The Sweet, Sour Taste Vibes of Headies 2015
fame had intoxicated him as it is doing to Olamide?
I have a bad temper too; I would foolishly overreact before realising my actions were nasty and uncalled for. Maybe, that’s the kind of person Olamide is too. But it’s even more humiliating that the next minute you will start apologising. It does not matter now if Olamide is the king of the streets or not. Now, a lot of people listen to him, a lot of youths follow him, a lot of people listen to his music, adore him and maybe even see him as a role model. So, will Olamide blame his misdemeanor at Headies on fame and money? Onstage, you have registered your displeasure, but why go violent? It is just an award which you guys lost because of overconfidence. My advice to you is that next time, since this award means so much to you and your protégé, Lil Kesh, you should re-strategise and use the streets to win, do more of online marketing, drive your campaigns online with incentives to fans and followers like Don Jazzy does when he gave out recharge cards on the social media. If you lack the expertise, hire social media influencers- it won’t cost a fortune. The YBNL gang went to bed too early, that was a trust in chariot while Reecado Banks, who realised his songs are the least famous, got aggressive with campaign for votes.
No doubt, Olamide expressed his anger and pronouncedLilKeshastheNextRated.Iunderstand his anger because on a ‘good day’, I won’t give that award to Reekado Banks with Kiss Daniel, Korede Bello and Lil Kesh in that category. But then, did Kiss Daniel, Korede Bello and Lil Kesh mobilise for sufficient votes to win? Did Olamide even vote? How did Baddo drive YBNL social media machinery?
No doubt, Olamide and the YBNL gang came on stage to receiveAdekunle Gold’s award, Baddo took the shine off the poor guy to vent his anger and launched a social attack immediately Don Jazzy spoke. It’struehedidn’tmentionDonJazzy’sname and from what I understand, he was referring to the organisers of the Headies and not to Don Jazzy. He went overboard with his anger, cursed and dropped the microphone on stage and, it was so bizarre to the extent his younger brother punched a fan who was trying to hail Olamide backstage while they left the venue, all angry.
The street is tough, it is vulgar, it is survival of the fittest, the slangs are dirty and brazen, for those who thought Lil Kesh lost out because of his dirty lyrics, l disagree with that notion. He’s not presenting himself to be loved by everybody. Love or loathe him. I dance and listen to him. I am a fan of his a thousand times more than Reekado Banks, and it does not mean l don’t like Reekado Banks, but the truth is, if I was asked to hand out the award between Reekado Banks and Lil Kesh, I would give it to Lil Kesh, the next person would be Kiss Daniel or Korede Bello. But none of the label owners or managers mobilised votes enough for their artistes, neither did the artistes fight enough to garner support to win at this category. Even if I didn’t vote for Lil Kesh or anybody in that category despite the fact that I felt he should be the winner, how many of the YBNL gang members voted? Instead, you all depended on the popularity of the song; you guys were too confident and felt the power of Lil Kesh songs in the streets will earn him the laurel. Even if truly, Don Jazzy bought votes like some people alleged, so would he buy votes for Reekado Banks and leave out Korede Bello who had a hit song? Is Korede Bello not part of the Mavins? They should have gone to the drawing board immediately his name emerged on the list again, but Reekado Banks was smart, he knew it was a tight competition and maybe had no chance being in the same category with these artistes who hadbetterhitsongsthanhis.Iamsurehedidn’teven mention to Korede Bello, his label mate his plans to start to canvass for votes secretly which was what made him the winner of the Next Rated category. Hejustoutsmartedeverybodyinthecategory.From my investigations, his votes were way higher than those of Lil Kesh, Korede Bello and Kiss Daniel put together. Cynthia Morgan, who was also in the category, got higher votes than the rest males; so it probably would have been Cynthia Morgan if Reekado was not the winner.
Asfaraslamconcernedyouaretheself-acclaimed king of the streets, mainly and probably because you have many hit songs and an admirable swag. But the real street kings don’t go around promoting and brewing trouble. What they do is protect their territory and even if trouble pokes at them, violence is the least thing they want to initiate. But, of course, they must have among them the gladiators who will always want to fight back or war until the king calls them to order.
Olamide, are you aware that Bez has had 11 nominations in two years and has not won any, he has never abused the organisers and has never stopped attending the Headies except when he is engaged elsewhere. But on January 1st you lost it because you couldn’t get the Headies Next Rated award; you did not only use foul language, but also cursed the organisers. You used the ‘F’ word repeatedly, rudely dropped the microphone on the floor, leaving the stage with your middle finger in the air.
