Here again, We'll be focusing on just the major factors affecting upcoming music acts and why they don’t go far in chasing their music careers and ending up successfully.
1. LACK OF TALENT: Basically, without the talent for music itself, you just might keep going down the road but not getting anywhere close. It’s not something to be forced. They don’t learn music; i believe the industry favors those that were born with the talent naturally. The ability to get a nice beat that suites your mood, write to it perfectly without swallowing some words and going off beat matter a lot. because if a whack song comes out from the studio, and you make moves on promoting that crap you just might end up making a fool out of your stage name and that’s where you might just get it wrong. A 4minute track can be well written and then just somewhere in between you go off the beat, you really don’t know how that feels when you listen to it with headphones, it’s really heartbreaking.
And some music groups are still together today because there’s is just that one person co-coordinating the hook on all the songs and also writes the verses for the rest of the team, and then his verse is always the best. You just need to give them sometime down the road. you'll find out that when they split, the one who does the co-ordination of the lyrics and everything about the songs tend to get more of the spotlight than he had with the team. Let’s take for instance, Plantaishun boys which included 2face, Faze & Blackface, Please don’t get me wrong they all had the talent for music, But after the split
2face seemed to have more of the spotlight and kept on getting better by the day. Faze also tried really well, but please blackface was no where to be found. Also lets look at L.O.S (Loud On Sound) which includes KingZamir, Bridge, Tomi Thomas and Bris B. They all have this special talent that can blow your mind, different styles, different flows, originality, all interconnected via the almighty Tomi Thomas on the hooks. To be honest, this group is just amazing. This is where combined talent comes in. Groups should not be selected from your classmates, or church mates or street gang, consider who is pretty talented like you too. That should be your criteria.
2. GREED: This is another factor really slowing these acts down, it’s even the most common factor amongst them all. Songs are recorded without the finance to promote. It’s really embarrassing when an artiste probably a rapper records a song titled let’s say “BLOOD MONEY” and then he spits the hottest bars he’s got, boasting about his bank account and all. And then when the time to promote comes, he automatically turns to a beggar, asking for free promo packs from bloggers, like they are blogging for fun. It is not meant to be so, like we said in the last article. If you hustled to record the track, you should be ready to hustle to promote the track too. Those two things are vital and must always be considered at the same time. No one buys a car without money for fuel. We should understand that Nothing good comes easy, so if everyone promotes your track for you free of charge, then you must perform at shows and feature on tracks free of charge too. It’s called tit for tat. The unwillingness to pay for Top class collabos, professional cover arts, promo packs, Radio air-plays, DJ services etc. should stop. It won’t get you anywhere. IF YOU DILIGENTLY INVEST BIG MONEY IN YOUR HUSTLE, YOU’RE GOING TO GET MORE OUT OF IT.
3. POOR COLLABORATIONS: stop featuring your room mate, stop featuring your class mate, stop featuring your friends that are almost as anonymous as you are to the industry. Poor collabos can either make you or break you. But 70% goes to breaking you. If you keep on featuring unknown friends, you just might keep on being unnoticed. I really don’t know how to break this down to you. But lets take for instance 2 upcoming acts. The 1st one has 2 well promoted tracks, the 1st track features S-bone & Flaky and the 2nd tack features “Havoc tha Don”. The 2nd guy has 2 well promoted tracks too, the 1st track features wizkid and patoranking and the 2nd track features Reminisce and Praiz (LOOL! Such a combo). Now if this 2 guys keep on featuring the category of guys they featured on the last two tracks, within a year, The 2nd guy will be rated amongst the category of the guys he usually featured. That’s another point am tryna make, “Feature those who you’d love to be in their category”. Although I understand you have to start from the base which involves featuring artistes of the lesser categories. But please, don’t not keep on doing that for too long. But this rule is conditional in some cases, because if you have this friend that is really good too, and you believe he has that ability to hit the industry just like you wish too. Please keep in touch with him and always feature him or her from time to time, So even when he/she blows, you can use them to connect with other people of the level they have gotten to, instead of creating competition with them. It’s all about common sense.
