#HNNMusic: When I debuted my Music Column @NigerianTribune. Read these Essential Music TIPS.

Kemi Omololu-Olunloyo is an International Journalist, Anti-Violence Activist and Music Industry Executive named one of the Top 10 most Powerful People in Canada’s Entertainment industry in 2010. After 35 years in US and Canada, she now lives in Nigeria.

It’s a pleasure to partner my music brand HipHossip LLC with the Nigerian Tribune, a prestigious newspaper in our nation. HipHossip is North America’s most popular music blog and what makes it different from others is that I take music to another level. HipHossip.net serves the concert community; HipHossip.org is my global music foundation where I use music to empower society issues like gun violence around the globe. Keminications PR serves my music publicity arm and I have been a music publicist to several famous artistes in campaigns and even making them the big star they are today. In PR, I have also organized several award shows and also been the publicist for some prominent global award shows and red carpet events.

Finally as HipHossip’s CEO I have also served as a judge, co-host or presenter at many award shows including the Grammys and the 40th anniversary of the Juno awards in Canada, where I served as a judge in the top 10 televised categories in March 2011. In short, HipHossip defines music as being a phenomenon more than just pushing “play” on a CD and dancing thereafter. These days, music concerts are used not just for dancing and pleasure but sometimes to raise funds and awareness for causes. Take for example, America’s devastating Hurricane Sandy, which took so many lives and caused severe damage. Concert causes go as far back as USA for Africa during the famine in East Africa in the 80’s.

Global music awareness foundations like mine raise awareness of several issues in the music fan world. Things like bullying, suicide, gun violence, abortion and more have become prevalent issues that global music channel MTV created MTV Act and MTV Voices. HipHossip Voices has spoken out on gun violence for five years while I lived in Canada after I fled Nigeria in 2007 when gun violence consumed media houses here in Ibadan during the 2007 election period. I was moonlighting at Premier FM that day when stations were hit.

In this special weekly column, I shall empower Nigerian musicians, offering them my services and giving advice on how to set themselves apart and going global. Be the next Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga and getting known globally is my idea of an international music star. Even D’Banj, TuFace, Darey, WeirdMC and more big Nigerian stars have not cut past a few red carpet events like the BET and MTV Europe or Channel O awards.

I want Nigerian artistes on the Grammy red carpet and more of our rappers on the BET hip-hop awards cypher and shows. The death of the autotune has arrived. Nigerian artistes have abused the vocoder and even in the words of Don Jazzy when I interviewed him, “anyone using autotune at least tried their voice at singing.” Some critics say it’s needed, some like me say it does not show true talent. Why are P-Square, Wiz Kid and D’Banj not on the Grammy nominations, the red carpet or even have to branch out with a bigger artiste signing them to their rosters? Do Nigerian artistes always need that big extra arm? Why are the Nigerian female rappers and singers like Weird MC, Sasha P, Bouqi, Mo Cheddar, Mavin’s Tiwa Savage, 0907’s Shulydee and even new young faces like Tesh Carter and Chidinma not on the international BET/Grammy/Juno/AMA award nomination rosters?

Next week, I will discuss artiste development in detail and how you can benefit from my services in the HipHossip Tribunal. I will dice up the answers the way you need to know.

Artiste development is what Nigerian artistes need and I’m an expert on that. Watch how I can help you conquer the global music industry. Buy the Nigerian Tribune weekly and get a copy for your pals.

The article was read read 42166 times which was a record for The Tribune online. My column was called HipHossip Tribunal and was a partnership between the oldest newspaper and me. It was a pleasure after almost a year. I resigned last month to focus more on my own news product #HNNAfrica.

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#HipHossipTribunal: Using #SocialMedia To Fight Crime in #Nigeria. A year after #Aluu4

The #Aluu4

A year ago tomorrow, Saturday, October 5th, four young men by the names of Ugo, Tekena, Lloyd and Chidiaka were murdered in a vigilante justice fashion by villagers in the Port-Harcourt area of Nigeria. The garden city became the dark city. A song originally rapped by American rapper Jay-Z “Aint no love in the heart of the city” became a symbol of how you can’t trust anyone in any city in Nigeria. There is no longer a sense of community in this country. As a well known award winning proven community activist in Baltimore, USA and Toronto, Canada, I have seen so many communities gripped by crime in Nigeria. From the insurgents in Boko Haram to the Godogodo style armed robbers to the everyday villagers who can do such a thing, criminals must be caught and locked up.

