It is no longer a news that the ever busy and competitive Nigerian Music Industry lost a talented indigenous rapper last week Friday to the cold hands of death by suicide.
Before he left, he dropped this last painful freestyle he called “Last Moment” ?
This is such a pathetic and a tragic situation which every artiste needs to learn from. We decided to use this avenue to advise all upcoming and already established artists why it’s not wise to take music as the only sole source of income and career.
No. 1
Stereotypical Mindset of the People towards Music
Hip-hop Music gained 100% acceptance in Nigeria just (20) twenty years ago. This was when the likes of Rugged Man, 2Face Idibia, Sound Sultan, Eedris Abdukareem and few of them started gaining recognition and acceptance in their crafts. Of a truth, it didn’t come easy because there was this stereotypical mindset Nigerians have towards this particular career. Many say it’s meant for lazy people, others say it’s not a very difficult work to do, so those that are involved in it were either seen as rascals or society remains. So many parents were not ready to have their children sent to the university at the end of the day to be an entertainers.
This stereotypical notion about music has not totally been extincted as some “serious minded patents” still believe that their children should rather go for more serious careers instead of music. So, why this is number one is because, you don’t have a ?% acceptance in the chosen career, accept it or not. Many of your family members still despise you until you finally make it by bringing the dividends home. So? Have it at the back of your mind that you are in it alone, only 50 or even 30% of support is coming from your family.
Many upcoming artists these days jump into music wholly without having anything else to fall back to. This becomes a very big problem when music fails. Of course, every career is liable to fail. But music as a career is a very delicate one. Here is my reason for saying that. You are not being paid monthly. You are only being rewarded for your input. When the input stops, the rewards stop. When you are less creative, everything crash to your face and it’s very dangerous at that point. In nutshell, have something to fall back at when music eventually fails. I’m not being pessimistic here, but in life, only two options are always involved.
No. 3
Don’t Depend on the Income from Music Only
It is practically unwise and not advisable that you put all your eggs in one basket. Do music like, if it pays, good; if it doesn’t, life goes on. Let it not be a do-or-die affair. This has gotten so many frustrated and the result is often not pleasant. So many have died silently, others have died from melancholy and posttraumatic stress disorder. It shouldn’t be so. A Yoruba adage has it that “it’s not one road that leads to the market”. It shouldn’t be about music and music alone. Who knows, if one is not destined to be wealthy through music? You might have just had interest for music, do you know if music had interest in you? Music having interest in you is the fortunate in it smiling at your efforts.
In all, we all have to be patient in all we do. Remember, Rome was not built in a day.
That’s the little we think we should share with you about music career today. Suicide is never an option. Be rational with your decisions before choosing any career and when you’ve chosen, be patient with it.
May God bless our hustle.
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