“Nigerian artistes are more talented than Ghanaian
artistes” This statement has become extremely common on the minds and lips of
the masses of Ghanaians for some time, especially within this space of Afrobeat
travelling and breaking bounds internationally.
It is salient to note that it is not wrong for anyone
to harbor this thought looking at the unrelenting rate at which Nigerian
artistes are penetrating the global music market. The question then to ask is; Is
talent the only requirement to become a successful artiste? Talent cannot
be measured or counted, you could say Artiste A has more followers than Artiste
B and so Artiste A is more popular than B and you are accurate because you have
presented facts and figures whereas with talent, there is no formula to
consider among artistes to determine who is more talented.
The adverse cause of the assertion that Nigerian
Artistes are more talented than Ghanian Artistes is ignorance, ignorance of the
phenomenon of the modern systems for music and artiste promotion. This
phenomenon is an institution referred to as a Record Label.
A record label is an establishment that recruits
artistes and oversees the wellbeing of the artistes by providing them with
necessary resources to explore their potentials and most importantly, providing
systems in place to get the artistes and their music travelling internationally.
Simply put, the record label is the engine that runs the artiste (the car).
Anytime the comparison between Ghanaian and Nigerian
artistes surfaces, some popular names are mentioned; Burna Boy, Davido, Wizkid
etc. These artistes are global icons that have held high the flag of Afrobeats.
It is still out of place if anyone would compare an artiste from a country
who’s population is over 200 million to another who’s country population is not
even up to 35 million. This comparison will not favour Ghanaian artistes.
Nigeria’s population is enough to hasten the rate at which their artistes
become international stars.
Nigerians as a people have an excessively supportive
attitude that makes it easy for such penetration, we could use the recently
held general elections as a case study, majority of Ghanaians wished that the
Labour Party candidate Peter Obi became the President of Nigeria. We had no
idea whether he will make a good Leader or not but we were influenced by the
monopolistic support that Nigerian celebrities on social media exhibited for
Peter Obi. Nigeria’s support system is not one to be played with.
Rap ion, Sarkodie was recently featured on the refix
of Bob Marley’s “Stir it up” hit record, he is the first rap artiste to be ever
featured on a Bob Marley record. It was supposed to be a priceless moment for
the Ghanaian music industry but quite unfortunately, it was not the case.
Majority of the population were discussing whether Bob Marley is greater than
Jay Z or the fact that Sarkodie was featured by a “Ghost”. This attitude cannot
and will not get our artistes selling out the arenas that the Nigerian artistes
are selling out. In 2018, Shatta Wale was featured on Beyone’s Lion King album
and Ghanaians were more interested in whether he met Beyonce physically or not.
The collective support method is yet to materialize in our part of the
continent.
The facts are clear, with good and well-resourced
record labels and collective support system, our artistes will definitely be
rocking shoulders with their Nigerian counterparts. A Kidi from Ghana is
equally as talented as a Ruger from Nigeria, it all balls down to the label and
the sort of support system backing them.