Artists in very high demand

Success as an artist in the music industry worldwide is very difficult to attain. Thereby, for every popular artist, there are tens of thousands more who will never hit the limelight. An industry that has many sub-sectors: production, management, etc, those in the other sectors become successful far more easily than the artists themselves. So difficult is it for an artist to become a success that even if he, her has a sponsor to help him, her overcome the financial challenge which is the major challenge in the path of most artists, it is still no guarantee of success. Suffice it to say that artists who eventually taste the sweetness associated with success are those who are able to persevere, suffer humiliation, make the necessary sacrifices and possess the necessary patience in abundance. Most artists are never able to travel the long unpredictable road to the Promised Land. They bow out after investing much money and time and seeing no gains while suffering despair and deprivation to boot. Some of them bow out of the music industry totally for other sectors that will keep their body and soul together and make them relevant to their sceptical families, friends and the society. Those who really have the music thing in their blood drift into music’s other sectors and quickly become successes there. Examples of such failed musicians are Mista Daz who produced the smash hits, Faze’s Tattoo Girls and Dee Bee’s Collabo. Daz never dreamt of being a producer, but as an aspiring artist, things just didn’t work out for him. And when a producer, in the person of Paul IK Dairo, was a stumbling block to his recording career, he decided to go into production too so as not to have recording problems again. But when he tasted success as a producer, he abandoned his singing ambition. Another notable example of a failed musician is the popular media personality, Kenny Ogungbe. When he couldn’t make heads or tails of his own singing career, he began grooming other musicians. Now, after successfully grooming and guiding many music artists, he is gradually trying to make his way back to singing by featuring on the songs of some of his artists. And it is this method, featuring, which is also known as collaboration, that many struggling artists use to get their breakthrough. Collaboration is a glorified form of backup singing. While a traditional backup singer remains in the background, a collaborator doesn’t. He’s a guest vocalist and is given prominent credit alongside the actual recording artist and therefore basks in the same glory as the recording artist. The artists who have traversed this route to success are quite many. But as easy a path to the top it is, not every struggling artist can avail himself of it as only the most talented artists are sought out by artists and producers for collaborations. Two artists whose successes till date have been based on collaborations are Pasto Goody Goody and LKT. Goody Goody is one of the most exceptional ragga artists in the country. His ability to blend his raga skills into any genre of music made him the toast of every artist who wanted his song to sound better in the long run. His list of admirers was long and comprised of music’ A-list artists that included Tony Tetuila, Slam and Princess Anne Inyang. You name the artist, they wanted Goody Goody. However, he has not been able to carry his phenomenal success as a featuring artist to his own solo career. He is still seeking his own major hit but continues to remain relevant due to his collaborations. The funny thing about collaborations sometimes is that the featured artist becomes more popular than the song owner. This has happened severally, especially when the featured artist is already popular and the song owner is unknown and is trying to bask in the popular artist’s popularity. It however boomerangs on him when his featured artist is later credited as the song owner in a society like ours that documentation and proper accreditation is a big problem. That problem is really a monumental one because even the professionals make the mistake. Radio presenters who should know better will credit a song to 9ice when he was just featured. Speaking of 9ice, he’s one of the most featured artists. When his own solo efforts refused to fly, he became popular through songs he was featured on, most notably 2-Shotz’s Make Dem Talk and Ruggedman’s Ruggedy Baba. And his collaborations paid off for him as they set the stage for his Gongo Aso to stun the world. Terry G’s first major appearance on the scene was as a featured artist on Kemistry’s Shake. Without a song of his own on air, he became celebrated and realised it was the way forward to carve a niche for himself. Consequently, he featured on a lot of songs, appeared in their videos and became quickly popular thereby. Many other artists who have been in high demand for collaborations include the late Dagrin, Ruggedman, MI, Timaya, Pasuma, Flavour, Olamide, Tiwa Savage, Wizkid, Oritsefemi, D’Banj, Don Jazzy and Davido. But as many as they are, the undisputed king of collaborations is 2face Idibia. Unarguably Nigeria’s best and most successful urban music artist, his services as a featured artist have been in demand since he was even a member of the Plantashun Boiz. Then, artists like Baba Dee and Tony Tetuila would single him out from his group to feature him, and it was the collaborations that began to build the 2face brand until it became what it is today.