Piece written by Sammy Ajufo
Headies & the South East Question
Here’s a popular African proverb: Until the lion tells his
side of the story, the tale of the hunt will always
glorify the hunter.”
Please accept my Congratulations first and foremost
to Ayo Animashaun – founder of Hip Hop World and his team that has spawned the Hip Hop World Magazine,
HIPTV & The Headies. Great job putting together what
has unarguably become the Grammy’s of the multi-
billion dollar Nigerian Music Industry since 2006. Many
claim the Headies Awards (formerly known as the Hip
Hop World Awards) tilts towards western Nigerian acts or at least artistes based in Lagos Nigeria – and
understandably so.
That’s because Lagos has set itself up to be the Los
Angeles, Austin, Miami, New York, Nashville of Music,
not just in Nigeria, but recently in Africa. That’s
because there must be at least one hub in every nation where music thrives – business and social wise.
London, Berlin, Tokyo, Havana, Ibiza are also
recognised as top music cities across the world too.
However, there is a difference between a Music City
and a Music Show City – and LA, California exemplifies
that. The famous town is known more for hosting events and playing home to showbiz celebs even
more than it is known for actually making music.
That’s what Austin, Seattle, New York, Nashville and
Miami are for, making music.
Lagos and perhaps Abuja (for the ambience & serenity
only) offers great brand spots for celebrating music even though Lagos holds the dual cards of forging &
celebrating music, but where else in Nigeria can we
call “Music Making States?” Eh? Port Harcourt? Enugu?
Aba? Jos? Kaduna? Yes indeed! These are front line
city-states that have produced a huge bulwark of
today’s celebrated acts (at least the older ones). But are they still thriving in that status or is everyone
packing up to Lagos to be seen and celebrated?
Apparently that’s the case.
The Music Making states must grow to their
responsibilities and remember that they produce
what Lagos celebrates! Musicians should be coming to these states to get good sound, great talent and great
productions that can be sold to the Lagos business
market and the world. There’s no point in envying
Lagos and wondering why we aren’t recognized
when we’ve forgotten our gift! What’s wrong in
celebrating our own here? What’s wrong with having different awards?
The Oscars share the limelight with the Golden Globes
and the BAFTA as the Grammy’s do same with the
Billboards Music Awards, MTV, BET etc. Nothing stops
the South East from making theirs happen to celebrate
indigenous talent, or the South South (who already have several & who mostly don’t care about Lagos
awards that much) or the Northern Music Awards and
so on. Nigeria also has a multiplicity of awards also for
music too – so the space is wide enough to fly.
And before we jump into “let’s start ours! Let’s show
Lagos people!”. Do realise that the Headies is in its 12th year so is NEA, AFRIMA is 4 years old etc, they
didn’t start today and the excellence they show isn’t a
days job. Its about us celebrating us – the right way,
professionally done, well branded, packaged and sold
to the world