The current Nigerian music artiste is synonymous to a scam artiste. The traits exhibited by a scam artiste is to pose himself as a genuine individual, defraud his clients and make quick money, never to be seen or heard from again. The new Nigerian music artiste (NNMA) does the same by posing himself as a 'genuine talent', deceiving his fans that he's here to stay, then he makes that big buck by robbing his fans of their time, money and effort and either disappears to the land of no return or reduces his creativity and lyrics to the infantile scribbles of a person exposed to Indecency at an early age. The driving force to this attitude is money - quick, fast money.
Poverty is the mother of all inventions. In this case, replace invention with creativity. The only time the new crop of Nigerian artistes is saturated with creativity is in poverty. Here you can see them so vibrant and bursting with energy. This can be related to an enzyme saturation curve. In enzyme kinetics, saturation occurs when the enzyme (Nigerian artiste) is occupied with substrate (money). Adding more substrate (money) will not increase the rate of reaction (creativity) to any significant effect because the enzyme's active sites have been occupied by substrate (money). So the Nigerian artiste stagnates at this point and is more useless than useful.
Gradually, he loses all vigour, substituting his wit, skill and creativity for quick and lazy money schemes, acting out his true disposition to sluggishness, and caring less if his fans' oxen are gored. During any election year, you find out that this same artiste who has been AWOL in the music scene would lend his voice to a political party. All of a sudden he gets inspiration to write and sing for a political candidate because he has been paid to do so. He might even reduce himself to singing for children's birthdays and weddings without any corresponding increase and improvement in his craft. Why? The answer is quick money. I have to admit that most of today's artistes would never have ventured into music if not for the gross unemployment in the country. It is so convincing there is a subconscious hate for what they do. Nigerian artistes do not love music per se, they love the perks it brings but definitely not the art of music, because if you have a threadbare of love for music you would put much dedicated effort in your craft, spend quality time in penning down lyrics (and if you find it hard to write songs, pay for songwriters), improve and fine tune your performances on stage.
Beyoncé can as well just retire since she has made enough money to last a lifetime. Hate or love her, she has paid her dues and she does not need to impress anyone at this stage of her life. People would rant she's always on our screens and that she needs to take a breather, but when you love and are passionate about what you do there's is no way you'd be out of the scene for long. Despite announcing his retirement from making studio albums, JayZ never really retired because to real artistes music is life. It can never leave you. Eminem is 41 years old and still keeps it real. In addition to being a real artiste, the ardent respect for fans and giving them the best of their money's worth make the biggest priority of these artistes. Let's not even go that far but bring it down to home. King Sunny Ade has a career that spans over 40 years in the industry and he doesn't look like someone who's ready to slow down. How many of our current artistes are going to be sustainable like this? Sir Shina Peters has 16 album releases to his credit. Oliver de Coque released no fewer than 73 albums in his lifetime. Femi Kuti has just been nominated for a Grammy again. These are people who love their craft and see music as a profession and not some quick money scheme. Such cannot be said for those that parade themselves as the new generation of artistes.
So, in a bid to make quick money and maintain 'relevance' in the entertainment industry, Sound Sultan has watered down his craft to be less intellectual and more lacklustre. After a few interviews in the US and a few hits as a rap enigma, MR Incredible- MI has been AWOL on the rap music scene. He might come up with an argument that he's busy hosting TV shows hence the lack of time to go to the studio. But we can't be deceived, can we? As a Nigerian you have only gotten lazy and hosting jobs get you quick money. If you love your craft, you would get busy. When was the last time you picked up a pen, MI? Where is 9ice today? Oh busy impregnating the whole world, are we? Your first album was a classic but since poverty has managed to escape you, you have lost all creative genius, right? Wow, guess what I just read? 9ice is planning to run for an electoral position in his state. We know that's the surest way to hit the jackpot in Nigeria and not to serve the people.
Ruggedman aka Ruggedybaba has reduced himself to nothing other than a Manchester United commentator on twitter. When we newly got to know you, you unleashed a one man army exposing the charlatans that paraded themselves as rap artistes or music producers- to be explicit Idris Abdulkareem and the clownish Kennis music. Kennis music like the typical Nigerian who hates criticisms must have wanted your head but they had no other choice than to sit up too and desist from 'pangolo' beats, razz and uninspiring music videos. Good job on that. So Ruggedman, was your stint in the music industry a one off or was it as a result of the economic situation of the country and you just had to keep yourself busy? About time you confessed it was just a stint and your true passion was to be a Manchester United commentator or better still get back to the studio! Eldee get off twitter and go make music and kindly put Dr. Sid in order! I expect more from a 'Trybesmen/DaTrybe alumni'. Don't prove me right you were in it for the money. 2face Idibia, the honeymoon is over! Get back into the studio. You have a duty to your fans to not shortchange them.
You might wonder why I picked on the aforementioned and not the obvious 'take-banana- till- you-go- yo or I-must-be-a- nuisance-by-force-in-the-music-industry-to-make-money' entities. The former have talent but the latter have no whiff of talent and do not warrant any analysis. There's a proverb that goes like this: everyone enjoys the entertainment of a mad man, but no one wants a mad man for a child. So, let the mad analyse the mad. To those who run the airwaves now and don't seem to slow down like Wizkid, Dbanj, and Psquare, well keep up the good work but I hope in the next few years you would not be deemed as scam artistes, remaining at a point of stagnancy and robbing your fans and denying them their rights to quality music that made them fall in love with you in the first place. I hope you would have improved on your craft, perfected the art of your stage performances and not fall into the euphoria of laziness that has besotted the New Nigerian Music Artiste (NNMA).
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