“Whether na one million
Baby you got me”
For many Nigerian music lovers, that was Waje’s grand entrance to the Nigerian music scene. No new comer to the industry as at the time MI dropped One Naira, but that was arguably the song that made Nigerians fall in love with the talented songstress.
For many music lovers, myself included, the news that one of Nigeria’s vocal powerhouse, the beautiful waje was quitting music was as shocking as anything can be. NO! But that is the truth. After a little over a decade of serenading our ears with her vocals, Waje is thinking of quitting music. Her reasons were not because her powers were waning, neither was she tired of singing but simply that we’ve rejected her kinds.
Yes she still has fans all over and there are alternative music artistes still at the top of their games. But yet the Nigerian music scene has changed and very few people are ready to embrace the sensible sounds that the likes of waje brings. Unlike her peers that chose to die in silence or venture into other businesses while struggling to keep their music alive albeit faintly, she has simply chosen to quit. There’s no need chasing what’s not working.
Currently shaku shaku has taken over our sounds and any artiste that is not willing to embrace popular demands faces the struggle of selling that music to the populace. So the question is would you embrace mediocrity for the money or stick to your craft and be swallowed?
In her words “I don’t have money for publicity, I want to quit”. While going through public reactions to Waje’s outburst, one comment caught my attention, “There is a difference between making music and music business. The business is about adapting to trends and whether we like it or not, the money is in the hands of the trendsetters. Waje should feature one of them abeg and she will smile to the bank too.. ”
That is the situation currently in Nigeria’s music business. Here we do not have a platform for various music genres and all of them are congregated into one huge box of Afro-beat. So if you’re not fitting in with the trending sound, your music would be relegated to the background. It is a pitiable situation and for an industry that is seeking to grow, this shouldn’t be the norm.
Unfortunately for us Waje’s situation is not peculiar to her alone. It is the same thing other intelligent music writers in Nigeria are facing and it is a loss to us as an industry. If we allow the gbe body and the logo Benz gang to push out our creative artistes, then our future as an industry is to say the least bleak.
Akpofure Shedrack writes!
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