Bella Shmurda, a Nigerian singer, has emphasized the need of creating music with a purpose and the necessity for musicians to lead admirable lives that inspire others.
He bemoaned the fact that the Nigerian music business was badly affecting young people and had imitated several Western vices.
Shmurda urged his peers to focus on establishing lasting legacies rather than putting baubles and fancy automobiles first when he spoke on a recent episode of the Afrobeats Intelligence podcast.
He said, “Many in the music industry are not on their own lane. The industry has made everybody, you know, our industry now is now a shine shine thing. Everybody is coping American hip-hop lifestyles, purchasing expensive jewellery and exotic cars. They don put all those things into our eyes to the extent that we make some of these young ones lose their purpose.
“You need to have a reason for doing music aside from maternal things. There is no rollout plan from some artists now without them flaunting their cars and jewellery. There is no reason. You are not giving the younger ones reason to do music. There is no purpose on ground. They just want to do it and make it, and also being in the limelight. What impact? That is the thing. What impact do you want to make? Because on the long run, we call this thing legacy. What legacy are we leaving for these people?
“At a point, I stopped wearing my jewellery. I felt like that’s not my purpose. I came out with ‘Vision 2020.’ And that’s the vision. That’s a song with purpose.”