If you are a keen follower, you may have noticed there are a few Facebook status updates that I recycle after every few months. One of them is “Some people can’t wait for Tino Foy to be wrong.” Another one is the question “Is it still a disgrace to walk around Buea with your flip flops?” I am sure many don’t understand why I keep asking about the flip flop thing and I hope this can help.
The first time I visited Buea, one of my friends had to rush to my rescue whenever I tried to just go transfer some credit by the roadside in my flip flops. I was warned that doing that would make me a subject for ridicule. What fascinated me the most was the fact that the people I was warned will make a joke out of me probably knew for certain that ’two-rope sléppass’ is proper english and I probably have a pair of shoes at home that can pay for a full replacement of their fangs.
Any-Ha!
Yesterday I was scrolling through my timeline and I stumbled on a post by a young lady supposedly from Buea which read:-
“I don’t mean to be rude, neither am I judging, but! Dear artists, Buea to be precise, there is something called branding (packaging). in case y’all didn’t know. How do you wear your bathroom slippers on the streets of moliko? And are seen practically everywhere, dressing in some kinda way,,and when there are shows, you expect organizers to pay you hundreds of thousands to come perform? Even me, a commoner, will not pay any amount to come see you on stage, when I see you everyday in town?? Don’t blame me though.”
Sounds like sense especially as many can’t even write English as good as hers. Everyone who came in the comments section (but for one person) seemed to approve of this message and the one person who tried to counter this point of view or belief system got hushed down.
I hate where we find ourselves when it comes to our entertainment industry and this notion of branding/packaging. I do not think it is something peculiar to Cameroon. Some pop culture addicts will remember when Ace Hood’s fake Rolex disintegrated on the red carpet of an award show - One can only imagine the embarrassment; one that could be avoided if the guy just used his phone to tell the time instead of trying to fake not being broke.
In such an infant industry, I see a lot of kids being bullied into hiding and into self destructive behavior because they have announced their dreams of becoming artists. Being bullied by people who know nothing about the essence of art and it’s uses. It is almost like we cannot enjoy art without some overhyped celebrity bling status wrapped around it; all in the name of packaging.
A young man will be too ashamed of helping his mom carry her bunch of plantains from the roadside because he has one single online and a few people who might recognize him know him to be a rapper and he was most likely talking about ‘balling’ in his single.
You have kids walking around breaking their necks with fake gold chains as those have replaced the lyrical prowess that used to make rappers worth their salt.
You have people who nobody will break a sweat to get a selfie with, hiding indoors because they have one single out and being scarce is part of the so called packaging. Time they should spend moving around, meeting, and sharing their work in person with people that will then evangelise their talent to others.
Thing is, Beyonce and Jay-Z are not hiding from anybody. They actually try not to be seen because when people see them, it is a threat to their security. Point is, you know when you have to hide from people because it is when you must be making enough money to move around with bodyguards when you absolutely have to move.
We are copying from a place that is far removed from our reality here. There has never been a better scenario where the “think global, act local” mantra should be religiously applied.
If you are not going to be seen, let it be because you are busy working on perfecting your craft or just working rather than locking yourself up unwillingly because you are afraid some UB girl will see you and your price will go down. As it stands, I can count, in one hand, the number of artists/celebrities in Cameroon that will cause a stampede in Buea. If anything, if at all you will become that level of famous, this is the time when you have to enjoy your freedom.
On that note, the artists themselves keep setting up traps that only they will fall in. It is almost like being REAL is the only branding strategy that people fear the most around here so let us have a little course on Branding.
Branding 101:
A brand in this context is an identity that you give to yourself through what you do, how you do it, and why you do it. Every brand is respectable and profitable. Take J Cole for example, he is one of the most successful hip hop artists both in fame and money but you don’t see him wearing two thick gold chains and driving in a Lamborghini. He has created a successful brand that thrives without people expecting him to show money or make his entire album about getting money.
Take another artist like Rick Ross who has to continue flaunting his money bags and mansions only to get less than half of J Cole album sales. Mind you Rick Ross had to get in the game with money that he made by other means for his “Big Boss Lifestyle” brand to hold water, so did and does every other rapper whose brand is about getting ‘em bags.
Kanye on one finger can talk money or no money and it will still be in brand because his brand is in sonic innovation or just plain innovation of pop culture. Whatever it is, it is true to who he is based on his family upbringing and life experiences.
Jay-Z will always talk about money because he came in the game with money but he will have to keep it subtle because it is true to his drug dealing to corporate executive lifestyle brand which he has been about all his life.
Kendrick Lamar doesn’t need to wear shoes because his brand has never been about anything other than his lyrical horsepower. So the same girl who is here complaining about some artist walking around with flip flops will kiss Kendrick Lamar’s dirty toes if she was to see him 10 times a day at malingo entrance for ten years. Never once in her life will she have the guts to use her data to say what she said about the other artist.
The almighty Fela hardly wore clothes, not to talk of shoes but he was still paid his full price to perform at shows. His brand had no correlation with materialism. Bob Marley probably made more money than even the highest paid artists in Africa right now and probably still makes more money post mortem but there is not one popular image of Bob Marley and his cars. Nobody even searches “MTV cribs, Bob Marley.” As well as nobody ever writes about what Car Denzel Washington is driving or Adele, Or many others you can think of.
In fact if that same girl sees Dangote in his flip flops at Muea market this coming Thursday, she will write to praise his humility.
I was going to interview a young rapper and he texted me a minute to our scheduled meeting time to tell me he can’t come because the guy who was supposed to give him clothes did not open his shop. I mean the guy had no nice black T shirt, a pair of jeans and some clean sneakers? I’m sure he did but he probably wanted to pull up on me with some faux Versace and a red ruby ring because the only thing we consider branding in Cameroon is fake balling.
That’s why I told Glen to tell Holiday to lose the gold chains. He’s too good to have that fake shit around his neck. Takes away more than it adds.
Reminds me of boarding school days when people will refuse to go and see their parents on visiting Sunday because their parents did not pull up with the swag their mate’s parents were pulling up with.
So why this myopic interpretation of branding where everyone has to look, act, and sing the same?