Big Deno encourages fellow artists to keep it professional, stay cool, and look out for their mental health.
In the fast-paced and competitive world of the music industry, because of insufficient or no artist development that happens, or the over whelming feeling that comes with the success of breaking through, sometimes some artists may find themselves at a crossroads in regard to balancing a celebrity life and their normal life, knowing when to and not when to create, suffering anxiety, conflict when it comes to payments, or splitting royalties, navigating the complexities of the music industry, etc, among other industry setbacks.
Read Also: Please Keep The Competition Healthy & Take The Music Where We Couldn’t – BigTril Advises Future Artists
Ugandan – born rapper, creative, and entrepreneur, known for his gritty lyrics, and authentic voice has recently took to his Tiktok account to share some random thoughts from his meditation, and in there was some words of advice to fellow musicians, that he believes they can adopt as they look at doing things different for their careers this year.
From his own experience as an artist but also an entrepreneur who’s been at the helm of organizing or even partnering with event organizers in regard to booking or working with artists to perform at mini events and targeted audience events, in his shareable advice was the need for artists to be more professional and formal. This is in regard to being intentional with the legal steps at every stage, be it when collaborating with producers and fellow artists, normalizing entering into contracts when it comes to bookings for performances, for the lack of the legal element has made it hard in the past, for it complicates claim of finances due to the lack of legal evidence/ backing that an agreement was entered into. Among the other elements are documents like invoices and receipts that he believes can raise the spirit of accountability and straighten the industry, as opposed to doing off-book negotiations and payments. He also added that this will also enable creating a track record so artist are able to live up to their tax obligations.
He further stressed the need to formalize working relationships, more so in regard to collaborations in the case where more than one creator (song writer, artist, producer, composer) is on a song, for it is easier that way to claim royalties, and publishing rights. These documents can highlight the split details in regard to who gets what percentage off a song’s performance digitally.
The ‘Nenkulaba’ crooner further elaborated on the need for artists to take care of themselves, not just physically but also on their mental health, both in and outside. One way to go about it is by surrounding themselves with the right people, people who inspire one’s creativity, not people one may feel anxious to create music around. In regard to physical health, Deno as Denesi is known among his peers, encouraged artists to take care of their physical health, given that half of their work is outside the studio, performing at events, concerts and catching up with colleagues at hangout spots like bars. Denesi called upon artists to regulate how much brew they drink. Furthermore, he encouraged them to have self-control in scenarios of conflict, and not throw fists, tantrums, or causing a scene.
Lastly but not least, of course a musical artist is not an artist without music. So, Denesi encouraged artists to keep creating and recording and releasing as much music as they can, for the Ugandan music industry is still growing and evolving, as they as an urban group of artists consistently breaking into the mainstream audiences, they only have to keep releasing that sweet new music.
In conclusion, Denesi reechoed his points on creating music, being around the right people, formalizing one’s music process, and having a good relationship with their management.
He signed out by encouraging you all to go stream DENESI music, and everything Bantu Vibes (the camp of artists he belongs to) on Spotify and the on the rest of the music streaming/ downloading platforms. He also named Jenesis’ titular track off his debut album ‘RISKY BUSINESS’ as his ‘Song of the Week’, and A Pass’ ‘BAGONZA’ body of work as his ‘Album of the Week’, as well as Jenesis’ ‘RISKY BUSINESS’.
Watch Denesi share his piece of advice below:
Among the other performers who have shared from their cup of wisdom to fellow and fast-rising artists is KiDi and BigTril. What advice do you my dear reader have for artists? Share your thoughts in the comments section.
