Locko and Tenor got signed to Universal last year at around the same time. Since being signed, we have not seen or heard much from them. That Universal Music found talent worth signing in Cameroon was testament to how far we have come from 7 years ago when urban music started its climb in Cameroon. It was an exciting time in the industry as a whole but something did not sit right with me.
Looking at the history of African artists signing to foreign majors, there are hardly any prominent success stories, at least in pop music. I mean successes that we can clearly attribute to those artists being signed by a foreign major label. We all know the ’fall’ of D’banj, musically, happened after he penned a deal with G.O.O.D Music; something which Don Jazzy was against. Davido has opened up multiple times about how his initial deal with SONY didn’t work out very well especially because Sony tried to change his sound by putting him in the studio with producers and artists he had no working relationship or artistic chemistry with.
But that’s what record labels do, they over-control and try to manufacture artists to fit into one of many prepackaged product categories. For the few success stories we hear, there are many more unsuccessful acts that have passed through record label machines. I am however extra suspicious of the agenda of these foreign labels on African soil. Based on history dating as far back as the slave trade and colonization eras, it is hard for me not to put every effort by the west to be part of something African under stronger scrutiny.
There is no doubt that African music is becoming more popular across the world. Let us also remember that African music has risen to prominence by the work of small independent record labels with no major worldwide distribution deals. Soon as things started popping, Universal set up shop in Côte d’Ivoire and Sony came in. I hear Roc Nation Management even has offices or at least operations in Nigeria now.
I think back to when Jay-Z became president of Def Jam. He was accused then of shelving the albums of other rappers on the label to reduce the competition he had for the throne of best rap act. That might not be the entire truth but the conflict of interests that existed there cannot be ignored. With that in mind, I have reason to theorize that the signing of Tenor and Locko and all the other African artists getting picked up by western major labels might be more of a preemptive than a proactive measure. The deals are set up in a way that the labels cannot lose.
If you are a major record label in the U.S watching African music rise to mainstream popularity worldwide, you are thinking two things; get a piece of the pie or get rid of the competition. One would have imagined that Universal in its first entry into Cameroon would have picked up one artist and used that artists to gain some experience in the market but they went for Locko and Tenor almost at about the same time. Something else was also happening around the same time. On the 26th of June 2018, Maahlox performed to a full house independently organized concert at the PAPOSY. On the 29th of June, Locko got signed to Universal.
I believe the build up to Maahlox’s concert and the concert itself influenced the speed with which Universal Music moved to sign Tenor and Locko. Think about it. After Maahlox, I think Tenor and Locko were one of the few urban music artists we could be confident is capable of filling up the PAPOSY. If the major record labels let Tenor and Locko do what Maahlox did, it would have been game over for them in a country like ours with a lot of artistic promise. Nobody would take them seriously after that.
I waited to write this article because I wanted to see what universal had planned for Tenor and Locko. I am yet to see any signs that those two have developed artistically under Universal. They seem to be moving slower than when they were both signed to smaller independent inexperienced labels. Which makes me thing, they were signed to be benched. Theirs is another classic case of Alexandre Song signing to Barcelona. They are not a priority on Universal’s artist roster.
- Tino Foy