A Shame How the World is Ruled by Promo/Marketing/Hype

[Cover Photo Created by Myself]

Burna Boy the Nigerian Singer/rapper is currently a huge international sensation and one of the biggest artists in the world right now, and he's the greatest example of the role promo plays in our world.

Not because Burna Boy is not talented but instead because Burna Boy is too dang talented.

I first listened to Burna Boy in around 2013 or so, and I liked what I heard. Songs like Run My Race, Smoke Some Weed, and other features. I really felt like he was great and I liked this guy, but he never got big enough all those years.

He got some fame and stuff but fame-wise he always seemed like a B lister as opposed to an A lister.

Then all of a sudden in 2019 or so he blew up like crazy! His name was everywhere and everybody was vibing to his songs and acting like he was a new artist.

I was shocked, wondering if people are just finding out about him. This is a guy I've been listening to for years so what changed? It turns out nothing changed the except he just got new sponsors and was signed into a new international label and deal and all that.

And since then till today he has gotten way too much international recognition, shut down huge arenas, nominated multiple times in the Grammys and won the Grammys for best global album once.

This is a guy who was barely achieving anything before his new sponsors. Same talent, same guy, just different sponsors.

This blows my mind. It's crazy how you can be very talented but if you don't have the right sponsors who are rich enough to give you enough reach you'd just be on the sidelines hoping for a miracle.

Most great artists including Michael Jackson, the Beatles, Drake, etc. As talented as they are, if not for some great marketing we'd probably never hear of them.

And apart from never hearing of them many of us would probably listen to their music and say yeah it is alright, most of us who say they're the greatest wouldn't say this guy has to be the greatest.

Marketing and promo convinces most humans more. When you hear it repeatedly on the radio and everywhere you go and you see the awards coming in, the critics, news and blogs talking about them you'd start to hold more strongly the opinion that they are among the greatest.

Meanwhile those critics, news and blogs had to be paid to say the things they said. The award organizers had to be paid to recognize the artist, the radio and TV stations had to be paid to play their music continuously. SPONSORSHIP!!

Again, this is not to say that the artist is not great, this is just to show you the role sponsorship plays in convincing the world and cementing the place of talent.

With so many sponsors in today's world it's more difficult to be recognized without belonging to one of them. It's still possible that your talent alone does it, but very difficult.

I sit sometimes and wonder what the world would have thought about great names in literature, music, film, etc if they were not presented to us by thorough sponsorship and marketing.

I also wonder how many we've lost to lack of sponsorship. Very interesting phenomenon.

The End

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