Afrobeats is advancing at an exponential rate and the world of music is never going to be the same again. From our very own ‘Star Boy’ Big Wiz to our ‘Rebel’ Tems and our ‘African Giant’ Burna Boy or should I say ‘Odogwu’. These horsemen are at the forefront of this global charge for Afrobeats.
However, there seems to be a fourth horseman on the rise and he is not slowing down any time soon. He is Ckay the ‘Love Nwantiti’ crooner who is taking the world on a star trek cruise.
The story of Ckay is a very inspiring one that is embedded in grace, preparation and time. Born Chukwuka Ekweani, he grew up in Kaduna where he was heavily influenced by classical music introduced to him by his father who was a choirmaster and taught him classical music, his academic prowess made music an undesirable occupation for his middle-class family. He then decided to chase his dreams and left Kaduna for Lagos, later signing for Chocolate City and producing for the label’s acts while patiently waiting for his turn to shine.
In the course of this time, he had a couple of unsatisfactory pop-centric attempts, he released ‘CKay The First’ in 2019, an unalloyed display of his immersive sonic universe. “Emo-afrobeats” is what he termed it.
Soon the hard work, consistency and ingenuity paid off. His record “Love Nwantiti (Ah Ah Ah),” a track recorded two years ago, charted YouTube’s Global Chart, had an all-time Nigerian record of 73.7million views in a week, the most Shazamed song in the world, Ckay has amassed a total of 30 million monthly listeners on Spotify, making him the first African act to achieve such feat and as of the time of writing this article, ‘Love Nwantiti’ was number 31 on the Billboard Hot 100.
His success just keeps on heading on the burgeoning path and the 26-year-old artist is having an incredible moment in this digital zeitgeist. YouTube recently announced a roster of 54 artists, songwriters and producers selected to join the #YouTubeBlack Voices Music Class of 2022. Among the acts from Australia, Brazil, Canada, the USA and the UK are eight African artists based in Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya.
The masterclass which is supported by the #YouTube Black Voices Fund, the #YouTubeBlack Voices Music Class of 2022 is a development programme designed to directly support and mentor Black artists, songwriters & producers worldwide. Nigerian acts like Omah Lay, P.Priime and Ckay, all made the cut.
We all celebrate this explosion of grace but we fail to understand that we owe all these positive results to good artiste development. In all honesty, one of the greatest barriers to the growth of Nigerian music is terrible artistic development. A lot of people don’t understand what artiste development is really. Even superstars find it difficult to bring other upcoming artists on. Though some critics attribute this to their insensitivity to the plight of upcoming acts and their egoistic competitive nature. Well, that’s a tale for another time.
Most record label executives don’t understand its potentials and, in most cases, do not see the need for it which results in a lot of acts emerging as uncooked dishes. An artiste development phase is not just to make the artiste better, it’s to refine the artiste and familiarise your brand with the artiste.
This phase is for you to build trust, to define the kind of business deal you intend to have with your prospective acts, whether it is going to be a record deal or just a management contract. There are a lot of things to consider like discovering the artist sound, the five-year projection plan for the artist’s career and the best strategies to use in the promotion of the artiste.
One great staple of artiste development in Nigeria’s music industry is Mavin. They are versatile, experienced and have a proven track record in churning dynamic acts who have transcended to mega superstars in Nigeria, Africa and beyond. This label has one of the best artistic development schemes in the Nigerian pop music scene. However, the best artiste development platform in this country is Christ Embassy.
Popular gospel singer, Sinach credits Christ Embassy for her success. The interesting thing is that they (Christ Embassy) don’t even realize that what they are doing is artiste development. For over fifteen years, they have been able to produce more than ten gospel star acts.
It should be noteworthy that Mavin has an all-hands-on-deck policy for rolling out acts, their projects and plans for the artists. The astonishing thing is that a lot of people think it is Don Jazzy alone but the truth is, it is a team effort and besides this is Mavin, arguably the biggest record label in Nigeria. They are a force to be reckoned with in African music but we should understand that they put in work for all these great things to happen.
We have to accept that a lot of things go into the development of an artiste. They include meeting with top personalities in the industry, social media influencers/marketing, the crafting of the artiste and more. According to Statista, over 50% of Nigerians are under 19 years old and they all have social media accounts. This is why the bulk of an artiste’s marketing is done online. It is imperative as it is easy to go from online platforms to offline platforms in this new digital era.
We should keep this at the back of our mind, that a lot of people in the industry and beyond are going to benefit from the exchange of culture, materials and connections thanks to the rush of foreign capitalistic elements in Nigeria and Africa but we need to build structures that can ensure that this buzz benefits us in the long run and we secure our home front.
Artiste development, really came through for Ckay, as it helped to nurture the progression of his career from a producer to a songwriter cum singer and it enabled him to get signed to a major global record label, Warner Music South Africa.