, but my sources tell me that ain’t the case. The album is bricking not because it ain’t as good as the previous one or because people are not buying it but because of bad marketing and promotion which gave the jack sparrows of alaba the chance to make a killing off it.

A week after the release of tradition,9ice had a meeting with his mama zion and explained the situation on ground. The next thing you know they are separated, how is that for a tall tale. This is what really happened, with poor sales and poorer reviews,9ice and company are faced with the problem of selling a shitload of albums and unlike gongo aso that was a slow burner, they knew that tradition wasn’t going to pick up unless they had some good videos to promote it which they don’t have. They decide to throw everything at the wall to see what will stick. I don’t know how they did it but from what I heard, that was when they came up with the whole 9ice/toni payne separation thing.

9ice & Toni payne separated and bingo, everything re aligns. Newspapers, magazines, blogs, websites & forums can’t just stop talking about 9ice which gives him free promotion and maximum publicity. People forget how bad the album is and start buying it in the hopes of deciphering some hidden messages. On the real though no one knows what happened cos they ain’t talking. Did they sign a non disclosure agreement or what, it’s a marriage for Christ sake. People don’t get separated for no reason,do they? Nobody knows what happened because ain’t nothing happened. In a couple of months time they will get back together and say they have reconciled their differences.

Some will tell you that Toni payne has had a major hand in 9ice’s career post gongo aso and is presently running it while Some will say she is trying to rebrand him and make him an international superstar. A lot of 9ice’s friends will tell you he has changed and it was Toni who changed him. This is what I will say to those girls who think 9ice is now a free agent, you better have another think coming cos Toni ain’t going nowhere.

I am not trying to pick holes in their story but why the media blackout? Have you seen or heard Toni or 9ice confirming the story? If  9ice is moving mad units with tradition, why would he want to release more albums this year? I may not know everything in this world but I know a publicity stunt when I see one.