This is a rather personal piece.

It should be obvious (difficult to think otherwise) that Ice Prince’s tweets days ago were shots at former labelmates, Brymo and maybe his long time producer, Jesse Jagz (other ‘porting’ acts included, of course)? Like the popular rap line goes ‘money change niggas,’ How do you explain the once (still) humble rapper who never wasted time to give a shoutout to his comrades, take a shot at artistes leaving labels after one of the comrades left over what is believed to be ‘creative differences’ (maybe not solely but he definitely was not happy with how things that related to his career were being handled) or it is just ill-thought for Ice Prince to have done it on Twitter at this time.

P.S: Jesse Jagz takes some, if not all the credit for producing ‘Oleku,’ the singular track that changed Ice Prince’s c-list rhymer status into whatever it is now. Please, understand that I think Ice Prince is an amazing recording artiste. This write up is on his action (tweets) and the several unprofessional act by talents and record labels.

Let me clearly state I frown at artist waking up and going to the press to terminate contracts instead of discussing this with the labels. Here’s my theory and Interestingly, the label executives who have put their hard-earned money and ran labels in this industry that is without structure (using Ice Prince’s words from the tweet) more as a family, project have succeeded more — cue in Mo’hits, EME. Which brings to mind Wizkid’s situation earlier in the year which most of us have tagged the smartest move by a Nigerian talent this decade. On a lighter note, Don’t be stunned if Tecno launches a Magna Carta-type app and deal with Wizkid for his upcoming album.

In a compound sentence, Wizkid gave the blueprint on how successful acts can move to the next level and stay loyal to whatever or whoever made them successful in an industry with almost no structure. However, I know that someday he’d have to part ways but being in his early twenties and desiring a career to run another decade and beyond, staying a bit longer with a team that took you there, works and just re-negotiate your contract terms is the safest, smartest thing to do.

Let’s speculate again (just to be safe), Ice Prince was not talking to Jesse but Brymo couldn’t have ‘escaped’ it. We know the well-told story of Chocolate city doubting the potential of the ‘Oleku’ song as a single and Ice Prince having to be adamant, almost pushing it himself at first (if you don’t know now you know – in M.I.’s Chairman voice) which might have given the rapper the reason to tweet his thoughts on the subject. It is his twitter account might be the argument — well, white whales, brilliant! This is my opinion piece too! On a serious note, If his tweets were about being loyal, is it not ironic that he should rather have made an effort at resolving the issues between Brymo and the label since none of his singles scored as a hit until ‘oleku,’ if not taking Brymo’s side? I’m thinking out loud here as he basically took sides, a blind one. Brymo’s career was on a stand still, a new talent requires more visibility over money (if not both) – who masterminded the Spinlet deal for his debut? At most, he could have had two versions of the ‘Son of a kapenta’ album. The album jacket should be on every street in Lagos, Ibadan and every city in Southern Nigeria, half of those that are fans don’t use Spinlet, would have assumed anybody would know that.

There’s nothing against having an opinion or tweeting it, the most celebrated / artistic people steady do but a certain level of success carries the burden of sharing thoughts on business, ‘one-time’ colleagues and related out on public domain to the minimum. In my stint as AnR with Questionmark and some other acts, labels bring contract that eventually an artiste would require patience from the beyond to take the BS until his contract is done.

On another note, An artist should have a good career even if he doesn’t make A-list, I stand by this belief.

Also, I do believe in an inside saying credited to 2face that, ‘one person own must spoil for another person own to better’ (just like death and birth) but again, it doesn’t have to be messy. It happened at Questionmark, Kennis (with Kelly Hansome and others), Storm and we still had messy recent (ongoing) splits from Chocolate city and SQN.

Away from Ice Prince’s tweet and on a way forward? Since we can’t get prompt court hearing and resolve, the practical attempt at solution is contracts of reasonable durations with exit clause (of course seamless renewal if going is good), proper enlightenment and an arm at PMAN (which i’m hoping the interim president Kevin Luciano would having on his plate) be set up to enlighten, deal with this issues when label and artiste ‘break-ups’ arise.

© 2013 Nigeriafilms.com

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