Without a doubt, one of the revelations of the Nigeria music industry in the last couple of years has been the ‘Bhad One’ popularly known as Falz. Indeed, his meteoric rise to fame has been nothing but astonishing, more so when you consider his very influential family and highly academic background. His father, Femi Falana (SAN) is a lawyer, a renowned human rights activist and unarguably one of Nigeria’s most celebrated legal giants. Falz’s mother, Funmi Falana, is also an accomplished lawyer, one that those who have been privileged to come in contact with her have described as an incredibly brilliant lawyer and a fiercely focused professional. It was therefore a surprise to many, particularly his parents, when Folarin (Falz) who was already a trained lawyer having followed his parents footsteps to study law, walked up to them one day and said he was no longer practicing law. The mother, especially, found this pretty hard to come to terms with.
Not so long ago, Falz’s parents organized a get-together for friends, relatives and associates to celebrate the achievements that their hugely famous son has been able to make within such a short time in the entertainment industry. It was at the event held at The Protea Hotel, Lagos, that both parents spoke about their initial reaction to their son’s choice of career. Surprisingly, his father, Femi Falana, almost immediately gave him his blessings after he had convinced him on the reasons why he was dumping law for entertainment. But the mother, who also happens to be the disciplinarian in the house, would not hear any of that. “I am the disciplinarian in the house,” she’d told guests at the event. “He had started his career when he was in Law school, but I would insist the he must practice Law. “I sent you to England to study Law, you cannot waste my money!” But his father would go behind to encourage him. I would quarrel with the father that he was spoiling the children, but today, we give God all the glory,” a very excited and proud Funmi Falana concluded.
On his part, Falz’s father, Femi Falana, admitted he conspired with his son and encouraged him to pursue music as a career. “We had a lot of quarrels bringing up the kids, my wife believes if you spare the rod, you spoil the child, which is good for the home. I am almost the exact opposite, not spare the rod, but also encourage the child. Sometimes, I accuse my wife of child abuse because of her harassment of the kids. To be honest, we didn’t influence Folarin to read Law. I took him to school one day, I think he was in primary five at the time, and as he entered the class, everybody started calling him “The Law.” Later, I asked him if he wanted to read Law and he said, “yes.’ He went to the Law school and he did well. We thought he was going to come out as a very good lawyer, but he came to me one day and said, “Dad, I think I want to move on, I can’t be going to court for adjournments all the time. The mum came to challenge me that I was spoiling him. Apart from my liberal disposition, I think I was largely influenced by my experience with Fela who was our client for 15 years. Fela’s mother believed that he was going to be a colossal failure. How can anybody in 1967, in this part of the world, say he wanted to be a musician? Fela’s elder brother had become a doctor and the younger brother was going to read Law.” He concluded by reminding everyone how big and famous world wide Fela became before he passed on.
The legal giant went on to add that he was surprised though that Folarin whom he saw as the shyest of his three children could turn out to be a successful entertainer. “Sometimes, I listen to him and can’t believe that the quiet little boy swho would lock himself up in his room for about three days could turn out like this.”
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