An Open Letter To MCSK

MCSK has decided that deejays should pay 21,000/- a year for a license that gives them the right to play music done by local artistes and deejays are up in arms!

And it’s quite understandable that deejays are in uproar given the way artists are keeping quiet. Luminaries in the deejaying field have already come out to express reservations about paying artists to play their music. DJ Stylez, DJ Kaytrixx, DJ Prince, DJ Vin have raised issues with this new directive. And allow your dede Chim Obiajulu to teach any of you artists still too bullish to see sense a thing or two:

The deejays being told to play your music will simply blacklist you. that means that your material will not get any love at the club or in matatus or in radio mixes. Where does that leave you? I’ll tell you where, it leaves you in the dark.

But fans of African music fear not, we will get inundated with Bongo and Ugandan flavour and more importantly, more Naija music will play in the clubs. Artists need to understand that as Papoose rapped, “Shout out all the deejays/ cos without the deejay there is no rapper!”. Find a way to strike a balance because if deejays get scared off playing your material, you are the one to lose out!

I can empathise with the need to earn off your talent but to do so at the cost of alienating deejays? That is too steep a price to pay! I maintain that artists, deejays and MCSK need to sit down to work out a winning formula.