For Mummy...but especially for DaGrin.

I write tonight because I do not know how else to channel this pain…this hurt! I write because I have been crying all night and would probably cry more. I write because I knew Dagrin. I write because I miss my mother. I write because I hurt.




I woke up today totally oblivious to what today represents. I have however been feeling quite withdrawn from God and all things spiritual and my ways have been giving me cause for worry. How can I come from being Pastor of the children's church to not even opening my bible? So I decided to do a fast and I prayed and asked for forgiveness and for Him to pull me closer.

I left my house after I broke my fast still oblivious to what today represents. I went for a meeting and towards the end of the meeting, my client asked me what today's date is and I said "April 22nd" then it hit me, my mother died this day 03:30 Saturday 1995. Needless to say, the meeting came to an abrupt end for me at that point. See, my mother died with me holding her and I had to break the news to her father, my grandfather. I was 14 years old. I left the venue of the meeting to go mourn what was left of today and then, I got the news, the blackberry message read 'Pls tell me its not true' and I replied 'what's not true?' He replied 'Its all over twitter that Dagrin's dead" and I said it had better not be true.

I checked twitter immediately and I didn’t see anything different from the usual banter of people tellling rumour mongers off. Then I got another message, saying 'rest in peace,Dagrin" And this source does not spread rumour partly because he is very close to the Dagrin camp. I begged him to tell me its not true and he said its true babes!!

Saying I cried my eyes out and found myself on the floor of my living room is not a situation I thought up just now,It all hit me at once!!

I was just coming home to mourn another year of my mother's absence and how she would never see my kids and all and then I hear of Dagrin's death?



Olayitan Olanipekun Oladapo a.k.a DaGrin died today at 06:48pm at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital,Idi Araba,Lagos.



I am torn! My heart bleeds! I wish I could put the pain into words but I can only weep!! I learnt years back that tears can not bring back the dead but it never stops hurting!!

I confess,I wasn’t his closest buddy but like most industry people , we knew each other. I had his number,he had mine and all that jazz. My last memory of Dagrin was at the Coca-Cola theme song launch with Banky.W,M.I ,Eldee and the industry heavy weights. I saw him park his newly acquired Nissan Maxima with his personalized plates and I told myself,'whoa! Dagrin's done good for himself,way to go boy!!' He came into the holding area a couple of hours later with his signature bodyguards . I was tickled cos he looked so small compared to his "giant" bodyguards. I had a friend with me from the states who was star struck that nite…she dragged me aside and said "I wanna take a picture with Dagrin too"

'No wahala I said! Hes cool like that!" I said. I went over to him and of course his BGs rose to the occasion,he quickly told them in Yoruba "Ha…this is my aunty o!! Ha! She is good peoples" I smiled and the guards 'sat'!! He came over with a smile and took the picture. I said thanks and he was like 'No wahala…its you now!"

That’s why it hurts!! He was simple like that!! Very friendly and I genuinely liked him!! I like what hes done with my Mother tongue….he made yoruba so cool with his music!! As I listen to his tracks tonite,playing back to back on most radio stations tonight in his honour ,tears fill my eyes and wet my keyboard….i reflect once again on the futility of this life…….Some might say he didn’t deserve to die but who deserves to die?

I thought my mother didn’t deserve to die some years back when she died at 45…she would have been 60 this year on the 18th of June…not that I'm comparing death or the gravity of it…but Dagrin must have been what 24,25 yrs old? What tha fuck?? How can Dagrin die? How? It hurts and I still don’t believe it hurts this much!!

You don’t know what its like until you lose someone….death sucks monkey balls!! And what makes it worse is..whats the guarantee we'd make heaven? Such a gruesome way to go and not make heaven on top of that?? Not good! I sincerely hope Dagrin made it right with God before he passed…so he can find the peace he truly deserves.

May God fill the void in his family. May God grant them peace. May He give them a reason to smile again. May God in His infinite mercy give them the strength to survive these times like He gave me.



I leave you with lyrics from his hit track PON PON PON!:

Awon ti Ijebu won nfi mi sere bi ifoko. Mi se agbe to lo s’oko

ti o k’oko. Iro ko, awon sisi fem u mi s’oko. Sokoyokoto, e ti mo

pe olobe lo l’oko. Omo Naija, mi o maga, mi mugu. Awon Ibo, won

nfi mi sere bi Ugwu. T’oba ri mi, wa ni o boy, se you be Igbo? Se you

be Anambra, abi you be Imo? Mo ma fi n ye won pe I be omo Ogun. I’m

a soldier boy, you call me Akojun. Last album mi to jade, won nipe

ko ta. T’oba gbo ni siyin, o ma fi hip-hop jo bata. Ile oba t’ojona,

ewa lo bu si.



O yeah. Sossick, let ‘em know we taking over mehn! You know

what it is, but we knew what it was baby. Awon ti siyin ni Naija,

emi won si ma ja. T’oma sare gbagbe bata, bi pe ki bata e ja. Olorun

sib a elomi se ninu yin, o si ni hit. T’oba to time kan, e yin bawo,

e ni le fit. E ma le. Igba yen la ma mo ojo mo bale. Ama fi rap rap yin

po, ese yin o ni bale. Ewo kin fi fale, ewo mi kin fi ale. T’oba wa

da bi iro, oya na wo je a jale. Mo ti so fun yin tele, mi o lo sibi kan

kan. Mo ti lo sodo, mo fo ori mi pelu kan-kan. Mo mu kan-kan yen

mo so s’odo, ko ba odo lo. Eni wa mi ti, a ni ronu, nibo lo lo. Anywhere

ti ba lo, mi se eran ilu kan. And anywhere ti ba, nlo, mo fe ma lo

pelu *gun shot*. Mo de ni lati get e larin osu kan. O ti di dan dan

because ota po gan.



REST IN PEACE DAGRIN...

CONTINUE TO REST IN PEACE MUMMY…Mrs Olufunmilayo Ayorinde (June 18th 1950 - April 22 1995)