The Mob's Take...Musings Of A Failed Manager

“It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.”

The above, time-honoured, statement by the celebrated American writer Mark Twain, continues to ring true a century after he first expressed it. In fact, it is a Truth that pre-dates the man himself. However, the immutable wisdom in that quote seems to be lost on the current generation of artiste managers in Nigeria. In recent times, the artiste management fold has shown unmistakable signs of  acute incompetence, indolence, and a dearth in creative ideas, which has stunted, and in some cases aborted, the progress of many talented artistes. This sorry state of affairs has further perpetuated the stereotype that certain kinds of Talent or Music cannot ‘blow’ in Nigeria. These days when someone declares that they are a rapper or a soul singer, inadvertently, people start to feel some kind of condescending pity for them that is conveyed via that cold, How-could-you-do-this-to-yourself-look that seems to trail them everywhere. And soon enough, the artiste gets tired of this pariah status, and decides to “diversify,” to switch sides, to dumb the music down.

It’s the job of the manager to say, “hey, I fell in love with you because of this art form and I am convinced that Greatness resides in you and I can’t wait for the world to hear your thoughts and words because they will eventually love it. Now you are going to go back into that studio and make me the most fantastic rap music your heart can muster or go and sing me some great soul music, the type that is alien to the world and leave it to me to deliver your message!” This is what it should be! The Manager should be the artiste’s most loyal believer and an unshakable pillar of support in times of self-doubt.

The Mob's Take ...Women, Weed and Wine

Party songs everywhere… I guess We all love to dance and have a good time, all the time, right? Although, in a country like ours, where there isn’t much infrastructure put in place by the government to cater to the well being of the people, it is only expected that we try to make ourselves happy. After all, aren’t we Nigerians? (happiest people on the planet). However, nobody parties all day, every day; unlike most of our artistes will have us believe. And the only use for money isn’t popping bottles in the club na! Respite please.

I don’t even have a problem with weed, women, and wine. Those are actually very deep topics to talk about. Fun topics too. What I’m not down with is the lack of thought and finesse in the manner our artistes “rape” those topics. The lack of a fresh perspective and effort. I think the truth is, the average Nigerian artiste apparently doesn’t think Nigerians are smart enough and as such doesn’t spare a lot of thought for his/her music; they just get an over-the-counter beat and cram the requisite 3 or 4 minutes with over-flogged clichés and half-mumbled slangs they picked up from dreamland and bam! We have a hit!