My name is Vario Koo, I'm a farmer, I'm a farmer, I'm a farmer, I'm a farmer, I'm a farmer,
I'm a farmer.
My name is Vario Koo Lemi, my friends call me Lemi Gario Koo.
I'm a graphic designer, fine artist and illustrator from Nigeria.
I was born, bred and bought out in Lagos, Nigeria.
How to film is the album covers I designed for Felakuti's musical career.
I designed most of the album covers in the sense that as a single person, I designed 26 album covers for Felakuti's music between 1974 and 1993.
My meeting with Felakuti was like a chance meeting, but it was preordained for the role that we had to play together.
In the beginning, there was the music, basically, and the music needed an accompaniment,
it needed a kind of translator, it needed visuals, it needed imagery, and my art came to supply that.
In 1974 specifically, two major incidents happened in my life that determined my professional destiny.
The first was the release of Bruce Lee's film called Enter the Dragon.
I used to do portraits for people in my neighborhood those days.
Then this beer palo owner, beer palo is like a drink place where you drink.
The owner of the drinking place commissioned me to do the poster painting of Bruce Lee's poster, Enter the Dragon.
The film actually had three main actors, so I had to paint Bruce Lee, John Saxon and Jim Kelly.
Number two was the release of Felakuti's album called The Music of Felak, Ruffaloffo Fight.
It was a double album. I got a copy and I was looking at the album sleeve.
I saw, you know, it's a photograph of Felakuti, Felakuti had a microphone singing.
Because I self-taught, I didn't study art in school, I taught myself.
I learned by asking questions and doing my own research and giving myself assignments.
When I got the album cover of that Ruffaloffo Fight, I looked at the title.
Ruffaloffo in Yoruba means mod, you know, mod like swamp.
That could literally be translated to mod fight, ruffaloffo fight.
So I felt like I should practice, you know, by doing my own version of the album cover.
So I did a drawing of Felak, dancing on mod, not fighting, but dancing on mod.
Then I put in the graphics, I wrote Felakuti's name and the title Ruffaloffo Fight.
It was just for practice for me, so I had it in my portfolio.
Now there was this journalist called Babatunde Harrison.
He was working for Sunday Punch in Lagos then.
There was a newspaper in Lagos called The Punch. It used to be weekly in 1973-74 when he just started.
So the journalist had traveled to the United States of America previously.
So he just came back. He was a regular customer in that drink place. He loved to drink.
So when he got there, he saw the poster, you know, and he was really interested in finding out who did the poster
because he liked the work. So they brought him to me and when he saw me, he said he wanted to see my other drawings.
So I brought out the drawings that I had in my portfolio.
As he was looking through, he saw the Felak cover that I did.
So he said, ah, can you do album covers? You know, and I said, ah, I wasn't able to show myself.
Although I had done two covers before. I did one for my uncle and one for my friend.
My uncle's was not published. So I answered, you know, and he said okay.
Two days before that day, he and Felak, they were discussing, you know, about covers to show what Felak was trying to do
because his music was getting social conscious and political as well.
You know, I didn't believe him. I thought he was drunk because he was coming from the drink place.
So I was wondering, does this guy know Felak, you know, because Felak was huge. So he said he would bring a picture for me.
The next day, he brought a Felak picture and said I should do a portrait of Felak as test.
So I did that and the third day it was ready, he came and saw it.
Ah, let's go. I'm not drinking now. Let's go and see Felak.
You know, I was feeling like, is he serious? So he held the tag, you see.
And I told my mom, I said, he wants to take me to Felak. My mom said, be careful. I said, okay.
And he took me and when Felak saw the portrait, he said two words.
That was the first time I had those two words and I'll never forget it like that.
He said, wow, god damn. He really loved.
So he wrote out a check for $129 and those days I used to earn $39 for my portraits.
He didn't know how much I earned but he just wrote out it for $129.
That's four times what I earned for portraits.
So I said, no, Felak, I don't want money. I gave you from the bottom of my heart.
He said, ah. So he tore out a sheet of paper and wrote out a gate pass.
He said, please admit Beara, an issue free of charge and he signed it and he gave me.
So that was my ticket to Kanakuta. That was the beginning.
So it was pre-ordained.
So about three weeks after, the police attacked Felak's house.
So it was on the network news, on the evening news, nine o'clock news.
And when I heard I was worried, I said, ah.
So I waited for that man, Tunde Harrison, to come and drink
because the drink place is just next house to my parents' place.
So when I saw him, I said, uncle, is Felak okay? He said, yes.
He said, you want to see him? I'm going to see him in the hospital.
I said, yeah, I want to go. So he took me.
We got there, many people in the room, maybe 20 or more.
And we tried, we moved towards the bed. Eventually, Felak saw us.
So he saw Tunde. He said, ah, Tunde, you know, that he was his friend.
Then he looked at me and said, the artist.
Those words went into my mind.
It went inside me.
I guess that was the moment when I accepted the role of the artist.
That was in 1974.
So he came out of hospital.
He was okay.
Some few weeks, then he composed the song, a lot more clues.
And he said, let me, let's see what you can do about this.
So that was my first attempt, my first effort to do his cover.
And when the record was released, he got rave reviews.
The music got rave reviews in the press normally.
Then for the first time in Nigeria, they reviewed album cover.
And I became a star instantly. I was 18.
Get away, fuck off, who are you? Go and die.
Fuck away, get away, who are you? Go and shit.
With the press and the press, fuck away, who are you? Yeah.
Two people, they are up too.
Listen. Listen.
Two people, they are up too. They are up too.
They are up too.
They are up too.
They are up too.
They are up too.
They are up too.
Listen. Listen.
Two people, they are up too.
I feel very happy to be alive and privileged to be alive right now.
To see Fela's legacy, Blue Song.
And to see the message Fela was passing 30 years ago.
To see that it's still very relevant today.
In Nigeria today, all the things Fela said is rolling back in 3D slow motion.
Also...
You know, arts, like music, you know, can be fashionable.
So you have to be able to move with the tide of things to survive.
I've survived 35 years already based on the fact that I keep on being relevant with what I'm doing.
So I came up with this style because the creative mind is a restless spirit.
Sometimes you feel you want new challenges.
So in recent times I just said, OK, I need to challenge myself.
I need to recreate myself.
Come up like a refresh, you know, like you refresh your computer.
So this is refresh.
It's still lemmy, but it's a refreshed one.
This current style that I just came up with, I want to take it around the world.
It's not, it doesn't have a calendar.
Any time and where.
I had a contact with someone from Italy recently.
So that person is talking about March next year.
Also, there's a possibility of going to South Africa next year.
There's a possibility of Brazil also.
In 2011 already, somebody is talking from Finland in Helsinki.
So I'm waiting for France.
I'm waiting for Germany.
So with time, in divine time.
So definitely I want to go around with my legacy.
The Fela work is a legacy.
So that is ready to tour.
Yeah, because it's like a musician has a big hit.
You can take it around the world.
So that one basically is a touring material.
Then my new work in the process, I suppose that so people know I'm still current.
I'm alive and I'm still working.
So that's the plan.
And yeah, I hope, you know, I know the universe will bless the effort.
