In the last one year, Nigeria music has gained a lot of acceptance from music lovers all around the world. Nigeria artists doing collabos and getting features from international acts like Drake, Tydollasign,rkelly to Foreign celebs jamming our songs like ojuelegba,pana etc and our artists signing ” mouth watering ” international music deals .
In the last two years,a lot of Nigerian artists signed deals with international record labels..Burna boy and Seyi shay signed with Universal music, Davido signed with Sony and RCA ,Ayo jay signed with RCA, wizkid and shizzi also alleged signed with Sony music , Ycee ,adey and mystro signed with Sony ATV and tiwa savage inked a deal with ROC nation ( To me, tiwa savage deal is the best international music deal any contemporary nigerian music artist has signed and I will discuss the reason) .
The Question now is ” Is Sony music deals and other international record label deals the key to the much desired international recognition Nigerian artists crave ??
Dbanj signed a Deal with Good music in 2012 as the first African artist and subsequently a deal with Mercury records also..The only thing Dbanj achieved with good music was shouting ‘ oh oh ” in one of their tracks ,getting kanye in a video and then a cameo in Mercy’s video.
. Here was one of Africa’s most respectes artiste Dbanj in one of the biggest label in the world at the time,Kanye’s West Label and we all knew how did story ended.. Once the reign of Dbanj Hit single” Oliver twist was over , his contract was also over and dbanj was dropped from good music without an official statement from the Label.. Signing the deal under Good music was one of the wrong moves in Dbanj’s career.
The only thing this foreign labels seek is to milk the hype and accolades surrounding an artiste with a succesful song so as to gain access to the African audience.. If not , why is Sony music and other intl labels not picking Timi dakolo, darey,asa and Bez bearing in mind that their music is much similar to what is obtained over there and they are far more talented ?? Of course they are known but they just wouldn’t be picked..
Record labels are meant to discover and nurture unknown but very talented artistes to stardom( look at mavin,Ybnl) but alas, this Foreign labels are picking the biggest and hottest African artists to quickly use and dump , treating them like the upcoming acts they chose to be while the contracts lasts..
Anyone that thinks international deal is the key to international recognition has a wrong mindset..Fela anikulapo Kuti is the Most recognized African act and he signed no international deal..Angelique Kidjo won three Grammys,featured on Time,CNN ,Aljazeera,BBC and went platinum without any international deal….Sunny ade,Marian makemba and Even Asa are in fact known more internationally than some of this artists with international deals..
Of course we cannot compare the talent of this great musicians to our contemporary artists but I believe with Good music you can reach anywhere, deal or no deal..Wizkid had drake and chrisbrown on his songs before his Sony deal, Tuface was on BET and won MTV awards with no international deal..
It is pertinent to note that Once a deal is signed, Sony have control over the artist creative license and songs that make the artists project..I mean just look at Davido’s Ep.. The label is now forcing americalized music on our artistes..They no longer have creative control over their own music..While I am not saying Good music should be done, trying to sound so much like something you not or not comfortable with never yields a good result.. photocopy go easy.This was something that happened to dbanj, trying to gain international reverence while losing home base acceptance forgetting that when u go all around the world, you will still return back home.
Even the songs they record are not allowed to be dropped at will?? How many tours have Sony organized for davido…?? How many interviews ??..
To me personally, Tiwa savage deal with Roc nation is the best deal …Why is this ?? Because it is a managerial deal !!! The deal is basically like a promoter and artiste relationship. tiwa is still under Mavin and all ROC nation does is to promote anything tiwa releases under mavin records on their platform.. no control over music, release the type of songs she is comfortable with and ROC nation markets her to the international market as the original African artist she is.
All in all, it is high time Nigeria artistes know the dictates before going ahead to sign deals and not just merry over been picked up by foreign labels..Signing a record deal is not just shouting only African artist on Columbia records or saying Four million dollars deal in the pocket ?? , if you doubt ask Skales who was asked to pay over a billion naira to set aside his record deal with baseline..
I repeat , no artiste will last long with ” dance tengere , whine it tengere, or dodo leleyi in an international record label.. Its better to stick to the Home base fans that lack the taste for song with good lyrics and meaning.. If u can’t do good music, be ready to risk losing ur home made fans , Do more americanized music and waive originality aside plus wait months or years to drop ur projects, don’t sign an international record deal..You can’t eat your cake and have it …..
At this point ,my maximum respect goes to Olamide….Shey international recognition ni Mama ma je?? Sometimes it best to be a Lion in the jungle than be a dog in the city… if it comes , it comes as long as originality is there, music has no language.
At the end, Good music will always triumph !!!
Written By Iamsynord
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Idsam600@gmail.com