P-Square Allegedly Collabo on New Song and Video with Rapper T.I, What Does this Really Mean in Getting P-Square into Mainstream America?

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I’ve been wondering whether the deal P-Square tried to broker with Usher, according to insider sources, would follow through at some point. It seems they are tabling that for now and electing instead to go with T.I. Celebrity blogger Linda Ikeji claims P-SQuare, who by the way smartly purchased real estate in Atlanta, just closed on a song and music video collaboration deal with T.I.

I suppose good for them, but that depends on the deal terms, as any entertainment attorney worth their salt will tell you. Artists, we’ve seen a lot of Nigerian acts collaborating with American acts here in the USA. What happens next? When the songs or videos are released, the American acts already have their enormous up front fees and the relationship ends at the time of collaboration.

The African acts return to the continent to boast that they could get a collabo with an American act, their fans “big up” them and that is where it ends. The African acts are then left with marketing and selling usually a remixed version to the same African audience and fans that already know the song.The market reach/expansion is non-existent, if at all, and certainly not among the non-African audience in the diaspora.

We just get this remixed video and song that is distributed on You Tube and back to African radio stations, tv etc. So, you’ve got to ask, what’s the end goal? Also, needless to say, it is no surprise then that the music video has not made its way to mainstream America or even credible American entertainment publications online.

Why? There is no strategy around the release of songs and video collabos with popular American acts; and the professionals that need to be involved from the label heads to the entertainment lawyers are not truly involved in negotiating a deal mutually beneficial for the African act that can help them crack mainstream market.

But why? Well, our African acts are too excited about just being seen with their American acts.The hope is that if our African acts just do a song with their American counterparts, their fame will rub off on our acts so much so their fans will want to be down and can change their cultural perspective and views.  Good luck with changing the psyche of Americans about who Africans are after decades of brainwashed stereotypes, without a clear strategy that also involves Africans in the diaspora.

Second, our African acts treat the business of music as if they were still on the continent and approach their dealings with our American acts that way.

If P-Square will continue to pay American acts as much as they do for collaboration, they really need to have a strategy around their music and how they can penetrate the US music market, after all that is primarily their main point. Practically every Nigerian artists, even Ice Prince sef has landed a collaboration with some American or Pseudo American music act. It is time to get past the party and be about the business of music i.e. true return on investment.

Let’s wait to see what comes off the latest collabos.

Cheers,
Uduak

They aren’t saying much about it yet but a source close to the singing duo confirmed they just did a song and shot a video with US rapper T.I in Atlanta. Peter Okoye pictured above with T.I yesterday during the video shoot. Will get details later.

– Linda Ikeji

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