Opinion: Why Don Jazzy lost The Headies battle to Olamide

I think that at this point, it is safe to say that with the Olamide and Don Jazzy Headies fracas, the year has started on an exciting note for the Nigerian entertainment industry and if this is anything to go by, then 2016 should be a roller coaster.

In the wake of this incidence, a lot of people have lost their chill and are already taking sides with these two entertainment icons for whatever reasons – just look at the mad house called twitter for confirmation.

This, here, is not me taking sides on this issue. On the contrary, this is an attempt at an objective evaluation of the whole mess.

Let us take a quick look at the Olamide and Don Jazzy brands. First up is Olamide. The Olamide brand is captured in one word ‘STREET’.

From his early beginnings till date, Olamide has stayed true to the street through his raunchy lyrics, coinage of catchy street slangs as well as his overall comportment and delivery.

His audience range mostly from street thugs to the ‘C-level-execs-street-wanna-be-types’ who associate being street with being smart and daring. Olamide has contributed immensely to making the ‘STREET’ both acceptable but aspirational.

On the other hand, the Don Jazzy brand is captured in one word ‘BOSS’. From his early walking stick wielding days with D’banj, we all came to unanimously accept Don Jazzy as the matured cool headed Capone type who you would not want to mess with.

This image is further solidified by the fact that he was and still is a man of few words who is willing to pull all the strings from the background without taking half the shine. His audience range mostly from progressive middle class to classy elites.

So on the one hand, we have the king of the streets and on the other hand, we have the calm Capone. Think about it as the LOUD and the CALM brands. That is why Olamide can release album after album and even put together a full album featuring nobody, but Don Jazzy appears to be a bit more calculative with how he drops SMD and individual artiste’s singles.

These two brands are worlds apart yet we love them both for being who they are. So also do we have contrasting expectations of them. We expect the Olamide brand to be confrontational and forthright but we expect the Don Jazzy brand to be calculative and held back.

That is why Olamide’s thuggery, both in his music and personal demeanour resonates with us, yet our love for Don Jazzy sky rocketed when he refused to really comment on his mess with D’banj and Wande Coal even though we have heard different versions of the stories from both D’banj and Wande Coal’s perspectives.

Now back to the matter of the Headies, the question then is – Who remained true to his brand? Olamide went on stage and ranted. If anybody is surprised that he did that, then I think such a person is not practical and sincere. What Olamide did was as street as you can imagine.

On the other hand, Don Jazzy went on stage and recklessly called out Olamide. I think this was the big surprise for me. Yes he was pissed with Olamide and needed to fight for his ‘children’, but this was ‘un-Capone’ like.

A true Capone would take in the situation, smile and plot his comeback way after everybody has forgotten what happened. If Don Jazzy had desperately needed to say something, he should have remained true to his brand.

Maybe a more appropriate response would have been something sweet, simple and speculative like ‘To all the doubting Thomas out there, y’all should know that sometimes, the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong….sometimes na God just win’.

What do you think?

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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija

Temitope Joseph or TJ for short, is a brand experience specialist who works for a digital marketing communications firm in Lagos. Outside work, he spends his time grooming his afro and praying for Arsenal to win the premiere league.

 

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