By Macphersson Mutale
I first met P-Jay at a club in Jo’burg where he was performing as a supporting act to Danny Kaya way back in 2010. That’s the first time I had a conversation with him and we talked about just how brilliant he was and how I thought he had better chances of succeeding in places like SA. Since then we became acquaintances and we met and talked several times.
The last time I met P-Jay was at my own studio at Vibrant Media where he and a lot other artists where recording the song Take Good Care. He was an amazing talent and his voice was unmatched on the local scene.
I am convinced beyond reasonable doubt that P-Jay was one of the most if not the most featured Zambian artist. His angelic voice resonated with so many songs and made each and every song he featured on an instant hit. He was a talent that was cut out to make good music.
When P-Jay passed on, I listened to the mother lament and I was struck with deep sorrow. She said her son though so popular left nothing behind, not a car not a house, nothing. These words where so heartbreaking to me. How can such a talented young man not afford a comfortable life?
MUSIC PROMOTERS
This country has some of the most talented artists in Africa but almost all of them are struggling. There are few and I mean very few exceptional cases. One of the major reasons for failure of artists to succeed and be able to make a livelihood out of this music they make is the lack of serious and professional music promoters. Music promotion is a professional marketing branch and requires people who are competent at the job. Most of what we see in this country is a situation where the artist is everything from a song writer, composer, singer, producer, manager, and promoter and later own their own boss. This culture has killed the industry. If we had professional music promoters, Names like P-Jay, JK, Kmillion, Roberto to mention but a few would have been great African household names. But because they have to do everything on their own, its 10 times the burden.
We need trained music promoters who know the worth of an artist, that the artist is only as good as their last record. If and when we have professional music promoters, the lives of our artists will change exponentially.
ARTIST MANAGERS
There is a huge difference between a music promoter and an artist manager. In Zambia the line is so blur you can’t see either. Artist managers are like Business Managers. They need to know their product, its worth, its weaknesses and a lot more. Without a proper artist manager, there is no branding of the artist, there is no value put on the artist hence can be bought by anyone simply by a cheap phone call. An artist who has no brand and no manager ends up performing in pubs and birthday parties. This is the common trend in Zambia. An artist who has no manger gets featuring on songs without been paid. This is what happened to P-Jay and it’s a lesson to those of you artists who remain alive today. Yes it’s a small industry and you need to help each other but remember that we all need to eat at the end of the day. Its not enough for someone to just buy you a 6 pack of beer just so they can feature you.
I own a studio so I know what am talking about. Everyone in Zambia loves free things. How do you expect the artist who you are not paying to buy expensive cars and later own build their own houses?
I have been working with Shawn Kaystar Macky 2’s former manager for a long time and I keep saying the same thing to him and all the artists that he manages. This industry will only grow the day we all realize artists are not just humans, they are a product as far as am concerned and as such they need to be branded and marketed as such. P-Jay was not branded and marketed as such. He is not the only artist in Zambia there are several others like him. If the status quo is not addressed a lot more artists will continue to wallow in poverty while they pretend to be doing well and wanting to live an expensive life.
We need serious and professional artist managers to change the industry for the best. The industry will not grow if we have no commodity to sale, the day we all start looking at artists as a product, that’s the day we ll embark on that journey as for now we can continue abusing these artists. Corporates will not hire you if you are not properly branded. Ask B’Flow he will tell you that you need to be a niche artist to succeed and thats what all Zambian artists need.
I have been privileged to rub shoulders with some of the most popular artist managers in SA and Kenya and they have one golden rule which is that the artist is their workplace, their office and their livelihood. Without this attitude, we wont go anywhere. What kind of a manager will allow their artist to be featured without been paid? One of the artists from my studio wanted to feature Davido on a song and his manager asked to be paid 12,000 dollars for just a stanza on the track. Now this is how managers do for their product, they know its worth and hence they can put a price to it. In Zambia artists are contacted directly by whoever has a party and they can negotiate their own price sometimes which is paid in kind “booze”. How do you seriously hope to see artist live a dignified life?