Ironically last year, when these young men accused of stealing laptops and blackberries were accidentally taken for thieves after a woman shouted ,“thief, thief” in the middle of trying to collect a debt while, using some sort of loan shark who supposed to use his muscle to get the money owed. This was how vigilante villagers made citizen arrests and stripped the young men naked and began beating them bloody. They were later beaten to death, splashed with gasoline and burned to death. All four died a gruesome death that was viewed by millions around the world on YouTube. Is there a limit to what can be captured on social media? NO, I need all the faces of the victims and the killers if possible. Some of these murderers were caught red handed on tape doing their ugly deeds in that video. Even accomplices were videotaping as well. The trial for the #Aluu4, a twitter hashtag coined for this case is still going on. So disturbing that the judge said last summer that he was “sitting beside the devil and the deep blue sea.”

As a former victim advocate in Canada, a lot of crimes were solved using surveillance and social media. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have been used to solve cases. Canadian aspiring rapper Capitol P allegedly killed a teen named Keyon Campbell and then rapped it all out in a YouTube video. Homicide detectives got a hold of it. Even the alleged shooters at the mass shooting of 25 people killing two at Toronto’s Danzig street BBQ in 2012 tweeted that since they weren’t invited to the BBQ, they would come over anyway to show the organisers “how bodies are piled up.” Nigerian Police Force need to get on social media fast. One cop I met online at the Toronto Police Facebook page, Officer Saheed Apesin Omosanya stationed in Kebbi State Seems to be the only one visible on social media learning innovations and technology we need at the NPF. Omosanya is an NPF officer of the future with a law degree as well. The IG needs to send him and a delegation to Toronto to learn how modern policing is done with the aid of social media. I was a volunteer for the TPS as a Community Police Liason member helping get rid of guns off the streets and saving lives. During that time, I got to witness all the work Constable Scott Mills did as the force’s Social Media officer. The Toronto Police service coined TPS, trains cops from all over the region, United States and even European countries like the Dutch Police. The Toronto Sun’s Chris Doucette did a special on the Top Crime Fighting twitter handles in Canada and my crime fighting handle @Snitchlady and @TorontoPolice were both on the list. Shouldn’t @PoliceNg be on there too? Time we start using social media to fight crime in Nigeria.

If you have the faces of any of the victims in Nigeria since the Boko Haram insurgency began in 2009, please send it to HipHossip Newsnet at RadioHossip@gmail.com or post it on the wall at my new page Facebook.com/HNNChannel. The faces of the victims must never be forgotten and must remain in the news. Many killed in churches, mosques and even 72 students in Yobe last week as we mourned the 40 gunned down in on Adamawa Independence day last year at the same time. In a typical gun massacre in the United States, a collage of pictures of the victims is on the news by 6pm the same day in America. It seems that we are immune to slaughter in Nigeria till it arrives at our doorsteps, something nobody wants. We want to know who the victims were. #RIP to Ugo, Tekena, Lloyd and Chidiaka and I hope they get justice. Follow me @HipHossip for all your World News.

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#KOO
NEW: Facebook.com/HNNChannel
@HipHossip on Twitter and Instagram

First lady of calm, Sasha P: Musicians provide therapy with music

Sasha P

THE line said “Hey put your head up don’t you cry, you can make it if you try shara giri omo ekun adara” The Yoruba translation is to pull yourself up like a lions kid and it will get better. Her name is Yetunde Alabi better known as Sasha P. When I arrived from North America a year ago, I purchased a Samsung phone which was loaded with her album. This was a 2007 album which I never knew as I was not familiar with her music but I definitely listened to this album 3 times daily but the track “Adara” became my favourite.

Sasha P is very captivating and all her songs are very inspiring. I learned she is a motivational speaker as well. I first saw Sasha on stage in Lagos May 2013, during the #DivasRockConcert. “Always Keep Moving” coupled with “Adara” reduces me to tears when I’m having a tough time in Nigeria. It has been a tough transition here as my father told me it will take 7 years while I estimated 5 years. Sporadic power outages introduces petrol into my garage for the generator and then mosquitoes introduce insecticide sprays banned in US and Canada. Spray that and start the gen and you have a lethal combination for my asthma which almost got deadly 4 months ago.

Living in Nigeria is very harzadous for my health here. As I complain daily, many dont even those amenities I have. One Saturday, I broke down frustrated losing blogging money with no power and the PHCN box fell of the wall on a Saturday! I became livid and emotional knowing that we were not going to have power till earliest Monday when they come and fix the problem.

I jumped in my bed, put on my MP3 player to use music to drown my frustrations when all of a sudden, I tweeted Sasha telling her that her music lifts me up when things get rough and could she call me pls? What star has time for that? In five minutes, she called me in Ibadan. She spoke to me 45 minutes and motivated me about how I felt. She also started praying for me. Excerpts of her Tweets before she called read: “You must strengthen your mind as it is a daily battle. It is well with u in Jesus name. Kemi, I wish I knew what to say to make you feel better, but I know that the Lord will meet u at every point of need. Sis may the Lord comfort you the way only HE knows how and bring u solace thru this time, call me back if u need to talk.”

I was speechless and uplifted as her twitter direct message inboxed to me was one I had to share with my readers. What kindness! What caring I got from this musician who created calm around me that day. How I wish we could all call Keith Sweat, Bobby Valentino, Miguel and even Luther Vandross and Marvin Gaye who are in heaven or even our favourite rappers and actors. Remember what MTV UK said this week? Have you tried tweeting your fave musicians, they may just respond. I did last weekend and it changed my life together plus even getting a phone call and for that, I named Sasha the “First Lady of Calm.” Join Sasha P on twitter, she has some of the most inspiring tweets@SashaPOfficial and on Facebook.com/SashaPofficial to catch up with all her latest projects. Follow me on all Sasha P developments @HipHossip and @NigerianTribune.

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The full lenght interview Sasha P had with my colleague Rotimi Ige is also in today's Friday Treat section here. Read all about the upcoming album and the new Etisalat deal we are hearing about but cannot confirm.

#MsKemi
@HipHossip on twitter

MY NIGERIAN TRIBUNE MUSIC COLUMN: RAP CLASS 101: Kendrickology

Rapper Kendrick Lamar

THE world woke up to a track titled “Control” and let me tell you, the last time I heard such a track name, it was lively, loud and was by Janet Jackson. This time, it was by our friend Big Sean who visited Nigeria last Christmas season to play in DBanj’s concert. The loud part got lively by another rapper who has now graduated into the big leagues, Kendrick Lamar. I missed opportunities to see this rapper while in Toronto when he was still aspiring and NXNE was on and you got just too tired to attend every single rap concert.

Kendrick Lamar was featured in the middle part of the track with Rapper Jay Electronica at the end. Hold up, twitter went crazy! Every tweet had Kendrick in it. He was trending all over the globe, Nigerians did not fully understand it. I reached out to two of the BEST hiphop sites @MTVRapFix and @HipHopWired to find out what the ruckus was about?

Hip-Hop Wired sent me the relevant links on request and I listened to the track. It was a handful! Kendrick dissed certain rappers quoting “murdering’’ them lyrically and taking their fans, he named A$AP Rocky, Drake, Pusha-T and ranted about material things, red corvettes, white shirts, even a prosthetic leg and Lindsay Lohan. It was the rappers he mentioned and didn’t mention that became the subject of twitter all day. I reached out to several rappers to hear from them and many had a lot to say. Even my son, Kay Jeezy, an aspiring 12-year-old rapper, thought it was hype. My 22-year old son, a Los Angeles Rapper and Film Director @DGHXL called it “attention Lamar needed to be relevant.” He also mentioned that Jay Electronica was his favourite rapper.

Church Chizzle, a dynamic Toronto rapper was asked if Toronto rappers were scared by Lamar mentioning Drake’s name. Chizzle told me “Not at all, Kendrick just named who he felt he’s in competition with. I will probably do the same in his position.” Rapper Ice T, a veteran rapper and actor tweeted “I’m sure there’s gonna be a lot of replies and diss tracks. Don’t trip. It’s just Hip Hop. Competition-year-old.” The American-Nigerian twin Producers Taiwo and Kehinde Hassan known as Christian Rich also tweeted me that “Hip hop needed a push and Kendrick Lamar just gave it.”

Now every rapper learned how to get relevance in the game from this day of Kendrick frenzy. Lamar, who has not tweeted since July 27th while on his China and Japan tour thanking fans over there has gained even more followers on twitter and passed the two-million mark. He has however retweeted his Top Dawg Entertainment merchandise handle, a smart move to get fans shopping. He used Facebook on Wednesday to drop the song. He has not responded yet to his fans but several rappers like Joel Ortiz have been on MTVRapFix Live with Sway Calloway to talk about the hype. The question now is which rapper is going to reply first with their own diss track? I analyzed it on my audio portal Reverbnation.com/HipHossip. Follow me on twitter @HipHossip for all updates.

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