“I will never take an artiste to court” – Kenny Ogungbe

Music mogul, Kenny Ogunbe has looked into some emerging trends in the global music industry, particularly the Nigerian music industry and shared a shocking observation.

The founder of Kennis Music in an interview with Nigerian Celebrity Armed Wrestling revealed that unlike in the past where talent was the main demand to appeal to the world, the hype is now more important to make an artist successful with the revolution of social media and the internet

The Kennis boss stated that the most talented are no longer the most celebrated nowadays, but the most syndicated.

“When we started, there was no internet, we used to hawk our music at the back of our booth all around Lagos but the internet is a phenomenon that we are all excited about and keying in now. If you are caught sleeping in this internet age, you are gone…more stars are being made through the internet now…and hype is all an artist actually need now. In fact, talent is just 10percent, while the hype is 90 of what is important to make an artist now”.

Ogungbe also spoke widely about the trend of every artist wanting to start their own labels.

“People used to mock us when started. When artists started leaving our label to start their own, they mocked us even more; they blamed us. Now, those people are setting up labels everywhere and signing artists; those artists too are leaving them to set up their own record labels. When these artists also sign up other artists, the artistes also leave to set up labels. So, you can see that Kennis Music has been justified. At the end of the day, there is nobody that will not want to start his or her own thing. Tubaba has Digital Hypertek, and he is still my brother. We see often, I go to his club. So it is relationships that matter.”

Baba Keke, as he is fondly called also blamed Nigerian journalists for much of the controversies often surrounding artists and record label relationships.

He said “There is nowhere in the world where artists leave a record label and it becomes news. But Nigerian journalists and I say this with a deep sense of respect because as you know I am a journalist myself; Nigerian journalists are always on the side of the artiste even if the artist is at fault. They will write rubbish about the label without bothering to contact them…In Nigeria, the banks will not even support an artist, but one individual will see you believe in your talent and invest millions on you, then after that, you will say you are leaving when you both still have a contract; will you be happy if you were that investor? But journalists will ignore that to write rubbish about the label, simply because they like the artists’ music…Nigerians generally don’t celebrate record labels”.

Kenny Ogungbe, however, said he will never take an artist to court for anything.

According to him; “Record label owners are taking legal actions against the artistes when they breach contracts, which is fine on a business concern. But I can’t bother myself taking a Nigerian artiste to court because I am a leader in this industry. I am a pioneer, I started all this and I can’t be part of the people that built an industry and also break it. If you are doing something wrong as my artiste, I will call you to order and advice you as an elder, father and a brother. But if you still insist on towing the path, I will just leave you”.

Speaking about hierarchy in artist management, he clarified some common notions such as, who the boss is between an artist, the manager or financier;

” The artist is the boss of his manager because the artiste employed him. That’s the standard all over the world. If the artist is no longer satisfied with the service of the manager, he can fire him. However, I must say that the position of an artist manager is an exalted one, a very glorious one. The financier, on the other hand, is who he is; he is the executive producer, he is the boss. The person who pays you is your boss. He finances your talent because you can’t; he is your boss. Many of this artistes don’t even know this and they need to know.”

He advised young artists;  “To have Respect is the only advice I will give to young artists. Majority of the successful artists you see shining now, let me not mention names, had nothing before they started. The money came from the financier, it could be family members or parents, but once they attain a little success they start carrying their shoulders up. That’s a very wrong way of life. That person who helped you when you had nothing, respect that person.”