Little Leo had the wonderful opportunity, thanks to the
miracle of technology, to sit down with Phil
Chard from African Hip Hop Blog
and Two Broke Twimbos to discuss
hip hop, the music industry and IP on the continent. We had a lengthy conversation about many
aspects of intellectual property and Africa’s music industry, so this interview*
will be broken down into parts. We’ll
start at the beginning with how African artists can get their content to their
audiences.
Little Leo: Welcome
and thank you for being with us today. This
is an opportunity for our Afro-IP Readers to hear from people who actually use
the various intellectual property systems that are in place and get a better
idea of how they’re working or not working for those people and what they know
about them. You’re actively involved in
the entertainment industry in a number of ways, obviously with the African Hip
Hop blog, your Two Broke Twimbos podcasts; you’re a writer, you’re an
innovator. Are you also a musician
yourself?
Phil Chard: You could
say that. I mainly executive
produce. I do A&R for the artists
that I manage, project directions, promotion.
L: What else would you like our readers to know about you?
P: You seem to have done most of your research; that’s
pretty much it. I’m a pretty open
book. My passion is just trying to get
African stories out there. That’s the
goal that I’m pushing for the next five years.
My five-year plan is get as many African stories out there being told by
Africans. Basically telling African
stories with an African narrative and then finding African solutions to African
problems. That’s the main key.
L: What methods are
you using to get African stories told by Africans out to Africans?
P: For example, now
with music distribution going digital, trying to figure out the best way to
reach individuals who don’t have the access to iTunes or Google Play or
whatever it may be. They might have
access to WhatsApp Bundles, so WhatsApp
has now become a distribution platform for music.
L: So not looking
just at the standard internationally-pushed music platforms, but looking at
other platforms and other things that can be used as platforms?
P: Yeah, what we’ve
realized is gone are the old days where you force the audience to consume
content the way you want them to consume it.
You have to figure out how they’re consuming content and tailor your
distribution model to fit their needs.
Because if you aren’t doing it, someone else will. I’m pretty sure right now there’s a
sixteen-year old kid somewhere who knows a lot more than I do, who could easily
do more than what I’m doing and probably could do.
L: I know some people
who would say you have a better handle on the situation than the major labels.
P: [laughs] Well it’s all about perspective, right. I mean you look at what the American labels
have done in Africa; it’s been an absolute disaster for the past five
years. Just a litany of artists—I’m not
going to mention names, but if you do some light research, you’ll find a long
list of African artists who signed to American labels which have these
subsidiaries in Africa who have nothing but complaints and horror stories about
mismanagement and being shot down and about not having their projects green lit
and creative stifling; it’s just a mess.
L: That’s something
I’d like to ask you more about. We hear
about labels coming into the continent and creating subsidiaries and then also
hear about artists who signed to labels in the States and then start
collaborating with American artists. It
sounds like in general, you see that as a bad thing, but then you’ve also said
“if you have an African label, it’s not doing anything for you.”
P: Not quite. I was speaking in generalities. If you’re looking at an independent artist in
2016, if as an artist you have already assembled a team that can do your
promotion, that can help manage your funds and help get you bookings, there’s
no need for a label anymore. Look at an
artist like Cassper Nyovest. Cassper Nyovest was smart enough to create his
own label. He literary had two big hits {“Doc Shebeleza” and “Gusheshe”} and those two big hits
garnered him 21 awards
in a year. And all that fame then helped
him generate upward of US$150,000 in show money, which at the time was unheard
of for a hip hop act. So off that, he
built his own infrastructure. Now he’s
got a guy named Spike who’s his road manager.
He’s got T-Lee who’s his manager.
He’s got his friend Carpo, who’s his hype man on stage. He’s built a whole team around it and he’s
started his own label, Family Tree. He’s got his boy Sebastian,
his former manager, who’s also managing the other acts on his label, who’s also
his videographer and photographer. He’s
created a label for himself; there’s nothing that any other label can offer
him. And as opposed to what other artist
are doing, he’s doing his own distribution as well. Other artists who have their own labels,
they’ll go to Sony or Universal and say “ok, we’ve got our album, distribute it
on our behalf and then we’ll give you 15%” or whatever it is they offer as
distribution rate. He’s doing everything
himself. And both his albums have gone
platinum. So if you’re smart enough and
you’re thinking in that line, there’s really not much a label can do for you in
Africa. Where a record label shows its
value is when you want to go outside of Africa, which is why the Davido deal made so much sense. {Davido signed to RCA Records in July.} The selling point that they gave to him was “you’re
good in Africa, but you’re not good in the West and that’s where we have our
distribution channel, so we’re going to push you there.” But we have to see how productive that
relationship will be.
*The conversation has been edited for clarity and reading ease; it is not an exact transcript.
