Sarkodie
Rapper Sarkordie has hinted that recording a hit song is an easy thing to do but it is not a sure guarantee that a successful musician will retire from music industry and live a comfortable life.
According to him, there is more to maintaining a reigning artiste’s status than just recording hit songs. He explained such an artiste also needs to build a large following, record timeless songs and build a lovable brand that will win the hearts of the die-hard fans any day.
He made the comment while speaking at the launch of the fifth All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA) at the Movenpick Hotel in Accra on Monday evening.
Speaking at the event, the rapper said, “As an artiste, my advice for the young ones is that they should focus on building the brand which is the hardest way but the easiest that allows you to relax and … it lets you make money anytime you want… We say we need hit songs which is very easy. People don’t know but hit songs are very easy. You can say something and it hits tomorrow but that doesn’t mean you have a stand in the industry. If hit song is about to save certain people then we have thousands of hits by one person but the person still doesn’t have stand. So it means the focus should be on building that deep love for your brand from the people. How you do it is individual strategies.” Sarkodie also used the careers of celebrated musicians like Amakye Dede, Daddy Lumba and Kojo Antwi as examples of musicians who have stood the test of time because of their hard work to build the numbers and their brand in Africa.
“They had time to make the music grow on the people and fade into their hearts and focus on the people. Daddy Lumba had a conversation with me in the studio and said we the young ones have one dream which is going to international which is good. But before that what do we do? …We are waiting to be recognised out there to call it a success but we are still losing out on the numbers we have here, which is way more than the numbers of the so-called artistes out there that we want to be like,” he added.
He revealed that the last time he checked, Nigerian artistes like Davido and Wizkid had more following than American artiste Miguel.
However, Africans are made to think they need to be heard out before they could be called successful “because it is a mind game the rest of the world is doing. They are trying to control what we have term as the highest key.”
AFRIMA is a platform designed to promote the distinct rich African music worldwide, engaging millions of fans by propelling its music to glorious pinnacles beyond the borders of Africa. This year’s ceremony will be the fifth edition and it was launched in Ghana.
Other artistes at the event were Becca, Efya (Ghana), 2Face Idibia (Nigeria), Dbanj (Nigeria), Fancy Gadam(Ghana), Richie Mensah(Ghana), Falz The Badh Guy(Nigeria), Seyi Shay (Nigeria), Emtee (South Africa), Ahmed Soultan (Morocco), Stanley Enow (Cameroon), Zeynab (Benin), amongst others.
The award’s academy will held on May 25, 2018.