By Noka
Our Naija entertainment industry has no doubt grown a
lot in the past couple of years and it's a good achievement especially for
those promoters,label owners, musicians, D. J’s, producers etc. who have sown a lot
in the past. Our songs are doing great both home and abroad with most clubs
blasting Naija songs. However, with this growth, I am of the opinion that there
should be a standard as to the songs,videos released, the performances of artistes
in shows and so on....
It needs to be understood by people
in this industry that talent is very important and goes a long way; whether
it's a musician, producer, D.J or whatever i'm not trying to get famous or pick a
fight, but someone needs to say this; most of our Nigerian artistes lack talent
including some of the 'big' ones we all know. Talent here is having a good
voice, sense of musical ability or in the case of a rapper having a skill of
good wordplay or being able to make good rhymes. In the case of a producer for
instance,it's not having the same beat for every track but yet have a
distinctive beat that is marked as yours.
Basically, I see one of our biggest
problems as being not having a standard of songs that are released these days.
Once the song has a nice beat and some shouts of pidgin slangs in it, it becomes
a hit or better still a 'club banger' (most naija hits songs seem to be club
bangers these days sha....hmmnnn).Yea we need club bangers alright but is it
going to be at the expense of listening to constant rubbish!(we don’t mind a
bit of rubbish but please not every time jor.) I can't remember the last time I
listened to a naija song and it was a track I could really relate to..(only 3
Nigerian artistes have made me feel this way in recent times...no names
mentioned though)..I'm one of those people who believe that Naija music was way
better listening to the likes of Fela, Victor Uwaifo, Ebenezar Obey....e.t.c.Yes we have come a long way from this era but those were times where music really
was life!.
Some of y'all might bring up soulja boy and say he's crap...yea he is, but the way I see it, there are lots of talented musicians in America to be focusing on just soulja boy..he's one bad apple in a tree full of good apples as opposed to the lack of talented artistes here in Nigeria who all seem to be soulja boys and girls. Our 'hip-hop' scene even seems to be the worst of all as there are very few who know what the genre is really about and who actually know what they are doing. Most of the 'rappers' claim to be the best and have never had a track with a verse of 'reasonable' rhymes. Some even have no idea what wordplay means.
Some of y'all might bring up soulja boy and say he's crap...yea he is, but the way I see it, there are lots of talented musicians in America to be focusing on just soulja boy..he's one bad apple in a tree full of good apples as opposed to the lack of talented artistes here in Nigeria who all seem to be soulja boys and girls. Our 'hip-hop' scene even seems to be the worst of all as there are very few who know what the genre is really about and who actually know what they are doing. Most of the 'rappers' claim to be the best and have never had a track with a verse of 'reasonable' rhymes. Some even have no idea what wordplay means.
The industry also needs to realize that being a musician doesn’t necessarily mean you have to write your own songs, you can be talented as a musician and yet lack talent as a songwriter. This is one of the biggest problems our musicians have and most of them are ignorant in this aspect and think being a good musician means you must also take the credit for writing a hit song.In entertainment industries abroad, they are songwriters who are employed by music labels just to write songs for the artistes whether such artiste is popular or upcoming. Even the great M.J (R.I.P) had a song written for him by R.kelly and Neyo wrote a song for Mary J and so on. My point here is, not being able to write your own song as a musician doesn't make you less of an artiste!
The industry is still growing and I am definitely not going to dispute that fact, But in order to get a better acclaimed international status, some things have to change and be properly taken care of. Winning 'best African Act' for MTV Europe and MAMA's does not mean the industry or the artiste is made because, basically, such awards are given to artistes based on being an African artiste not a 'talented' artiste. I agree with Femi Kuti where he said in an interview that we'll achieve something great in the Nigerian music industry when an artiste is nominated for a GRAMMY not just as an 'African act' but as a talented artiste deserving of such award not based on nationality...period!!!
All in all some of our artistes are doing good though and I wish them more success...Congrats to 2face idibia for his BET 2011 nomination...:D
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