Mr Eazi Launches emPawa Project… Here’s How to Partake in It
For talented artistes across Africa who are looking to have a break in the music industry and possibly be celebrated, there is hope as Ghanaian rapper Mr Eazi launches his emPawa Project to discover and promote talents across the continent.
The programme is being launched across Kenya, Nigeria Ghana, Uganda, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and Zambia and will end on December 15, 2018.
On this initiative and how emerging talents can mine it, the Banku Music boss, who recently dropped his album “Chicken Curry” in collaboration with Sneakbo and Just Sul, has this to say:
“An artist can simply bet small by putting up a video of him/herself rapping or singing and win big by getting the chance to be one of the 100 artists to get funded for a music video, chosen by my internal team and top industry professionals.”
The emPawa Project is focusing on Instagram and it is only through Instagram that one can partake. Simply put up a video of you singing or twerking or both and share with the hshtag #empawa100.
Mr Eazi offers during the media chat he called on Tuesday November 20: “It is only through Instagram because of its simplicity and reach, especially with how you can track all the posts directed to you with the hashtag [#empawa100] used”
He also stated that the minimum spend on each of these videos is N300,000. Of the 100 artists, the top 10 will be flown to South Africa between February 4 and March 4 2019 with the likes of Guilty Beatz, EKelly, Sarz and Diplo and will get to work with top industry talents and business lawyers.
The project is Mr Eazi’s way of giving back to the society. During the media chat, he recalled he had been helped by others long before he became famous. “Basically people have funded videos for me, like ‘Skin Tight’ for instance, it was shot for about $1,000 (about N300,000), if someone had not shot that dance video or sponsored the ‘Skin Tight’ video, I won’t be here.”
Now Mr Eazi has a policy of not charging for features.
This initiative, while not unique, will certainly give a voice to hitherto voiceless talents and add to the vibrancy of Africa’s music universe. The initiative is being sponsored by BETPower, and other organizations have indicated interest in sponsoring it as well.
“This is my initiative, on the finance part, we have BetPower as sponsors and since launching this I have gotten a lot of enquiry from companies and even labels, but we are careful with labels because we want these artists to own their content, even though we will be shooting their videos, they own their content 100%. Nobody owns my content, I own everything and that is what I want for them,” Mr Eazi said.
So, rap wannabe, there’s not much to fear. You own your content. You should give this a shot. Remember entry closes December 15, 2018.