Success Damian:
Speaking to journalists
in Lagos recently, the Founder of Music Africa Awake, Mr. Emeka Ojukwu said the
festival will be a gathering of reggae artists from all over the globe,
stressing that the occasion will be used to explain to the youths the dangers
posed by crime and drug addiction.
“The reggae festival we
are putting together, we want to use it to explain to Nigerian youths to say no
to crime and substance abuse and that they should embrace music and arts,”
Ojukwu said.
Ojukwu stated that the group is partnering with PMAN, CUSON, Nigerian Art and Culture, among others
The reggae
festival which includes a seminar will also have some notable Nigerian and
foreign artists as speaker and they include Wildlife, Singing Venom, Siano
Thunder, Ben Priest, Lioness Fonts and Pacino.
Others
include Raski Mono, Orits Wiliki, Majek Fashek, Black Mojah, Pepsin and Fruity
Star, Jah Queen, Heyo, Fasschild, DJ Kelly B and DJ Klasiq.
The
three days programme slated to hold between September 29 and October 1 will be
held at Alex Ekumeme Square, while the seminar for the festival is expected to
hold at Nnamdi Azikikwe Auditorium Hall all in Awka in Anambra State.
According to
Ojukwu, “Music Africa Awake is an outfit that
promotes events and also organizes its own events especially for the upcoming
artists and it promotes African music generally.
“Through the
reggae festival we want the Nigerian youths to say no to crime and to embrace
music, arts and to tell Nigerian youths to shun substance abuse, and also we
will educate the youth that are into music industry on what is involved and to
let them know that music is business. They should know how to get their royalty,
whether their music is being played online, and what they stand to gain.
“It is to
also create a right platform for youths that are into reggae to promote their
work, project their music with the right format, projecting their work all over
the world because we have partners that are coming from Europe, Germany,
America and they are going to work with us in promoting those upcoming
artists,” Ojukwu said.
He said the
festival is also meant to recreate the old days when reggae music flourished in
Nigeria “Music Africa Awake look into Africa and found out that Nigeria is a
place where reggae flourished in the early 80s and 90s, but now it is not doing
well as that time, now we decided to host the First Nigeria Music Festival. In
Africa nothing like this had ever happened.
On the
choice of Anambra State, he disclosed “Anambra has produced a lot of reggae
musicians and also we are going to use it as a peace contact, to bring people
together, preaching peace to the people of Nigeria.”
There are
some juju and fuji music equipment which the reggae musicians are interested
in. And how can we do this? We can only do this by bringing them together and
exchange music and it becomes a cultural exchange.
On what the
Nigerian youths stand to benefit from the festival he said, “Music is business,
and from the day you enter the studio, paid your money to record a song, in return
you need a reward from what you invested, but a lot of upcoming artist don’t
see it that way; they see it as lets go and record something, for people to
hear and tell them whether it is good or it is not good.
“But we want
to tell them that before you go to the studio, get it right. When you get it
right and your music starts playing on air, you start making money, that makes
it business and for you to go to studio, you have chosen music as a career, so
they need to get serious.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment