Legal Drama

Advocacy: PMAN has Failed the Music Industry, Kenny St. Best Calls for Regulation of Wande Coal & Timaya Like “Bum Bum” Music Videos

Musician Kenny St. Best formerly known as Kenny St. Brown is insisting and calling for a clamp down on music videos such as the Timaya/Clarance Peters ‘Bum Bum’ and Wande Coal ‘ Go  Low’ broadcast over Nigeria’s television stations. I agree with her position and applaud her for willing to be one of the lone voices calling for this.

I think such music videos churning out of Nigeria’s music industry is reflective of a deeply rooted  identity crisis that many Nigerians suffer from. Do you all need me to spell this out?

Also, on a basic level, if you really think about it, music is someone else’s world view or opinion shared over musical instruments i.e. a drum, guitar, piano etc. If you removed the musical instruments or the beat that gives life to this form of expression, many would not get away with saying half the things they say. Overwhelming, what is communicated though music  is usually about love ( the crazy concept of love), the good life (bling bling, money, power, sex etc.) and the idea of what relationships ought to be between a man and a woman. Also, overwhelmingly, it also tends to be young people who are yet to experience some of life’s curveballs in the truest sense singing about things they know nothing about. The masses consume this music, for the most part, because it sounds good. The visuals and the beat, in today’s music industry, is what resonates with many, regardless of how vile the lyrics are.

So, to my left is the musician who says “I have a point of view and I want to express it. Plus, I want to express not only in my home or with my friends, I want to come into your home and express it to you, your family and friends et. al.” If that musician has a right to express and a television station pays for that form of expression, the family or person who receives that content, to my right, can say, this kind of content is not working for me. Where the television station is not a cable network of some sorts and is local television, that family or person does have a right to say, “Neither I nor my children should listen or view this garbage. Take it somewhere else.” If the artist still feels there is value in sharing his point of view, then a compromise has to be reached. That compromise is where the law steps in to say because children are involved; and some adults also detest this form of work, if you want to still show it, blip out the curse words etc.

If we have people like KSB saying I DO NOT want to be assaulted with your point of view when I switch on my television, why then should the point of view of that artist be forced down her throat? Also, Nigerian children should NOT be subjected to “bum, bums” n**gas, bitches and hoes statements, as children. Those singing it were NOT subjected to such assaults as children, all in the name of music, and should not be permitted to force the nonsense down the ears and throats of our children. The industry either self regulates or ultimately the regulating bodies, especially if persons like KSB and Nigerian women and mothers begin speaking up, will step up and do the regulating.

Artists, blip the curse words out!!!!! You want to be like your American counterparts yet simple common sense when it comes to copying how they do it, you fail to follow??!!!

And Nigerian lawyers for God’s sake, put that legal advocacy skills to work in the music industry. Why is this issue of regulation of music videos not a moot point? Why is there no consistency and steep penalties for the networks broadcasting such rubbish videos so that we shift the pressure  on the artists and their labels to be in compliance? This is about the future of YOUR children.

THE PUNCH EXCERPT

Nigerian gospel singer, Kenny St Best, has challenged the Performing Musician Association of Nigeria, over the body’s inability to regulate the content of music videos being released by its members.

The singer also known as KSB said the decadence portrayed in the videos was assuming a terrible dimension.

“The fact that every industry has a body that governs and checks its activities and the music industry has none has made it an all-comer affair. Nobody is regulating, us. PMAN has failed in itself. If the body is doing its job properly, it is not in my place to fight it. But I will make noise and criticise my colleagues openly. It is getting terrible,” she says

It will be recalled that the petite artiste recently caused a stir on Twitter when she challenged the Marvin Crew boss, Don Jazzy, over the semi-nudity in Wande Coal’s music video, Go Low.

Although the video was banned shortly after, KSB has come under attack from fans and critics who felt that she went a step too far.

In defence, she says, “It was not a personal attack. I had to reach out to Don Jazzy because he is a big guy in the industry and so people will naturally follow him; more so Wande Coal is an artiste under his label. If I don’t make it a duty to speak out as a woman and practitioner them I have failed I had to speak out on Twitter to my colleagues because I felt it is a better forum, even if they do not get to read it, their followers will read and re-tweet. NBC should wake up. It is not until a video has been well played and thoroughly digested that the regulators should now act. .  .”

The Punch has the full story.

-Uduak
@uduaklaw

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Credited for several firsts in the fashion and entertainment industry, Uduak Oduok (Ms. Uduak) is a fashion and entertainment lawyer, speaker, visionary, gamechanger, trailblazer, and recognized thought leader, for her work on Africa’s emerging global fashion and entertainment markets, and the niche practice of fashion law in the United States. She is also the founder of ‘Africa Music Law,’ an industry go-to music business and law blog and podcast show empowering African artists. Her work in the creative and legal industries has earned her numerous awards and recognitions, including an award from the American University Washington College of Law for her “legal impact in the field of intellectual property in Africa." She has also taught as an Adjunct Professor at several institutions in the United States. For more information, visit her at https://msuduak.com.

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1 Comment

  1. nblinks says:

    Truly, I support the regulation of the Nigeria Music Industry. If the likes of music mentioned above are monitored and well regulated, there will be more sanity in the Nigeria Music Scene and moreNigeria musicians will sing good songs.

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