Dancers, and a disrespectful culture of the music industry

The Nigerian music industry does not give a shit. It doesn’t care about you, neither does it have to. It’s a dense jungle, where the battle to survive is dependent on a food chain. With each level of the ladder you climb, backed by increasing fame and financial benefit, the level of disrespect increases.

To disrespect someone is to act in an insulting way toward them. When you disrespect people, you think very little of them.

Disrespect is all about not showing respect. Actually, it's about showing the opposite of respect, by acting rude, impolite, and offensive. Talking back to your teacher is showing disrespect for her authority. Not giving up your seat to an elderly person is an act of disrespect. So is ignoring the customs and culture in a foreign country. The slang abbreviation dis comes from disrespect and means the same thing.

According to sources, Davido was disrespectful to the dancers that were to perform for him at a recent concert. After practicing for weeks in a bid to put on a good show, the superstar fired them all at the last minute. How disrespectful. Although his reasons might be valid, sources say the outrageous decision is whimsical and should never have happened.

Kaffy, who recently spoke against it, and then apologized for her choice of language is a star in her right who has encountered this disrespect early in her career. To recognize the same treatment being meted out by Davido to other dancers struck a personal and sensitive spot. Davido didn’t have to disrespect the dancers.

Davido’s behavior isn’t new. Due to the unstructured industry the Nigeria runs, artistes are seen as the highest law in the sector. Music is a team effort, but musicians are held at the highest of esteems, with the best remunerations, regards and respect. They are groomed and positioned by the industry to become stars and gods, with very little thrown the way of all the backup members. Producers, sound engineers, instrumentalists, dancers, managers and all the others are all relegated.

Sitting at the top of the food chain, musicians become the highest law and so, pumped through with fame and grandeur, they dish out disrespect to all and sundry. That’s why Terry G can run across a stage to go slap a disc jockey at a concert. It’s a pitiable system.

Kaffy’s rant against Davido might have brought more light on an episode of disrespect in the system. But it is bigger than that. Disrespect is a sub-culture of the Nigerian industry.