Extortion killing the game
19 September 2013
By The Don-Poppa
Disclaimer: Views expressed here are personal by individual content providers and do not represent the opinion of Mdundo.
I write this in reference to a personal account and experiences shared by my colleagues in the industry.
There is a frustrating system presently that is crucifying the dreams of hardworking and talented acts in the music industry. They have contrived cartels that control the content and the artists, referring to it as earning your stripes to blanket the filth that is in the game.
Let me make a quintessential reference to back the disenchantment expressed here.
You are an artist trying to turn a talent into a business. With the little savings you have garnered you seek the services of a top producer in the country because naturally you would want the best to compete with the best.
You struggle through studio time to produce that killer track you believe will solidify your entry into the game, not forgetting you already have a mixtape doing rounds in the streets.
Having fulfilled that and getting that much deserved nod from Mr Producer that you will conquer, you go ahead to package the track in a brilliantly done media kit to impress the handler who will receive it. Then you go out to stations circulating the CD for exclusive listens. Furthermore you do a press release to give the endeavor a boost to hit the top.
Then the reality checks in, that’s just not the full package you got to so call ‘earn them stripes’. You walk into a radio station and the ‘lazy’ presenter that’s actually paid to listen to those CD’s of every dozen artists that bring their content daily will not do his part.
They probably may listen to your track and genuinely express their excitement, even call you up for an interview on short notice to talk about the track as it receives its much anticipated premier on the airwaves. Then what happens immediately you leave…the track don’t get played any more!
Your fans that have been requesting eventually get exhausted as their requests receive a cold shoulder and there you are…back to square 1. A follow up is received with a recurring ‘MTEJA’.
So you look up to the DJ’s not just any but those that command a following. The custodians who traditionally make music circulate ever since are now the greatest sell outs. Ruthless extortion being practiced behind closed doors. It’s no longer surprising to find a DJ playing a particular jam or tracks from a particular artist in intervals of 5 minutes throughout their mixes…someone got paid.
Then you will be told the public wants to associate the content they hear to a face…so do a HQ video. You dig deep and incur major collateral getting the funds for that then deliver that HQ video. Then you look up to the program manager of the most watched local shows on music prime time.
This brother will most probably tell you “kilami nyingi kwa ngoma stacheza buda, changamkia vitu local ntakuchezea vida zako.”…dude? After spending a fortune on this that’s how you are going to do me?! So you mean to tell me that earning my stripes means yielding to extortion for as long as I have not made it in this game, and the greatest vice being that you want to even control my creativity?
Let me narrow it to one genre; HIPHOP which I’m affiliated to. Back to back from 5-7pm. There are two main artist whose videos receive an aggressive airplay, agenda-setting to the 5 million viewers (I suppose) that they are the best the nation can provide.
The other HIPHOP acts that could be two fold talented have to settle with being the alternative watch to the two main guys and you wonder where the hatred in the game comes from?
Looking at an artist least talented than you are bag more cream than you do because some big brother in the industry got their back.
I think I’ve driven the point home. Tt’s a monopoly game once you’re in it. Stand your ground or you will be extorted.
By The Don-Poppa.
Disclaimer: Views expressed here are personal by individual content providers and do not represent the opinion of Mdundo.
I write this in reference to a personal account and experiences shared by my colleagues in the industry.
There is a frustrating system presently that is crucifying the dreams of hardworking and talented acts in the music industry. They have contrived cartels that control the content and the artists, referring to it as earning your stripes to blanket the filth that is in the game.
Let me make a quintessential reference to back the disenchantment expressed here.
You are an artist trying to turn a talent into a business. With the little savings you have garnered you seek the services of a top producer in the country because naturally you would want the best to compete with the best.
You struggle through studio time to produce that killer track you believe will solidify your entry into the game, not forgetting you already have a mixtape doing rounds in the streets.
Having fulfilled that and getting that much deserved nod from Mr Producer that you will conquer, you go ahead to package the track in a brilliantly done media kit to impress the handler who will receive it. Then you go out to stations circulating the CD for exclusive listens. Furthermore you do a press release to give the endeavor a boost to hit the top.
Then the reality checks in, that’s just not the full package you got to so call ‘earn them stripes’. You walk into a radio station and the ‘lazy’ presenter that’s actually paid to listen to those CD’s of every dozen artists that bring their content daily will not do his part.
They probably may listen to your track and genuinely express their excitement, even call you up for an interview on short notice to talk about the track as it receives its much anticipated premier on the airwaves. Then what happens immediately you leave…the track don’t get played any more!
Your fans that have been requesting eventually get exhausted as their requests receive a cold shoulder and there you are…back to square 1. A follow up is received with a recurring ‘MTEJA’.
So you look up to the DJ’s not just any but those that command a following. The custodians who traditionally make music circulate ever since are now the greatest sell outs. Ruthless extortion being practiced behind closed doors. It’s no longer surprising to find a DJ playing a particular jam or tracks from a particular artist in intervals of 5 minutes throughout their mixes…someone got paid.
Then you will be told the public wants to associate the content they hear to a face…so do a HQ video. You dig deep and incur major collateral getting the funds for that then deliver that HQ video. Then you look up to the program manager of the most watched local shows on music prime time.
This brother will most probably tell you “kilami nyingi kwa ngoma stacheza buda, changamkia vitu local ntakuchezea vida zako.”…dude? After spending a fortune on this that’s how you are going to do me?! So you mean to tell me that earning my stripes means yielding to extortion for as long as I have not made it in this game, and the greatest vice being that you want to even control my creativity?
Let me narrow it to one genre; HIPHOP which I’m affiliated to. Back to back from 5-7pm. There are two main artist whose videos receive an aggressive airplay, agenda-setting to the 5 million viewers (I suppose) that they are the best the nation can provide.
The other HIPHOP acts that could be two fold talented have to settle with being the alternative watch to the two main guys and you wonder where the hatred in the game comes from?
Looking at an artist least talented than you are bag more cream than you do because some big brother in the industry got their back.
I think I’ve driven the point home. Tt’s a monopoly game once you’re in it. Stand your ground or you will be extorted.
By The Don-Poppa.
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