Dear You

You have talent. Yet you don’t know the business use of that talent.

And you wonder why poverty locks you down in a missionary style.

Art is beauty.

Talent is glorious.

But commerce and business create wealth.

At one point in the forming of Afrobeats, a particular word emerged:

The word “commercial.”

That was the beginning of Afrobeats’ global dominance.

You were either commercial or not.

Some music artistes refused to be commercial.

Worse still, they saw it as degrading to be commercial.

Ladies and gentlemen, those guys who refused to be commercial are the poor legends today.

Those who were heavily commercial are rich.

Do you know part of Blackface’s problem today is that his Ghetto Child album was not a commercial project?

Do you know acts like Timaya will never be poor because all they did, and still do, is commercial?

Don Jazzy and other label bosses knew this.

Record labels that refused to align with the realities of commercial Afrobeats couldn’t survive.

Commercial is what saved Skales today. Shake Body isn’t that “fine art” most musicians value — it’s a commercial dance track. You won’t listen to it and applaud Skales for writing prowess or vocal dexterity, but you will shake body.

Timaya became a darling feature for most Nigerian musicians back in the day because he was a formula for commercial songs.

He was among those who started the Alaba–Music industry partnerships. His songs and albums were so good that the Alaba pirates were willing to do clean business with him.

Today, you see business owners leaving simple business sense for complex products — all in the name of creativity and doing something “big.”

They are like the sweet-singing acts of the old era who are poor today.

Do business if you want to do business.

Do hobby or passion if you want to do hobby or passion.

You sang in church for free. They weren’t paying you.

Now you say you’re a career musician.

Rather than go commercial, you say you are Celina Odion of Africa.

I see you.

I see hunger.

Do you know how many rappers of that Afrobeats-making era are now Uber drivers in foreign lands?

Yes, rappers got hit the most. They were speaking gibberish and fake accents that couldn’t convert to money.

Some of them found ways to make their acts commercial; those ones made it.

Same thing in journalism.

I entered the journalism industry and saw poverty.

Old veterans, no money.

Senior legends in journalism, but they were at the mercy of publishers who didn’t care.

The journalists who understood the business side of the game became the wealthy ones.

There are poor lawyers.

There are wealthy lawyers.

There are poor teachers.

There are wealthy teachers.

The difference most times is that one set understands money and commercialisation; the other set just has the talent.

I bet you, Lamine Yamal is not better than some footballers in Nigeria. You can go to the North today and find players with better talent.

In Ajegunle, you will see raw football talent.

But talent alone is not enough.

Find the commercials.

If I were a music talent today, the first song I’d make would be a song for weddings.

A wedding song!

Then several party songs.

Guess how much John Legend was paid to sing at Otedola’s daughter’s wedding in Iceland?

All the music legends with super wedding songs are still in business. They are still earning.

Davido is commercial.

Burna Boy is commercial.

Rema is commercial.

Wizkid is commercial.

At first, Johnny Drille wasn’t commercial. But he was a strategy in a camp of commercial heads.

He was Don Jazzy’s strategy for those few moments when they didn’t need just commercial.

And these days, even Johnny has started doing commercial songs.

He’s also a good sell for weddings and love occasions.

Your Commercial Spotter,

Ediale

#ForTheCulture