By Lawrence Enyoghasu
Rapper and boss of Etiemelo Empire Entertainment, Mobolaji Fasasi aka Da Emperor, has revealed why he used the proceeds from his debut album, Royalty-In-My-Veins to empower CD hawkers.
According to him, he did so because pirates would have swindled him of the proceeds from the album. He narrated: “Before the release of the debut album, I went with my friend, ‘Bulletino’ to Alaba International Market to talk to marketers on how to promote and market the work, but their offers were terrifying. It was a case of giving us about a million naira and saying, ‘we will pirate your album and sell it for almost free nationwide’. This means they will sell it cheaper and make the profit for themselves, and you still pay them to pirate it.
“I asked ‘how do I make my money back from a multi-million naira project?’ They were like, ‘once the album goes viral, we can call you back to negotiate its outright purchase’. I immediately turned down the offer. Hence, I focused on the online sales of the album, thank to iTunes, Spotify, Boomplay and the likes. Later, I printed 200 pieces of the CDs and kept them in the car, so anytime I drove past CD hawkers, I gave them copies of the album and asked them to sell and keep the money to themselves. It was my little way of empowering them.”