INTERVIEW: What Nigeria calls music industry is a big sham — Emmanuel Daraloye

By Ezinwanne Onwuka

In a society where young people are scampering for juicy professions and lucrative careers such as medical doctors, lawyers, engineers, graphic designers and managing directors of multinational companies; Emmanuel Daraloye chose what his heart beats for: music journalism.

A student of English Education at Adeyemi Federal University of Education, Ondo State; Emmanuel delved into music journalism after ‘discovering his purpose’ in the second quarter of 2020 and has continued to blaze the trail since then.

In this interview with CRISPNG, the writer, also known as Emma Tallest, talks about his career and issues after the youths. He also shares valuable insights into the Nigerian music industry.

Tell us about yourself
My name is Emmanuel Daraloye, a music journalist and a pop culture curator. I am from Ipele area of Ondo State. I grew up in Akure, the state capital and I’ve been in Ondo city for the past seven years. I think that’s all for now.

You are the first music journalist I am meeting. What exactly does it mean to be a music journalist?

Music Journalism is not new, it has been around as far back as the 18th century. It’s a niche in Journalism. You talk about artistes, write reviews for albums, singles, show, conduct interviews for musicians, write spotlights on the underground artistes, be knowledgeable about the music business.

When did you start writing about music and who or what was your early influences?

I have always been writing about music. I only took it more serious in the second quarter of 2020, that was when I discovered my purpose. The influences are much. The ones that readily comes to mind are Osagie Alonge, Dami Ajayi, Motolani Alake, Joey Akan, AOT2 (I can’t remember his full name right now), and many more.

Do you review any specific music genre or all?

I do all but I tend to do more pop music. It’s all down to what the majority of the fans listen to. I have reviewed genres like Fuji, Apala, Juju, Highlife, House music, etc.

Tell us about your achievements and challenges so far as a music journalist.

I have been able to redefine the word ‘music journalist’ in Ondo State. I’m the first music journalist from the state. I have talked about music journalism on different media platforms and I have also been in contact with few artistes on some of my reviews.

In the last ten months, I have been able to guide the underground artistes on their career path. I observed they are not knowledgeable on how the music industry work so I have taken it as a point of duty to reorient them.

My challenge has been data, I stream most of my records, so I tend to use a lot of data in the course of doing that.

As a music journalist, what yardstick do you use to judge the quality of a music?

Art cover. Title. Lyrics. Replay value. Production.

What do you consider to be the common misconception about music journalism and how would you address it?

People are ignorant about that word. The reason is simple, music journalists are not much in Nigeria. People around me still ask a lot of silly questions. You hear them ask if I am a musician. The people need to be enlightened.

How would you describe and rate the Nigerian music scene and how important is it in terms of your career?

The music industry is growing and I am glad to be part of the process, this is my backbone. Without the industry, there is no music journalism. It would always get bigger and kudos to the major stakeholders.

There’s a generally-held opinion that the music industry now promotes moral decadence. What is your view on the value of music today?

The music industry is a reflection of society, whatever happens in the music industry has its root in the society.
Trust me, the value of music nowadays is not different from the music of yesteryears, they are still the same. You might say they are vulgar. But I will tell you the previous generations were worse in that regard. Did you listen to Obesere? What about some of KSA record, even Ayinla Omowura?

I find it appalling when we tend to blame the current artistes for the moral decadence. It has been on for long, they never started it. Let’s us pick our choices. While we have an artistes who sing about mundane things and thriving on sexual innuendos, we have others with the core value and their music are didactic.

I have always been picky about the music I absolve into my soul, people should emulate this.

If you could change anything about Nigeria’s music industry, what would it be?

The structure, dear. There is no industry, the music industry is just there. When I am talking about structure, I am talking about the needed manpower to make an industry grow. We still don’t have a good royalty system. We don’t even know how to check the metrics of records. Do we even have a veritable streaming site?

How many standard record labels do we have in the industry? These are what makes up an industry. Sadly, we don’t even have that, we are on a long walk to freedom. No industry yet.

In other words, you are saying the term, ‘music industry’ is a sham?

Big one. There is no industry yet.

Do you think there’s a level playing-ground for everyone interested in music to enter the ‘music industry’ (in quote because you earlier said, there’s none) and make it?

There is but you know it’s a capitalist venture. The money bags still call the shot here.

We saw what played out between Zlatan Ibile and DJ Cuppy recently. What can you say about structure in the industry?

It’s still down to structure. If the industry is well structured, mundane issues like that won’t be happening. Artistes need to come out clear in their dealing, enough of this “I do it for the culture” stuff. Nobody is doing anything for the culture, it’s for the money first. They need to get this clear.

Nigeria has been restive due to the clamour to #EndBadGovernance occasioned by the #EndSARS protest last year and the #OccupyLekkiTollGate which, unfortunately, was aborted on Saturday. From the perspective of a Nigerian youth, what can you say about these developments?

I am glad this is happening in my lifetime. The people are awakening to the realities.
Soon, even the people clamping down on the protesters would join the movement.
Nigeria is on the edge, the people would one day stop pretending and do the needful, it might even be soon.

If you could open a show for any artiste, who would it be and why?

Fela. He is the greatest human being I know.

Please, recommend three artistes to our readers which you feel deserve their attention.
Ignis Brothers. The Cavemen. Deola Taylor.

Thank you so much for your time, Mr. Emmanuel.

It’s my pleasure.