4. M.I.A: An artiste can go M.I.A (missing in action) when you don’t go for shows and events. They matter a lot. This is where you get to meet guys who could link you up with that record deal you’ve been chasing for long, or that video director who is an uncle to them, or even that blogger that might later be your realest nigga or probably a studio owner that wants you to be coming over from time to time to cook up some mad joints. Please undull yourself. And if daddy is a strict man and you can’t stay out late till even 4pm please stick to BBM, twitter, Facebook and social media as a whole. You can have a try with that. Connections matter a lot. Try to meet people and interact. And also connect with those fine female tweeps that love music. That can help scream about your music online. Be wise, my nigga…. But don’t famz oh! I didn’t teach you that one.
5. WISE USE OF THE INTERNET: No wifi, No modem, No laptop, not even megabyte for phone then that’s going to be hard, because 90% of your work and communication is dependent on internet access. That is why there are several cyber cafes around. Get a flash drive or a hard drive and store your songs, cover arts, etc on them. At least once every week hit the cyber cafĂ© and do what you planned to do online for that week. And also have a mailing list for blogs and sites that you’ll be submitting your songs to via email every time you record a track, but there are high tendencies they might be ignored, because you haven’t paid for the promo pack. But still just give it a try. The web is very important to you and should keep in touch with it at all times.
6. CHEAP & AMATEUR WORKS: Working with a producer that just started using FL studio or Cubase or Logic will ruin your tracks in most cases. There should always be a touch of professionalism in your tracks and your music generally, even in your management. Upcoming acts should always learn the habit of relating with those already doing well in the game, for that’s the only way to know how exactly the game is played. Because it cheaper doesn’t mean you should jump into the offer, also consider the quality of what you’ll get in return. Would you love to spend 10,000 naira on a car that will develop problems every week, or 50,000 naira on a car that will function properly? Obviously NO! So that’s why there’s a lot of hustle involved in this music thingy you’re doing. No popular artiste will tell you it was easy climbing to the top, so let’s understand the fact that there are many financial sacrifices to be made. Avoid jumping into amateur offers because it’s more affordable.
7. MONOTONY: Another major problem killing the shine for most of our upcoming acts is the fact that they all sound alike. Every single day on social media, innocent tweeps are being forced to anticipate the same kind of song on and on and on. In the underground music world, all tracks talk about the booty, the waist, the boobies, the bottles, the way she drops it low…. Come on! That’s enough! Tell us something else. As an upcoming artistes, you should be able to recognize the areas of congestion and monotony, so as to create a unique path for yourself and your music to flow freely and for easy recognition. No one sings like dammy krane, no one raps like Bris B, no one does it like Banky w, No one does it like p square. Uniqueness is key. If you wana go to the studio and record some “Wannabe” sh!T trust me you won’t get no shine. Look at those trying to be like Olamide by all means, they aren’t just getting it, and they are messing up big time. Those trying to be like wizkid and davido aren’t just getting it at all. Be yourself and set a trend, be unique and do not follow the rest of the crowd to sing “The way she whines” 24/7. It’s becoming a disease. Please let’s understand that. It’s vital!
8. CHARISMA: This might sound really trivial, but its as important as a microphone to a studio. There’s no way you’re going to go out there to relate with a couple of people with some dirty swag as an artiste and you’ll be appreciated, Hell NO! If pride is the problem, kill it and be humble. If being shy is the problem, hang out with a couple of friends you always feel free with so they can loosen up your spirit sometimes. Many things could be the problem, but just make sure you tackle it. Look presentable at all times from your dress code to your communication skills, so you don’t need to wait for them to hear your song before they admire you personally, never be rude to anyone. Just do everything like you’re a brand and stop fucking around and making a fool out of yourself probably because your last song hit 3000 downloads. The word is MATURITY. Fuck with class and not swag. That’s another way you can gain respect from others.
Once again, I’m Adese Ifeoluwa David, Head of Spankz Online Media Team, and I’ll be sharing helpful articles like this with you from time to time. Thank you for coming on here. Hope you find it pretty cool. Wishing you the best in your music career. Safe!
.
No comments: