Nigerian singer and songwriter, Mr. Eazi has disclosed that his talent incubator, ’emPawa Africa’, will not be signing any artists for the next 18 months that is; a year and a half.
He made this revelation on his Twitter page where he explained that ’emPawa Africa’ will only be investing in content for new artists. More so, he stated that an artist can gain up to two times advancement payment for royalties, provided the artist proves that the content can gain revenue annually.
“[I] won’t be signing any artists for the next 18 months! @emPawa will only invest in content and provide artist advances up to 200% of past annual streaming revenue (averaged) in partnership with a bank. More to come.
“Meaning, if you own your own content, and have proof of earning annually from the previous year, you can get up to 2x of that as royalty advance with @emPawa”.
Several netizens upon seeing his post reacted to it. Most of these social media users who are underground artists pleaded with Mr.Eazi to pick them since they meet the requirements needed. Meanwhile, others questioned him to give more information about the whole deal. Similarly, some video directors also asked Mr.Eazi to notice them and get a deal for them as well. Some reactions from his post read:
emPawa’s activities in the music industry.
AfroPop star, Mr. Eazi’s ’emPawa Africa’ is a talent incubator for artists in Africa. He signed a partnership with YouTube to support up-and-coming artists in Africa. Mr. Eazi launched ’emPawa’ in 2018 with the goal of investing in promising artists early, so they can develop self-sustaining careers. Initially, Mr. Eazi helped a pool of 100 artists in Africa with 3,000 dollars grants. The money was meant to cover the cost of a music video. The strategy worked for some singers like Joeboy and J. Derobie, who scored hits that year after connecting with ’emPawa’.
However, the second edition of emPawa in 2020 was more focused. Nonetheless, it provided 30 artists with more resources to the tune of 10,000 dollars grant. Mr. Eazi explained that they wanted to be able to have mentors for each artist. Also, he further stated that the money was to be used for “filming a music video, marketing services and other support for those 30 artists”. All in all, there were sixteen artists from Nigeria, one from Ghana, eight from other African countries, plus three from North America and two from the UK. Mr. Eazi also noted that: “We made a more conscious effort to have more female artists on board”.
That notwithstanding, 10 artists out of the 30 were judged as the most promising artists. They took part in a three-week ‘masterclass’ in Ghana, for more training as well as recording sessions. After that, two artists received more funding to cover “management, marketing, and legal fees throughout 2020” as well as more music videos coverage. Moreover, they ate
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