Co-Signs – A pathway to Success in the Nigeria Music Industry

The Nigerian Music Industry: It’s Co-signs and how to break in the door to stardom.

The Nigerian Industry is constantly evolving in sounds, trends and ways of operation but one of the things that have stood the test of time is “Co-signing”, the sole act of an established artiste putting an emerging artiste on to stardom.
Co-signing simply means “on my credibility, I vouch for this person, I am sure he/she is skilled and worth of your time”.
Over the years, Popstars have received the most powerful co-signs in Nigerian music.

One of the recent successes achieved by Co-signs in the industry is a street song by Portable titled Zazuu. And all credits go to the Kingpin of indigenous rap in Nigeria, Olamide. His presence propelled ‘Zazuu’ to become Nigeria’s hottest record (crossing into 2022). Zazuu, a monster hit has not only gathered tens of millions of streams on all platforms, but it has also opened doors for portable, enough for him to be on UK/Dubai tour — and this is just a few days ago.
As the focus of this article, Olamide’s co-sign has also worked for T.I Blaze (Sometimes), making him one of the fastest rising artists on the continent. His co-sign did wonders for Bad Boy Timz and even P-Priime via Carpe Diem.

Now the question is, HOW CAN YOU AS AN ARTIST GET CO-SIGNED? HOW DO YOU MAKE SURE THAT CO-SIGNING WORKS FOR YOU?

• 1. Consistently grow yourself

As an emerging artist, it naturally looks like the odds are against you, regardless, you have to continuously grow your brand. Top artists recognize top tier talents with incredible work ethics. With the right networking, they don’t hesitate to open their arms and doors to such talents, now, they might not go all the way at the beginning, but they’re open to supporting. There’s a sort of legacy attached to being an OG, you know the popular phrase, “who you epp?”

• 2. Network Network Network

The stars that grant successful co-signs are humans and the only way to get through to them is by networking. Whichever way you look at it, the network is the bedrock of Co-signs.
As an emerging artist, your social media should be a tool for networking. Your outing, Event appearances, studio sessions and collaborations should make networking with stars easy peasy for you.

• 3. Budget

Music is capital intensive, every strategy and promotional tactic you lay down will one way or the other point to money. Dear Artiste, get your Co-sign budget set. You might get lucky like Portable and T.I Blaze that Olamide Co-signed without taking a penny but it’s always good to have a budget.
Who knows, you might just need only a “Thank you” sir gift to present after you blow up in our faces.

The Nigerian Music Industry is evolving, on its shoulder is a cover jacket based on relationships. That jacket is called a CO-SIGN.

Written by Daniel Scott Eleh.
Socials: @_daniellscott