By Omiko Awa
With over three decades in the United States of America,
where apart from promoting artistes, organizing shows and running other
businesses, which include mortgage and telecom, Adams Kelly Salaam, recently
came home to do what he has been
doing in God’s own country in Nigeria and to mentor the youths.
Determined to up
the stead in showbizness in the country, the State University, New York,
Finance graduate formed Bryze Entertainment, an outfit through which he
mentors, manages and promotes artistes, old and new, and as well rekindle the
love for reggae music.
How do feel coming
home to find that the Nigerian entertainment sector has changed? He says, “it is
like night and day. I left the country thinking Nigeria is there with music,
but coming home I discovered we are not even there; we have rather allowed hip
pop to dominate the scene. So, coming home, it was like trying to carve a path
for reggae music to grow. So, I am happy that we have begun to understand that
entertainment can bring in money and create a whole lot of empowerment for the
youth and, of course, help a lot of people to stand on their own. However, I
must point out that we have not even scratched the surface of our entertainment
industry, for countries like the US for the huge revenue in the industry give
it due attention and make laws that protects the artistes.”
For a person with
his type of background in the telecom and mortgage sectors, one would have
expected him to go into either of the sectors, but the returnee sticks to
music; but why music? “It’s my passion, we need to understand
that in life there is a point you get and you begin to understand where you are
suppose to go. Of course, there is this believe that as a boy growing up with
strict parents, the first model to them is education. It was on that premise
that I decide to study something to satisfy my parents, but after graduating
and having my degree I went for my passion — showbiz. I realized that I
have more to do for music and entertainment than working in the bank or in any
other industry. Though I have worked in
the financial and telecom sectors in the US and even own a real estate and
mortgage company there, my passion lays in music and I have come back to
contribute my quota,” he says.
In
October 1, 2010, Adams lighted up the entertainment scene by organizing
Reggae Carnival at
Oniru beach, Lagos. This attracted a large turn out of people who have been
longing to see Jah people do their
thing in our country. With the success of the maiden edition and consequently
the second outing held, last year, at the National Stadium, Lagos, the music
fest has come to stay as a yearly event, as plans are on to hold the third
edition come October 1, aside from making it a global fest.
Not
resting on his success, the show promoter has gone a step further to establish
a borderless republic known as Reggae
Republik on radio.
Why Reggae Republik? “It is an interactive
forum on radio, where upcoming reggae artistes and, of course, the old ones are
invited to speak on the music. Here, different reggae artistes tell the
audience how they feel about the music and why nobody seems be hearing about
them. We established it, not only to rekindle the love of the music in the
people, but to take reggae to another level, to make it be at par with
international standard.” He continues, “Reggae
Republik is solely my idea. It’s a product of the few things I discovered
in the Nigerian music industry. I realized that the love of the music is
weaning, so I decided to revive it by bringing reggae artistes from different
places across the globe to talk on Rainbow
94.1 FM every Sunday from 4pm to 6pm. It is a call-in programme that allows
people to make their contributions and ask questions about the music,” he says.
Commenting on the
radio show, Adams informs, “the responses we get from the audience is unbelievable.
Though it is an entertainment platform, we still counsel and enlighten people on
life. There are a lot of talented reggae artistes in Nigeria that people do not
even have the opportunity to see or hear, less interacting with them, but with
the radio show it becomes an easy thing. People from other countries across the
globe can also participate in the show by logging onto www.rainbo-fm.com to listen to us live.”
Comparing reggae
to hip hop, don’t you think reggae is fast losing its grip? Adams retorts, “one thing I know for sure is that
reggae is here because people are really doing it. Listen to somebody like
2Face, he might not come to declare that he is a reggae artiste, but his
lyrical content and sometime his rhythm have a flavour of reggae. However, Nigeria
is a funny society that moves towards anything in vogue. We believe so much on
quick returns on investment, which is one of the things killing us. We must learn
to grow things like seed; throw a seed on the ground, you don’t expect it to
germinate immediately. For the fact that hip hop is all over the place people
began to think reggae is dead in the country, but if you go back to all the hip
hop artistes you will see a bit of reggae in what they are doing. Most artistes would want to do hip pop for the
monetary returns, but the fact remains that Nigerians want reggae because we
have hundreds of thousand of people following the music based on the findings
of our radio show.“
With the show you must then be managing a lot
of reggae artistes. Adams disagrees, “presently, I am managing only Precious
Stone. He has been here for a while and nobody seems to hear or listen to him,
but thank God for Reggae Republik that
gave him and the like of Pato Ranking, King Wadyda, Rockman and other artistes the
platform to come on board. I know as I am mentioning these names you would be
asking who are these fellows, because nobody is tapping into them to understand
that these artistes are tuning out one of the best reggae music you can ever
listen to in the country by their personal efforts.” He adds,” we have the
likes of the late Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, I Roy, U Roy, Johnny Nash, Jimmy
Cliff and others in Nigeria, but they have not been given the platform until
now to showcase their talents. No matter what, we must note that these artistes
are on their own using their songs to unite the country. Take a song like Bind Us Together from Precious Stone; it
can be a national anthem, especially with what is happening in the country, now,
with the Boko Haram thing. The lyrics talk about who we are, our sameness and
whether we like it or not that we must bind ourselves together as one invisible
nation.”
And your dreadlock? “Oh, it’s a fashion dread, you don’t have to be a
dreadlock to do reggae. Though I love other genres of music, I seriously
believe in what reggae artistes believe in — human rights, anti
imperialism, anti-colonialism, civil rights, love, living together and others.
For, we either live together or perish together.”
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