Even when you came on stage to celebrate with Adekunle Gold when he clinched the BestAlternative Song award, you buried his glorious moment, belittled him and dedicated his award to Lil kesh.
According to Olamide, “Adekunle Gold, let’s be honest this award belongs to Lil Kesh because Lil Kesh is our Next Rated artist.” Is this how a king treats his subjects? Robbing Peter to pay Paul? You are splashing one artiste in your kingdom with so muchfavoritismaboveothers.Thisishowdisloyalty and discord start in a kingdom ruled by tyranny.
Back to your disruptive hooliganism display that day,youandyourgangmembersdestroyedvaluable equipment in the Headies green room, on your way out and an innocent fan who was oblivious of what has transpired inside the hall, rushed up to you in excitement chanting ‘Baba o, baba o’ and your response to his show of love was an ugly ‘shut up’ punch in the face that left him bleeding. Next in your inordinate expression of anger was to climb on a car, shouting on top of your voice, ‘We are not politicians, we are not politicians’ and almost causing stampede at the venue.
The apology
At the time I was writing my article, I really didn’t know who initiated the truce meeting. It was also a big relief when the two artistes made up quickly andplasteredshameonthefacesofeverybodywho was happy about the new beef. Both artistes took to their Instagram pages to apologiase to their fans, theHeadiesorganisersandrealisedtheyareleaders in their own rights who should lead and do the right thing. Kudos to whoever initiated the peace move but I personally still feel Olamide should apologise to Ayo Animashaun and the Headies team, properly. Olamide is Yoruba just asAyo, you don’t use twitter apology to appease a man whose reputation you smeared out of anger. Go flat on your chest the way well-mannered Yorubas do to express remorse for that infamous row your indiscretion created.
Style ofVoting
Jimmy Jatt was the President of the Jury; I was on the phone with him for over an hour. He told me that Reekado Banks got the highest vote and that it would be so unfair to give his votes to someone else just because their song was more popular. He said he couldn’t believe it when he saw Reekado Banks votes and then he realised the guy really campaignedforvotesundergroundorwhateverhe didtogethisvotes.Heutterlyflawedeveryoneinhis category. So Jimmy this public voting is becoming controversialandmakingtheHeadieslosecredibility andbesidestelecomcompaniesdon’theadlinetheir sponsorship anymore? He said they will look into it and decide on a new way of moving forward.
And on Phyno not getting a nomination because Olamide dedicated one of his awards to him on stage? Jimmy cleared the air “The calendar for nomination started from July 2014 and ended in June 2015, and Phyno released Connect his new single after June 2015. Alot of times, artistes’ songs released after that date do not fall in the category of thetimetheselectionisbeingdone.” IguessPhyno’s song, ‘Connect’ will make the next nomination list. This simply means that some artistes don’t even understand the period of the selection process too.
At the bill boards awards, voting is 50 per cent based on public voting. The remaining 50 per cent is based on how the song performed, ratings from social media presence, views on Youtube, tweets, Facebook, Instagram, songpresencetothegeneral public and the jury’s decision. Winners aren’t just basedonpublicvoting.EventheGrammy’sdonot base their selection of winners on public voting, so why is the Headie’s like that? According to the Jimmy Jatt, “It all started when Headie’s had Telecoms Company as their headline sponsors. They always insisted that such categories like the Rookie of the year and the Next Rated must be by public votes. It is done through texting and that is business for them because definitely they will make money from that.”
So, I said to Jimmy andAyo on the phone, if that isthecase,whydon’ttheymakeitverytransparent to the public, by inviting a representative from each camp of the nominees so they can count the votes together or better still, scrap the public voting? It won’t still make people feel the votes were not tampered with, it is very transparent. “We don’t have to do that, we can only release the analogue of the votes,” says Animashaun.
JimmyJattaddedthattheonlytwocontroversial categories of the Headies are the Rookie of the Year and the Next Rated and that the non-public categories are hardly controversial.
Are some of the Nigerian Musicians being Ungrateful?
