The Nigerian music industry is one of the fastest growing entertainment industry in the world right now, and getting fame in it is not really an easy task.

I am going to paint you a picture illustrating what I mean with my opening statement in this post. Please read till the end.

Let us give a case study called Artist X. He is from a poor home, he is broke and he lives in the hustling city of Lagos which is mostly referred to as the entertainment capital of Nigeria. Artiste X has no professional skill, only the God given talent which he holds on to.

But we know in Nigeria, singing isn't entirely regarded as a talent. It even can prevent an artiste from putting in the hard work of finding the right commercial balance and achieving some form of pop progress.

Artiste X has a regular day like this, in the morning he wakes up and goes to the studio to hang out with his fellow artistes looking for the shine in the industry. These artistes are not sure of any means to make it big except by some stroke of good fortune.

Fast forward to afternoon, he finally gets a chance to record one track, which he didn't complete. In the evening, he gets a shiny luck when someone buys him a plate of food which is the first thing he had eaten all day and is expected to hold him till the night when he might have to smoke a lot of weed to be able to sleep.

He sleeps with a sleeps with a sad reality of hopelessness as he snores deeply out of exhaustion. Morning comes, he wakes up, takes his bath and the return to the studio to repeat the previous day and it starts to look like he is trapped in an unending loop.

Sometimes, he attends events and hangs around the backstage hoping and praying that he might get past the security, and gain access to networking targets for help. The plan never works, but regardless he keeps trying and pushing.

Every now and then, maybe once in three months, he records a nice and decent song and then channel all his energy and resources in promoting this single with the hope that this particular one will be his breakthrough. Once he releases the song, he begs his friends, and the little network of people he has made to help share the song so it could reach a wide range.

Doing all this, he knows deep down that this effort will likely turn out unfruitful, but he continues pushing regardless hoping that he might get lucky, and bring an investor his way one day.

This is a case of 50 50, the investor he has been praying for may likely not come, or he might end up getting attention from a "rich street guy" who knows nothing about the music but just wants to own a record label. Artiste X might even get unlucky and sign what I call "a slave contract" with an investor who ties him down legally while withholding investment from him (as we see in different cases this days).

In some cases, he might even be reduced to an errand boy, washing his bosses cars, and maybe even being his personal chauffeur. After spending about 3 years in the slave label, he meets a kind friend who advises him to rebel against the slave master and seek for ways to escape the contract.

By this time, Artiste X has wasted a chunk of time in the wrong place. He really knows how to move a crowd, but the crowd only moves to a hit or a potential hit song. He also meets a lot of people in the industry who are also struggling with their careers and hoping they get a breakthrough soon.

“The music industry money rarely makes you genuinely rich, except you are Wizkid, Davido, Burna Boy, or tied to their teams." as told to me by an OAP at one of our hangouts.

What then becomes of Artiste X, what does he do to help himself? Does he goes back to his family house, or maybe go and learn a trade? or maybe or becomes an artist manager due to his experience with suffering? Think of it, a former struggling artiste managing a struggling artiste, I would say they are meant for each other.

But that's where his story grows to and we stop caring because he is not an artiste anymore, his time is done. Some of his mates who shared studio time with him became successful and got away. He sees them on TV from time to time, moving crowds, driving luxury vehicles and rolling with pretty women.

In his mind, he knows that could have been him, with all the time and dedication he puts in the work. He becomes compassionate to new artistes, that's when a new artiste plays him a song that doesn't make sense, instead of him telling the truth, he just he encourages them down the path that damaged him.

He says things like “That jam is dope!” to give the new artiste hope. The new artiste believes him and walks away with a renewed sense of hope in his craft. Is he going to make it? That is highly unlikely, but regardless, he has to try just like Artiste X tried who is now Manager X, and then the cycle continues.

This illustration right here is just a sad reality of the Nigerian music industry, an untold story of what upcoming artistes pass through and how they almost always not make it big in the scene.

I hope you enjoy my little illustration.

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Good one

Boni92:
Good one

Thank you