On a recent episode of Influencers with Yahoo Finance’s Editor-in-Chief Andy Serwer, Island Records founder Chris Blackwell explained why he never wanted to be photographed with Bob Marley and the Wailers. He also explained in simple terms why reggae worked on a global scale and Afrobeat which was started in the 1960 did not catch on then.
Blackwell sitting on the his beachfront plush hotel that was once offered up for sale to Marley and then a series of events lead him to reacquire it said,
“When I met (Marley) him I just knew that he was somebody who was going to be really important and I didn’t want to be that kinda white manager type guy hanging around and claiming what they hoped happened or something like that because he didn’t need that, he had it all himself, he knew what he wanted to do and he knew how to get there.”
On the subject of what made reggae music catch earlier to a much wider audience than Afrobeat during the 70s and 80s he simply said”
“For starters reggae is pretty much in English and a lot of the African artists didn’t speak English.”
As talk of theglobalization of music continue, several international music labels have sent their A&R to the African continent to find talent amidst the success of acts like Burna Boy, Wizkid and Tems.
More specifically,PwC had forecasted that Nigeria will be among the fastest-growing Entertainment and Media industry globally. In their report they said the country will earn $14.8bn in 2025, up from its current revenue of $7.7bn, riding on an 85% growth of its internet access segment.
More specific to music, Statista projected that Nigeria’s music market grew from 26 million U.S. dollars in 2014 to 34 million U.S. dollars in 2018, and that by 2023 the revenue is expected to reach 44 million U.S. dollars.
Nigeria and the wider music industry
As far back as 2014, JAY-Z sent his cousin, Briant Biggs on the hunt for talent in the motherland after meeting with Nigerian rapper, Ice Prince at ROC Nation’s office in 2014.
Outside of the African continent artists like Davido, Wizkid, Tiwa Savage, and Burna Boy have signed deals with the major record labels known as the ‘Big Three’. Realizing that Nigeria is churning out hits at a fast pace, the international labels have gone beyond recording and distribution partnerships and have set up subsidiaries within the continent for Artist & Repertoire (A&R) support and funding, licensing, publishing and recording deals.
Along with key market research, their latest interest in Nigeria is heightened by the visibility and success of Burna, Wizkid and Tems.
Burna Boy’s 2022 album Love, Damini debuted at No. 2 on the U.K. Charts and debuted at No. 14 on the Billboard200 chart after selling 25,000 units in the United States in its first week. He has the distinction of having the highest charting album of all time by a Nigerian.
Burna Boy also made the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time as a solo or lead artist, with Last Last entering at No. 86. and climbing 14 spots this week to No. 72.
He has ruled the U.S. Afrobeats chart with Last Last for the past 7 weeks. His other singles For My Handf eat. Ed Sheeran peaked at No. 2 and Toni Ann Singh featuring dancehall deejay Popcaan peaked at No. 14.
Tems
Tems made history as the first from her 200 million strong country to debut at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100singles chart. Her first chart topper is via a feature on Future’s ‘Wait For U” which also features Drake.
“Wait For U” samples Tem’s “Higher” which was released last July.
Tems was also recently featured on Beyonce’s Renaissance album on the track Move. She also covered the Marley classic “No Woman No Cry” for the Black Panther Soundtrack.
Wizkid
Wizkid’s Made In Lago was certified gold last week by the RIAA for surpassing 500,000 units in the US.
The lead track for the album Essence featuring Tems is also the first African song to be certified 2x Platinum (2,000,000) by the RIAA giving the 32 year old the record of having both the best selling African album and best selling African song in the US.
Made in Lagos tracklist
The 14 track album also features Damian Marley, H.E.R, Burna Boy, Ella Mai, Skepta, and Terri. Other stand out features includeTrue Love featuring Jamaican singer Projexx and Nigerian singer Tay Iwar which has sold more than 100,000 units in the US.
Pioneers of the Afrobeat movement like music legends King Sunny Ade, Fela Kuti, and Onyeka Onwenu all had deals with international record labels in the 80s with Island Records, Polygram, Arista Records and EMI. Those have since either been acquired by or folded into Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and Warner Music Group conglomerates.
Fela’s album“Afrodisiac”released on the Nigerian EMI label in 1973 spawned the Nigerian hit “Jeun Ko Ku,” which sold over 200,000 copies.
Blackwell also dropped names such as Steve Jobs who he said spent his 29th birthday at the Golden Eye resort just as he was about to develop the Macintosh Apple desktop computer. He said Microsoft’s Paul Allen has also made stops several times with his boat at the property for vacation.
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