FYI

Music Industry In State Of Emergency

At a crowded World Press Conference in Lagos on Wednesday,15th of July 2009, an unmatched coalition of leading organizations in the Nigerian musicindustry gathered in a forum meant to address the various problems facing the industry, especially piracy.

In the text read by Nigeria’s Queen of Soul, OnyekaOnwenu, the coalition amongst their requests, called on PresidentYar’Adua to immediately declare a State of Emergency with respect tothe fight against the scourge of piracy. And the Inspector General of Police should be directed to serve a warning to the traders atAlaba Market that if within a specified period the traders do notclean up the market, the government will shut Alaba market down.According to them, Alaba market has earned the notoriety of being theworld’s biggest hotbed of piracy.

Also they requested that the president look into the activities of the NCC, and set up a governing board of proven commitment and integrity to supervise the NCC as talks of royalties, proper collective management and other matters were brought to the table.

Chief Tony Okoroji, the president of the Performing &Mechanical Rights Society(PMRS) and executive producer of the Nigerian Music Awards(NMA) also proposed a “12 Hour No Music” Day to know what radio will sound like without music and how listeners, including other private sectors and government institutions will feel without music for that long.

At the press conference which held at the Protea Hotel,Ikeja were representatives of Performing Musicians Employers Associationof Nigeria (PMAN), Nigeria’s only registered trade union in the musicindustry; Nigerian Association of Recording Industries (NARI), theumbrella body of the recording industry in Nigeria; Performing &Mechanical Rights Society (PMRS), Nigeria’s first governmentapproved collective agencyAlso represented at the conference were other key industryassociations such as Gramophone Records & Cassette Dealers (AGRECD),Music Label Owners Association of Nigeria (MULOAN,) Music AdvertisersAssociation of Nigeria (MAAN), Association of Music BusinessProfessionals (AMB.-Pro) and Audio Video CD Sellers Association ofNigeria (AVCDSAN)

Banky W In Home Video

Olubankole Wellington better known as R&B singer Banky W, recently came home from South Africa after shooting the video for one of his two newest releases 'Strong Ting'. The video was shot and directed by Josh, the same South African whitey responsible for the pictures of the award winning song 'Don't break my heart'. Word is Mr. W, winner best male vocalist at the last Hip-Hop world awards plans to do a vid for his other recent offering 'Lagos Party' pretty soon, hopefully with a Lagos based video director and also to drop his sophomore cd titled the 'The W Experience' before the end of the year.

Mixtape Terry

Terry's joint 'Sample' and it's video featuring Pherowshuz and Stereoman isn't a kept secret but one of the best items to hit the scene and has proven itself buzz-worthy. The defunct SWAT ROOT emcee still isn't backing down on his music grind, he's collaborating with production company Knighthouse to produce a collection called "The Joe Spazm Mixtape". And in accordance to the hip-hop mixtape tradition of having a credible DJ host, the cool DJ Jimmy Jatt is doing the honors. This project features guest appearances from Sauce-Kid, Mo Chedda, Teeto C-mos, Kel, Skales, Fecko, Munachi(yes Munachi Abi) and Ice Prince. This mixtape will not be released commercially, however, fans will be informed when and how to get it when it’s out, as it is supposed usher in his officially second album "Boys Are Not Smiling" to come around before fall.

Kel’s Investment

Since 2007 when she had her break on illbliss’ award winning single “U go wound!”, young female rapper Kel has rocked the music scene with singles “Waa Wa Alright” I&II, “Push”, “Beautiful life” and “Too Fine”. Finally her debut album ‘The Investment’ is set to drop, a 19 track album featuring productions from Mic Worx, TY Mix , Jesse Jags, J Martins, Dr Frabz and Tha Suspect spear heading the entire process. The LP is star studded with guest appearances from MI, Alaye, Illbliss, Darey and more and is to properly hit the streets within this August under the imprint of Capital Hill Records.

Ijeoma :Daisy Bloomed For Fame

A graduate of the Project Fame Academy(West Africa), class of ’08 ready to take on the world. Long before now Ijeoma Daisy Okwara did jingles for corporates and lent vocals as back-up to various artistes and bands. After exposure in the Tv show/ competition, she cut a single “Ifunanya” featuring Illbliss which got radio play and good reviews and now she’s got another cooked, a love-lorn song titled “ki ni Mo se” ready for the air waves. The sultry looker currently holds a job with a GSM company, but spends her spare time making music. Word is she is in and out of the lab, concocting melodious pieces with different producers.

Sound City’s Second Music Video Awards

All roads led to the Expo Centre in Victoria Island, Lagos on the 2nd of August for the second edition of the Sound City Music Video Awards. The ceremony welcomed just about every important figure in Nigerian entertainment and guests from other works who were all so eager to get in to the hall after hours of chit chat and drink sipping on the red carpet.Blessing the stage were jolly performances from Dipp, Weird MC, Wande Coal & Mo Hits crew, Jozi from South Africa, 2Face, Wyre from Kenya , MI, Eldee & Banky, MIMS from the US and Seun Kuti. The show’s host was Dare Art-Alade who also picked up an award for best R&B/Pop video (‘Not the Girl’). Other awardees honored were Dipp for best special effects & editing (‘Dangerous’), Bigiano for best cinematography and viewer’s choice (‘Shayo’). TY Bello took the award for best female video with ‘Ekundayo’, Naeto C best male video ‘Kini Big Deal’, Kentro World for best duo or group video, Steel ‘s ‘South African Girl’ got awarded Sound City fresh video. Kel with ‘Waa wa Alright’ got Discovery of the Year, rap group Str8 Buttah got best Hip Hop video with ‘Last Stand’, P-Square with ‘Roll It’ got best choreography. In this beautiful video award ceremony, Don Jazzy was honored with an award for Hit Producer of the Year, even though there was none for video directors. And not to forget 2face who gave an outstanding performance at the event, got awards for best collaboration and video of the year with ‘Enter the Place’.

Roof Top MC’s Drunk After One Song

The rap duo of So Kleva and Soul Snatcha also known as Roof Top MC’s or the rock boys on the building as we like to call ‘em have in the past few months, put out singles and toured university campuses and a few other venues around the country . Most recently, the Christian gospel rhyme sayers got in the booth with Muslim Fuji minstrel, Alhaji Wasiu Alabi Pasuma Wonder to do a remix of their single “One Song”. Now talk about music being above religious barriers. It’s not confirmed that this joint produced by Tha Suspect will be released as a single, but certainly will be in their next album ‘Drunken Masters’ which according to reports will be released early September.