Since the announcement of the new Mavins
signing, we’ve all been pretty stoked about it
because du-uh! it’s the Mavins, and then again,
we applaud their sight keenness having
recognized the attendant benefits in snatching
up these talents that had been siting right in
our very before for some heckuva good time
now.
Like expected, this ‘dangerous’ move got
tongues all over the industry populace really
wagging simply because Don Jazzy cut to the
chase by skipping some certain budding
music stars with talents that scream ‘ready to
deliver’ for the we-never-woulda-guessed-it
trio (or quartet now isit ) of Poe, Blair and
Clinton, otherwise known as the DNA Twins
and Johnny Drille of course.
Deficient as structure is in our industry, and
with the drama of artistes having to jump ship
and dump their founding labels over the
alluva sudden shocking discovery that they
signed their lives into a deal offering nothing
other than creative slavery, there still isn’t
any fact, basis, reason or even a point to put
forward that negates the valuable place of
having a working and effectual management
in system. But because making money has
remained the primary focus for many
executives and companies, for them, talent
can only be defined as anybody who can
move an unforgiving crowd without the fear
of offing shirt and not giving a hoot
how sounding like a wounded hyena upsets
our medullas while hollering out loud their
studio rants (even off-stage). However, that is
not Don Jazzy, and that’s certainly not The
Mavins.
As an industry, our unwillingness to take
calculated risks and aspire for dramatic
change has left us swiveling in the same
spot that has failed to birth any other uber
familiar and largely successful artiste whose
craft doesn’t reside in the genre descents of
afro-something and indigenous. The Mavins
are making an exemplary spectacle again with
these new signings. Again because they had
succeeded with Tiwa Savage who returned
from her sojourn abroad spotting a
particularly defiant contemporary sound but
was tailored into a seamless fit using a fusion
of cultural embellishments in her music. This
later saw her contesting roles with her male
counterparts having such magnanimous
industry presence and graciously sitting atop
the food chain.
But of course, simple logic tells me their
signing is not at all about (re)tailoring their
sound, there are afterall too many Baddo/
Starboy/OBO wannabes and understudies
already. Besides, the music styles of Poe and
Johnny Drille are too distinct to want to
tamper with. IMO, the deal signing relays a
strategic approach at packaging and exporting
talents outrightly. These guys are not growing
artistes who need creative direction, no!
Rather they are superstars who have
already established themselves (and
successfully too) in crafts that although aren’t
exactly first choice because of how our
industry picked her dynamics. But why should
that stop anybody’s progress anyways? Thank
God someone (Don Jazzy) has recognized that
the industry too nurses geniuses of a high
creative order like them, and that it would be
a grave anomaly if the world can afford to
not hear them.
Speaking on the context of hearing them, I’ve
always faulted the listening audience for the
commercial nature of certain talents. Not that
we can actually call them that, but well,
they’re sha in our faces, violently raping our
ears. Thus, this impresses the dire need to
rechristen the mind of music fans and then
our general orientation as an industry in the
business of peddling music, which is where
the Mavins have now come in, and perhaps,
what equally gave rise to the dawning of these
unusual but yet skillfully dynamic artistes
upon us. This long overdue yet desperate
intervention must aware music folk of the fact
that commercial rap is not only entertaining
as Keshi and Falz presents it, but also
philosophical and teachable as Poe commands
it to be. And that not only have we totally
missed the descript for what alternative music
in Nigeria is, we have gone right ahead to
misplace frontliners like Adekunle Gold,
Aramide, Simi and BOJ, practising afro fusion
music and have them pegged for alternative.
Johnny Drille is here to correct that error-in-
context.
This signing is effective because the projected
benefit tell well for the image and the overall
developmental prospect for both the label and
her artistes. If the Mavins can succeeded at
growing the individual brands of their
eccentric stars, then they would have excelled
to some extent at becoming the model
business standard for music management,
branding and marketing especially here in
Nigeria. This simple gesture of working
exceptionally hard at proving that certain
industry myths on impossibility are quite
doable, creates a platform of hope to other
similarly unique artistes. While it encourages
talents to stay true to their creative designs
rather than bend to the pressures in the
demands of the industry, which are
very stereotype in nature, it challenges other
establishments with the fear of venturing out
differently to see the wisdom in doing a little
bit more than just the average normal to
expanding our African music frontiers. Going
by our latest quest to conquer and take newer
territories in the global market, one solution
to that muddle is now hitting us head-on.
To crown it, this move is one that clearly
mirrors the direction of growth The Mavins
are advancing towards. They have ascended
from those good ol’ days of Dorobucci and the
pathetic Janta Manta , which actually is
repressibly hard to picture Poe or Johnny
Drille on really, to this new dimensional wave
that they wanna be riding. With Tiwa, now a
Roc Nation artiste, brewing speculations that
Iyanya is already cued in, and Korede Bello
having Kelly Rowland on his song, even you
can tell that they’re no longer about the
jonzing sturvs!
posted from Bloggeroid
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