You sort of know when a Jamaican artiste is in

the building. You’re bound to see a sea of men encircling the deejay or singer

as if their life depended on it, and among the men is usually the roadie, the

artiste’s manager.

Shaggy does a better job at illustrating how

this role is often filled.

“Most of the new artistes have a breddren

beside dem weh a dem friend, dem man deh a go through the trenches wid

yuh,” he starts. “Weh da man deh ago call himself? Just entourage?

After a while him a go seh, ‘a me a di manager, a mi a di roadie’.”

But if this uppity employee is behind in Music

Business 101, he may not stand the benefits of the new whip, hotel trips or

selfies with superstars for very long.

“When you start buss and some other man

come to you, yuh cya lef your likkle youth yah so. Sharon Burke call yuh and

seh she a go deal with your ting, and my boy a seh ‘what happen to my 20 per

cent?’. Yeah,  but if me a go give you

20, and give Sharon 20, then you a cut inna my ting. So you now as the brethren

have to have a value. If me a di sidekick mi a go educate myself pon di

ting…you haffi do your homework and be an asset to that artiste and not a

liability to that artiste.”

And if you fail to level up, Shaggy adds,

“Yuh cya vex when di artiste seh ‘mi outgrow you’ and move on because you

nah move as fast as me or step up as fast as me. Yuh a go call me all types of

names but mi have my food and my pickney fi run and my career.”

The It

Wasn’t Me hitmaker said gone are the days when managers and producers ran

the show, and urged artistes to recognise that they steer the ship.

“Dem have a big misconception from the

old days seh the producer is the boss, the manager is the boss. A me a di

artiste, a me a di boss, you work fi me. Every artiste fi know seh everybody

round dem work fi dem.

“Part of you going on stage and winning people over is having the confidence to win people over. If you have a man a boss yuh, how your confidence a go up when da man deh a try inflict fi him ideology and ideas pon you?” he posited.

Shaggy was speaking at the seventh Jamaica Music Conference held at the Courtleigh Auditorium in Kingston on Saturday, February 15. The session also included contributions from DJ Kool Herc, Gramps Morgan and Kemar Highcon.