What’s the most valuable piece of advice music manager Romeich Major would give to an up-and-coming artiste?
“Tek the advice,” he said simply.
Major, reasoning with youth from the HEART Academy at a recent Dragon Be The One campaign session, said he finds that rising talent are often resistant to guidance and suggestions.
“Mek mi tell you weh dem young artistes yah do now,” Major explained. “Dem just get up, dem find one, two, three songs and seh dem hot, a dem a di man, and dem song nah pass airport neither because, if a nuh social media and YouTube, nobody nuh know dem song because it nah play pon radio and it nuh deh pon certain things. But dem just get inna one big hype, get likkle dub money and, guess wah a di problem after that now? The entourage. A di entourage a manage dem now enuh, not the manager. Di friend a seh this and a seh that and everybody inna yuh ears.”
Major, who manages popular artistes Shenseea and Ding Dong, stopped himself in the reasoning, saying, “If mi eva talk some things, unno understand why mi have two artistes and not three.”
Dancehall artiste Teejay was once part of his Romeich Entertainment camp.
Elaborating on entourages, arguably an adornment of being a dancehall artiste, Major said many artistes do not want to walk with an entourage as it is costly, but do so as it mitigates unwanted engagement.
“You’re protected, too,” he added.
HARD TO ADVISE
Major said, once the talent feels they’ve become “this big person”, it gets harder to give them advice.
“Then dem waan tell you wah fi do and how fi do it, when a you bring dem deh suh,” he said. “So the biggest thing about the artistes dem (who) fi tek advice, tek the advice from somebody and it’s not everybody a go give you good advice but, when you see somebody who has knowledge and has been through it in and out, tek the advice.”
He had advice for artiste managers, too, first of which is to put the talent first, which he believes many managers fail to do. He said talent should be treated equally and fairly regardless of the weight of their brand or achievements.
“The second biggest thing is learn your talent … . Mi can look pon my artistes dem right now and know seh, alright, him have worm, him belly a run, him miserable, him woman a stress him, yuh haffi know … . Yuh haffi know yuh product just like any business … .”
He added, “Three, yuh haffi have likkle money and, if yuh nuh have no money, yuh haffi have the right links so yuh nuh haffi use no money … . Fourth one, just be honest and work hard.”
The session unfolded at his headquarters on Campbell’s Boulevard off Waltham Park Road on Thursday and saw the entrepreneur discussing the nuances of operating a business, making linkages to positive masculinity. The trainees were also informed about the rudiments of self-employment, including filing taxes, courtesy of accountant at the Desnoes & Geddes Foundation, Dennis Beckford.
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