‘Level up or get left behind’- Shaggy says artiste managers should make themselves an asset
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.
