By Habeeb Olokooba
There are many ebullient dreams to be visualized as upcoming afrobeats artists. While some will come to life, some will remain mere dreams, better not dreams. But follow your dreams, they say, even though it might be your biggest nightmare.
The fast rising afrobeats star, Crown Uzama popularly known as Shalipoppi, who simply termed his genre is Aftopluto had weeks back, announced the inception of his record label Plutomania records.
The former Dvpper Music star has with the announcement sparked reactions from netizens, it’s not for us to judge Shalli on whether his decision was right or wrong. But let’s travel in time. Did you remember the inception of YAGI level by Lil Kesh in 2016. Lil Kesh, who went from giving us hits back to back, ended up becoming so irrelevant that his voice went into extinction.
Fact is, it takes the grace of wizkid and a voice as loud and razz as that of portable omolalomi for you to gain relevance after leaving a label. As if that’s not even enough, it becomes a whole different thing when a half baked artist wants to stand alone, he might end up crashing like Lyta did back then in 2019, Sean tizzle, Lil Kesh to mention but a few.
And you will agree with me when I say as an artist you get better endorsement than standing alone. Seyi vibes is a relative example. It took him sweat to rise to stardom, despite dropping hits back to back.
Record Label Wahala
It has been heartbroken to see record labels coming back to artists that made them. A relevant example is Bella Shmurda in 2021, who got sued by the board of Dangbana Republic which he established and demands 500 million naira for taking Feature without remitting a kobo for the label.
Another relative example is that of Kiss Daniel (now Kizz Daniel) who left G-world wide as a result of low pay. The harm can come from both the label and as well the artists.
Aside from this, the responsibility that comes with owning a record label is not sullen, a lot of things had to be in place, Olamide, Don Jazzy, Naira Marley, all had to jeopardize their careers in order to bring to limelight, artists like, Adekunle Gold, Asake, Reekado Banks, Korede Bello, Lil Kesh, Ayra Starr and so on.
It can be suicidal , even wizkid was unable to constantly promoting artists in his as he was to engrossed promoting his own art. You can go bankrupt as a result of promoting new artists. And if the business doesn’t go well, you might venture into depression. Just like a wise man will say, “It is easy to get to the top, but quite harder to remain there,”
More Tales…
It has been aptly perused that the death of Ilerioluwa Oladimeji Aloba (Mohbad) is still fresh in the minds of Nigerians. Unfortunately, his situation best explains how evil the record labels can be. And how bad betrayal from artists can also be.
Imagine you invested a whole fortune in an artist all for him to wake up one day and say he is going away from the label that made him. The household example here is DMW who invested in Bred who ended up leaving without giving to the record label the proceeds of their investment.
In a nutshell, I think as a fast rising star who is just stepping up in the industry, you need a proper watchout and a lot of personal reasoning. For lots of artists have taken advice from unwise advisers which ended up costing them their whole opportunity they might not meet up with again for life.