When Nigerian superstar Burna Boy performed his One Night In Space concert at Madison Square Garden in April, one of the well recieved songs in his set was a song titled Secret, which features Jeremih and Serani. The song was produced by Nigerian producer T-Boy (with additions by Serani), originally had Sean Paul as the vocal collaborator. However, after it was pitched to Burna Boy who was on the rise in 2019, to be a collaborator, the Bank On It artist decided the only way forward was to remove Sean Paul and get full ownership of the masters for his album African Giant.
Serani tells the story of why he agreed to sell the masters to a song he knew would have been an “undeniable” hit so he could benefit from the bigger picture. He is yet to perform the fire starter track with Burna Boy who is currently doing sold out shows all over the US, but he believes the success of the song will benefit him in the long run.
Serani says,
“That song came about, I was just in my driveway sitting on the front of my truck and this beat was playing in the background, for the first time i have a hit song that I never make the beat, like a big hit you nuh. So I am there just listening to the track and I thought about another song that I have named Secret before.”
“So I say I want to do a better secret song, cause I made the attempt at the concept before and looking back I say I can do better. I got the melody and the words right there and then, I wrote three verses, not knowing that the song was that good until I recorded it. When i recorded it now i was like ‘gaalee’, that’s fire, i knew right there and then I told my manager that’s the best song that I have unreleased. I knew, I could tell. a hit is just a hit you cant fight it you can’t force it. Right away I told him that’s the best song I have.”
His manager, Julian Jones Griffiths, one of the more connected persons in the reggae music community was who took the song to Burna Boy’s team.
“He said alright give me a cut without the verses, so I muted my verses and he sent it to Burna and they wanted it for their album so we sold it to them. I sold the master yeah.”
Serani holds no regrets for selling the song, he says the success of the song is mutually beneficial.
“It benefited me to collaborate with Burna and it benefitted him to collaborate with me.”
“At the end of the day sometimes you have to be smart about the game, what I want to say is it’s pointless in owning a hundred percent of nothing,” he asserts.
The No Games hitmaker said had he stuck to his guns and kept the song for himself it would be harder to turn it into a hit.
“It would be way too difficult, it would be really difficult, you know why? It would be as if I am started fresh, it’s a new genre so it made sense to let him have it, I wanted the collab, I liked his songs, I wanted the collab, he liked the song but the only way he would have done it is if he got the song for his album. So we just said alright take it. Now I am once again I am way more relevant than before. Having a fresh song allows me to make more money, to be more successful, more relevant then I can think of owning my own masters later on. Sometimes you need to give a little to get a lot.”
“We helped each other, I did a good job clearly, I got a lot of good feedback, people ask me to sing the song randomly, so clearly I did a good job, It benefited both of us, that’s one of the best ones out there for him.”
Later in our conversation he admits, although there are no regrets, the choice to sell his intellectual property was difficult, “Business is difficult, a great example is I had to sell my favorite song, that was difficult for me, its my favorite song, I love that song, cherish that song, listen to that song right now still. That song is a benchmark for me of the level that I cannot be below.”
Serani is back fusing modern dancehall and afrobeats with his latest release, Slowly featuring Nigerian chart topping singer Oxlade.
This time he says things are a little different.
“It is a means to an end my bro, things are a little bit different now, (laughs) I am no longer in a position where you can say nobody not talking about my song. Yeah and the song Secret is still growing.”