MUSIC PRODUCERS
Music production is a talent and a profession. Most people have this feeling that music production is just a passion. Yes passion is important but its not on the top list of why you should become a music producer. I remember one day I was with Raydo when I was setting up my studio and he asked me if I wanted to be a producer and I said no and he said then what do you need a studio for? I did not understand him then but now I do. I also at one point had an interesting conversation with Ben Blazer who told me that he wants to be at the edge of the industry, to have the best and latest equipment and software but sometimes its not worth it in Zambia. I did not understand then, but now I do. Having running my studio for the past 2 years has made me realize that In Zambia its not about professionalism and equipment, its about the popularity of a producer. Even if you operated from a bedroom and used only your computer and a sound card, you could still be a popular producer in Zambia. The point and the math is in how many artists you can record for free and almost free. Zambia artists are not willing to pay for a quality product. They are willing to stick their reputation just to have shoddy job done for them so they can have it on air the next morning.
I have great respect for great Producers like Raydo and Ben Blazer who have invested their Resources, time and talent in building their studios. But if you ask them if they are getting a return on their investment, they will tell you they are not. They are in the industry mainly because of passion than anything else otherwise if they became economical, they would close their studios and do something else with their time. We need to respect our producers and pay them well. Producers make lasting impressions that live for many years to come. P-Jay is gone but his creations with so many producers and mostly Raydo will live on for a long time. Creating music should not be a one day rushed affair, it takes time and a lot of long hours of concentration and self -disagreements. Sadly in Zambia people do not yet appreciate greatly produced and mixed music. Anything goes in Zambia and that’s why we are not putting the pressure on our producers to be more creative. All the songs are like produced by the same person with the same samples. Just hearing the intro beat you can even tell who the producer is even before they put their brand there.
MUSIC STUDIOS
What are called studios in this country are but a sham. I Have seen not more than 6 very low budget studios (that includes mine lol) which in Zambia are close to anything that looks like a studio. Buying studio equipment is very costly. I will give you an example. A mixer, a good one is about K10,000, Studio monitors (speakers) good ones are K 14,000, a good microphone is K2,500 a good music production PC or MAC is around K15,000, A vocal Compressor the cheapest professional one is K8,000. You need a few instruments like a keyboard which will cost not less than K12, 000 for a mid-road one, a guitar K3, 000 . I guess you have a picture from this list that music production equipment in Zambia is not cheap. I ordered an M-Audio Surface Controller from the USA and its about $2400 to get to Zambia and Ben has one you can ask how much he got his. What am saying is after spending so much on equipment then you have an artist who want you to produce music for him or her for free. It’s a messed up system that need serious attention or else we won’t go anywhere. For us to attract good artists and good business we need professional studios and a professional work environment.
COPYRIGHT
I have been a student of copyright law and it saddens me to see how copyright is violated in Zamia. Most of the music in the adverts is not acknowledged as intellectual property and later on paid for by those who use it. Big TV and Radio stations use artistic works and performances with impunity. The current status of ZAMCOPS is a mess. I have been having conversation with the Manger the past couple of weeks because I think the royalties they collect do not in any way benefit the owners of artistic works. We need serious people to run our institutions who understand these things. Intruding a hologram might sound like a good idea to some people but not to me. This is a digital age, anyone who thinks they will fight piracy by putting a hologram on a CD are serious jokers and are wasting resources that can help the industry to grow. Hip Hop grew out of piracy. Am not trying to be controversial but I think we need to address real issues and not the results of our failures.
CONCLUSION
My conclusion is that most Zambia artists just put up face, they are poor and struggling to make it. We need to invest in arts and do things in a more professional manner. As things stand a lot more artists are in the same position as my late friend P-Jay.
We also need artist who are educated by their managers to invest in other aspects of business other than the arts.
I rest my case.