On the title, this article might sound like something on a bla bla bla class because its importance would be played down to the promotional lane.
Every reader has the right to imagine a better headline for every article he reads and is even free to create what might seem to be a better context in his mind, but this particular one is nothing but doing anything possible to stop mistakes of the past.
I remember when Hot 99.5 FM came alive in Owerri, they brought a new breeze with them. Hip-hop. Before then, artistes in that genre were seen as 100% wannabes and while their Bong/Highlife counterparts were soaring high, they were dwindling, giving up on their dreams and running away from Owerri.
I still remember testimonies from the two artistes on this headline about what late Raymond ‘De Rage’ Ayuba did to put them on spotlight. Those testimonies are always evergreen and if there is something that could immortalize Ayuba, it would be his role in giving the Hip-Hop breeze a good speed in Imo State.
There was a time when everyone would want to hear Acharaman’s ‘Ndumodu’ and ‘Relax’; Aifee’s ‘Aguleri boy’ and ‘Maka Chukwu’. These songs were banging and even though there were other guys like 2Blac, Bee and co, the duo were the hottest things in Owerri.
Every Hip-Hop show had them and somehow, lovers of Hip-Hop music in the state, thought we were going to have them follow the same path with Kelly Hansom to sign lucrative record deals somewhere in Lagos. That never happened.
I have spoken to people outside this state and the natural belief is that Imo State has this pomposity spirit in it. It is where everyone with a little fame starts feeling like a god and this cuts across artistes, OAPs, DJs, bloggers and just everyone in the industry, as if being proud sends one bank credit alerts. Humility is scarce here and while some artistes are so aware that they are not really the main stars, they would love to improvise on that. Waiting for the world they could have grabbed with one step to come to them.
I once asked Acharaman why he never did a song with Aifee and the answer was more like ‘I don’t know’, and even though I can’t remember asking Aifee same, I saw this fierce rivalry between them. They were busy trying to be number one, forgetting that what they had will not always be there.
I often imagined the fame both artistes could have heaped on one or two songs then; I often imagined both being seen together brainstorming on things that would shoot them farther than they were known. This never happened and today, none of them is number one.
To cut the story short, we can all remember the remix of the song, ‘Surulere’ which had some hot artistes on it, but I have never seen such things happening here. When two people go on a song, it is either the bigger artiste being featured by a smaller artiste. No one thinks about the big-big thing, everyone is busy thinking of how to make money from being featured and in most cases, none of these songs have done any of them well aside the money they collected.
Look at songs like ‘Mbo’ by LMG and at the level he did a wonderful job with UGems; Money Making’s ‘Good to Go’ turned out to be something that have changed the rapper’s life and that song was done with Treasure Gold.
I am not talking against the big-small features, but we all know that two good heads are better than one. It is time artistes kill this rivalry spirit because I have never seen a music store selling only one album.
It is a large boat and there is room for everyone. This is what I call lesson from the past, for the present and future. It is not compulsory that artistes will heed to it, after all I am just a guy who loves to right [write].
