I'm not sure where this narrative that "Nigeria does not promote other African music" is suddenly coming from, because I know FOR A FACT that this is NOT true.

A little thread with some facts and some anecdotes that I hope will provide some insight to cut through this myth.
I used to work for BHM, which was Viacom Africa's PR agency, so I had an inside view of much of Africa's contemporary industry.

This guy - the person who pitched MTV Base Africa to his bosses at Viacom USA, and built it from the ground up was Alex Okosi - a Nigerian. Image
If you're not aware about who Alex is and the central, foundational role he played in the post-2000 growth and development of contemporary African music, I recommend reading this:
edition.cnn.com/2012/09/28/sho…
Throughout my time working on the Viacom account at BHM, it was always stated very clearly and unambiguously that despite its core presence in Nigeria, MTV Base Africa existed to promote AFRICAN music and urban culture, as against Nigerian.

It was quite literally all we ever did
This was just random media event on Victoria Island sometime in 2014 or 2015, and the star attraction present on the day was Cynthia Morgan.

Yet the decision makers (all Nigerians) flew in a couple of promising artists from Ghana and (I think) Kenya, just to promote them. Image
And it wasn't just Viacom either. The entire industry was about "achieve new things and open doors for the rest of Africa."

This was the Beat FM Xmas concert in 2015 which had @Skepta, @KreptandKonan and Stormzy. The (Nigerian) organisers gave Victoria Kimani (Kenyan) the stage ImageImage
And it went much further than just promoting African artists and giving them media airtime.

I recommend reading up about key industry players whom you may not be aware of like @ayenithegreat, who was probably Nigeria's first contemporary music PR practitioner. Read up on him. Image
It is utterly incredible to see African industry practitioners like Stonebwoy and Shatta Wale making this incredulous claim that the Nigerian music industry excludes other Africans.

Do you people even KNOW anything about the industry you operate in and how it came to be?
How can you make this claim about NIGERIANS of all people?? I mean if you wanted to accuse an African music industry of being exclusionary, that should obviously be South Africa (which successfully fought to get its own MTV channel separate from the rest of the continent in 2013)
The ONE industry on the continent that you absolutely under any circumstances cannot level this accusation at, is Nigeria.

You guys needs to gain knowledge about your industry first, then apologise to the Nigerian men and women whose work you are insulting with this accusation.
P.S: I miss working with Viacom. Being surrounded by characters like @SpecialSlim was a guaranteed pick-me-up anyday🥲 Image

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with David Hundeyin

David Hundeyin Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @DavidHundeyin

2 Jan
They can buy all the 4K UHD cameras and expensive lighting in the world. They can attend New York Film Academy and learn the swivels and flourishes of movie making.

But as long as they refuse to pay for quality script writing, their movies will continue to be trash.
The only reason King Of Boys is a unicorn is Kemi Adetiba's individual writing genius.

If she did not take personal responsibility to think up a genuinely interesting storyline and spend years fleshing it out, it would have been just another bit of shiny neo-Nollywood nonsense.
In Hollywood, it is common to see screenwriters get paid 6-7 figure USD sums per movie. That's why Hollywood storylines are good - they pay for quality.

Nollywood INSISTS on treating writing as a cheap afterthought, so here we are. "Shebi it's just to write, what's there?" abi?
Read 4 tweets
22 Dec 21
Always funny when a victim of injustice voices out, only to later reverse themselves, as if that apology will change anything with their oppressors.

Someone has stolen the streaming rights for what could be the only hit record you will ever make, and you're apologising lol🌚
People - Nigerians especially - seem not to understand that when you go to war, you must be prepared to sacrifice everything. You don't start a war on the side of justice, then pull out midway through. That makes you a joke.

Stand up for yourself or cower. You have to choose one
This is what 15 million streams is worth on each of these platforms. Maybe because it's Africa, you can divide these figures by 3 or 4, but for someone coming from the trenches of Ifo, imagine how life changing these amounts are.

Poco Lee has stolen this from oni apology😭
Read 4 tweets
21 Dec 21
A big takeaway from all this is that upcoming creative talents should lean more on the internet creative ecosystem and less on these parasitic middlemen.

There are artists like Chance The Rapper and Ahmir who have made millions of dollars without a record deal or a "helper."
Using just YouTube, Apple Music, Spotify, Deezer and social media, these guys built themselves into multimillion dollar brands without signing themselves into slavery in the name of "A&R" this and "record label" that.

The internet is coming for middlemen in the creative space!
Creatives (Painters, musicians, designers, writers etc) are the lifeblood of the creative industry, and nobody should tell you any different.

The job of these middlemen is to convince creatives that they need them. This is no longer true. The internet has changed the game.
Read 5 tweets
21 Dec 21
If you're as big as you claim to be, you shouldn't need to rip off upcomers in the name of "helping" them. If you want to help, help and be reasonable about it. If you don't want to help, free them. Don't be an agbaya.

How I hate this Portable vs Poco Lee story.
Once you're in a creative space in Nigeria, everyone is just hovering around you like a tsetse fly hoping to take a bite out of you.

The concept of noblesse oblige is completely nonexistent. Just a bunch of agbayas sitting on people's heads. Disgusting and tiresome.
Start making a name as a musician and someone will try to sign you to a slavery contract and steal all your IP.

Start making a name as a writer and one "senior colleague" will steal your work and put their name on it in the name of "helping you" (I experienced this)

Agbayas😤
Read 6 tweets
21 Dec 21
I remember when "Africans have natural immunity" was rubbish pseudoscience on par with claiming the earth is flat.

Now, because of the "be afraid of Omicron" scare campaign, this is now apparently an accurate scientific statement.

Very interesting.
"The only reliable data on Omicron comes from South Africa and it shows that it is significantly less dangerous than prior variants, which doesn't suit the narrative we want.

What shall we do?

I know!
Let's revisit the idea from last year that Africans have natural immunity to this virus due to genetic and demographic factors. You know, the idea that we savagely shot down and dismissed as rubbish pseudoscience.

Now let's rebrand it as self evident fact. Job done."
Read 4 tweets
20 Dec 21
A lot of modern Africans have this weird need to derive their self esteem from the alleged greatness of their ancestors instead of from their own achievements.

That's why anything that they feel presents said ancestors in an unflattering way feels like a personal attack on them.
That's why to date, even though Badagry literally exists and you can stroll in and observe the very well preserved relics of the trans Atlantic slave trade anytime, some people on this website are ready to detonate suicide belts if you tell them that our ancestors sold slaves.
The ones in the North who have mistaken Arabism (a cultural ideology) with Islam (a religion), and have subsequently had their own cultures displaced by Arabism, can stone you if you show them what their ancestors were doing just 250 years ago.

Very unhealthy IMO
Read 6 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(