Before We Hate On Nigerian Artistes For Their Dominance Of Our Music Industry, Let’s Look At The Positives First…… Here Are Four Things Kenyan Artistes Can Easily Learn From Naija’s Stars
Nigerian artistes have colonized Africa’s airwaves for a while now. That‘s not even debatable. Here in Kenya, Nigerian music is even played more than or own. But before we hate, we must understand that there are several reasons for that.
I was in Nigeria two weeks ago and got the opportunity to study their culture. They are just like us. They don’t have better facilities and neither do they have better opportunities. In fact our country is better than theirs in so many aspects. So why are they beating us musically? It’s their strategy and planning. So what can Kenyan artistes learn from Nigerian artistes?
The magic of high BPM
Almost all Nigerian songs are produced with a high BPM (Beats Per Minute) That’s the reason why they are dance tunes and mega hits. When it comes to consumption of African music, people are fond of fast high tempo tracks that keep you going from start to finish. When jaguar and Sauti Sol decided to do high BPM tracks last year, look where it got them. One Centimeter is still rocking and Sura Yako is a a masterpiece. If maybe our artistes incorporate this element, things might change.
Language
Nigerian artistes have showed us that you don’t have to use international language for your music to diffuse through borders. Language is relative. In fact, music itself is a language.. Lingala lovers don’t even understand what Madillu, Franco, Koffi Olomide or Fally Ipupa say in their songs. ‘Gangnam Style’, one of the world’s greatest hits of our current decade was composed in a language that 99% of the human population didn’t understand
So let our artistes not force themselves to sound too international. We don’t know what ‘Gobe’ is and we don’t care. We don’t know what ‘Kukere’ is and neither do we know what ‘Ifunanya’ is. We aren’t interested in knowing too. The music is good so we dance. As the layman would say, “Kizungu sio mdomo yetu.” We are Africans. Let’s use our languages
Unity
Artistes need to stay united in order for their art to mature and their voices to be heard. If all Kenyan artistes had a serious organization that represents them, for example, they could negotiate with the government for radio airtime. Almost every singer or rapper would be heard on radio. That’s what happens in Nigeria
In the populous West African country, there’s a law that states, 70% of all music played on radio and TV ought to be local music. The setting up of that law a few years back is what heralded the rise of Nigeria as a musical powerhouse. Nigerians have a national agenda to spread their culture through music. They invest adequately in their entertainment industry and they respect and support artistic talent. We should do the same.
Reaching out
Kenyan musicians should learn to compete positively in this capitalist environment and get our music to be played, heard and loved in Nigeria the same way we love theirs here. One major cause of disunity in Africa is the fallacy of separateness. Kenyans are worried about the influx of Nigerian music but nobody is worried about the continuous dominance of American music. Some local radio stations don’t even play Kenyan music
I saw the way Nigerians love Kenyans and I’m sure that if our music was appealing to them, they wouldn’t hesitate to play it. Nigeria is the biggest extension we can find not only for our music but for a total cultural exchange. Our artistes should reach out for more collabos just the way the oga brodas collaborate with artistes from all over the continent. I haven’t seen anyone trying to do a collabo with Diamond or Chameleone. Let’s do this