Ayo Animashaun’s passion for the Nigerian music industry has led to his drive in sacrificing allhehastomakesureheappreciatestheNigerian artistes and their music every year. Presently, the Headies is the only prestigious award that does that. For 10 years, Animashaun has been in this game. It is not easy putting together a show like The Headies.And it is a pity that some artistes do not have the spirit of sportsmanship. It can’t be hundred per cent perfect all the time, there will be hitches and it is really sad for anyone to think Don Jazzy gave Animashaun money to make Reekado win. The Jimmy Jatt I know, being head of the jury, will never be part of that, he will rather walk away, and theAnimashaun I know will not cheapen his brand and, besides, how much can Don Jazzy offer Animashaun? He has given so much to the industry and I think insulting him is so wrong. Even by extension, Jimmy Jatt was also insultedbecausetechnicallyhewasthejurypresident and he pronounced the verdict. Animashaun is older than most of these artistes; when he started the Headies award, I don’t know where Olamide was then. There must be some decorum in their approach to issues. Social media was not invented to fight wrong fights.
Fame will wear out someday and when it does how will you face those people whose faces you spat at? For your information, you can’t be the king of the streets forever, someday there will be a new king,andthewayyouconductyourselfduringyour reign might also be another good reason you will reign long. You are a Yoruba boy and you know what your culture says about disrespecting your elders. If you want to be the evergreen king of the streets, learn to conduct yourself in public. Learn to suppress fame when the intoxication comes; why can’t you guys just learn from 2baba? No doubt, we all love you, but your arrogance can gradually destroy that love and followership.
Now, Olamide are you aware that Jimmy Jatt does not even put his songs in the nomination. He has victimised himself for long because if he seats as the head of the panel and his songs win any year, of course, all hell will be let loose and the next thing is that ‘it is ojoro’, he has used his influence to win the award. Jimmy has released over 50 songs; his first album has 24 tracks and 50 artistes featured on it. His second album has 26 tracks, 66 artists featured. He was the first DJ to release a single and an album. His only song that ever won the Headies was Stylee, which was the best collaboration. He was not part of the panel, he stayed away.
Olamide, you are still young, same thing for Lil Kesh, you are going to keep carting awards because I know you are still going to be churning out hit songs. Just do the needful and may God almighty guide you and Don Jazzy and all our artistes who are producing songs every day to make us happy.
From the Headies’ Secretariat
This was released by the Headies organisers after theawards:“Weareproudofwhatwehaveachieved over the years. The Headies stage has birthed the careers of many artistes who are of A-list status today. We are also glad that we have reinstated pride and prestige into the winning of a locally organised music awards and, we have celebrated artistic ingenuity for 10 consecutive years; a feat we are extremely proud of as a team.
“Everyyear, theScreeningTeamcollateallcreative materials released in the year in review and screen for nomination. This tedious process goes on for at least three months before the Team comes out with a final list. The voting categories, such as ‘Song Of The Year’, ‘Artist Of The Year and ‘Next-Rated’ are left strictly for fans to vote and choose the winners. We wishtocategoricallystatethatwedonottamper with the outcome of the voting process. The limit of our involvement in this voting process is to advice the nominees to engage their fans and solicit for their votes. We do not accept any responsibility on the part of the nominees or their record label, when theyfailtodothis. Unfortunately, mosttimes, voting, year in review and definitions of each category, are generally taken for granted by many artists.
We hereby categorically state that, there is no evidence that any of the aggrieved artiste/party voted in the ‘Next-Rated’ category, as our voting process captures email addresses and phone numbers. We have no reason whatsoever to influence the outcome of the impeccable process we have put in place.
We have ensured that the awards take place regardless of sponsorship, and that it gets better with each passing year, without giving excuses about our peculiar Nigerian challenges. We may not have gotten everything 100% right, but integrity has been our watch-word. The 109 Nigerian artistes that have won in the past ceremonies can attest to the fact that they did nothing different from those that have not won. Awards by nature are and will always remain controversial except every nominee gets one. We try to ensure that winners are within reach before announcing their category, as the whole essence of celebrating talents will be defeated without that.
While it is not out of place for an artiste or a party to vent their disapproval, we strongly condemn all kinds of improper conduct and the use of profanity on live television. In the same manner, we condemn provocativecomments. Inall, weseenojustification for a disgruntled artiste or party to destroy valuable properties put in place to give them extra comfort before they perform or come on stage. This is totally unacceptable and will be addressed.
We congratulate all nominees and winners of The Headies2015andwishthemamoresuccessful2016.