Singer Etcetera and these his colleagues...lol. He comes for
them again in new article. Read below...
Ladies and gentlemen, you are welcome to the new
game in town. For better or for worse, our music
“industry” is embracing a new form of art. The focus
has shifted almost entirely from making music to
something else. Now the transition is finally complete
and the sync word here is LIE. In Nigeria today, every
artist needs a “lying” platform – or three, to reach their
target audience. Years back, radio used to be the
dominant “platform” for breaking new artists, you may
say it is still important, but the radio is certainly no
longer the only game in town. It is becoming simply
too limited, too expensive and too difficult to control to
be the sole platform. A better and surer way to expose
the artist to the public has been discovered. Now the
artist with the biggest LIE has the bigger and better
head start.
The Nigerian music “industry” has now brought a vast array
of gifted liars. We have seen managers lying blatantly about
the activities of their artistes just to be noticed. So far, it is
working for them here in Nigeria. Our gullibility has made it
too easy to become an artist here in Nigeria. What was your
reactions when Burna Boy tweeted about his new songwriting
deal with Universal Music Group? Did you notice how the
blogs went gaga congratulating him? If truly Burna Boy got a
deal, why didn’t Universal Music Group issue a statement to
that effect? Well, strange stuff has happened.
Isn’t the Nigerian music “industry” at risk with this lying game
taken to this new level? Is it no longer worth noting that the
actual quality of the artist’s songs should be a predominating
factor in a decision to recruit him as a songwriter? Why are
we acting as if we don’t know that Burna’s songs won’t find
many readily available patronisers outside the shores of
Nigeria? If they do, they can only be appreciated by only a
few Nigerians. Even in cases where there is a proven audience
for a particular artiste’s work, it is not enough to make it a
big deal to corner a deal. As a musician reading this article,
would you approach Burna Boy to write you a song? Judging
by what you’ve heard from him so far! If you can’t, why
would a foreign company with a long list of songwriters
employ him as a songwriter?
One reason why there are no record labels in Nigeria is that a
lot of our music stakeholders are sentimental in their
approach to the business. The guys at Universal are not
jokers. They are strictly in it for the money. They don’t attach
sentiments to their dealings. They know that songwriting is
not actually a business. There’s no financial element attached
to songwriting in itself. It is the job of the music publisher to
turn the song into something that can generate income. Can
Burna’s song guarantee the kind of financial returns we are
talking about here? How many CDs has he sold in Nigeria as
an artist? I am not talking of the free downloads of singles on
blogs, but the copies of actual albums he has sold. How many
people have his album in their homes? The pink and brown
contract sneaked up on us on instagram could have been
printed at Oluwole. Until Universal Music Group authenticates
these claims, everything Burna has said could not be true. It
is a shame that Nigerian journalists will never see it necessary
to investigate any issue before plastering it all over their
platforms. I was on set on Nigezie, shooting the Etcetera Live
TV show when the producer asked if I heard about Burna
Boy’s new deal with Universal Records. Right there and then,
I went online and checked the authenticity of the story. The
first thing I checked was if Universal Music Group issued any
statement to that effect. I wasn’t surprised that the story
could only be found on Nigerian websites. The websites of
Universal in America, South Africa and other countries had
nothing suggesting they have anything with Burna Boy. Their
facebook pages said nothing too. There is an official
statement on every deal they have made. It is the norm with
every recording company in the world. You employ a
songwriter who is like a talent magnet; a record maker.
Someone who brings forth the talent in the singer. Someone
whose role is to write songs that define the artistes and give
them a reason for existence and you keep that under the
carpet? It doesn’t make any sense. The truth is, there’s no
song of Burna that suggests he is anywhere close to being the
kind of songwriter we are talking about here. This guy sounds
like he doesn’t want anyone to pick out his lines.
Finally, it is very important for all those with music interest to
note that in this new LIE eco-system of ours, there are three
things a musician needs, and his success or failure can be
predicted almost entirely on the basis of how many of these
three things are in place. If you can provide a clean sweep of
three out of three, like Burna Boy, you’ll likely be signing a
record deal with Universal Music Group even without being
able to hold your notes vocally. If you’ve got two out of three,
you will probably get an offer, like some other artistes have
claimed at different times. Though it might not be exactly the
deal you were hoping for. Bring only one out of three and the
best you can hope for is a polite invitation to come back
sometime in the distant future. So here are the three things
every Nigerian will pay for – the essential components to a
successful “Music Career” – 1.LIE, 2.LIE and 3.LIE!
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