So the music industry has two different images, there is the image that you see when you are on the outside looking in. To many this either looks glamorous or difficult depending on whether or not you are trying to get your foot in the door. Maybe if you are a religious person it may also appear negative and dirty at times. The other image is the one that you see when you are inside the music business and you know a lot of the artists, producers and A&Rs personally and are around them when they speak professionally and socially.

When you are on the inside one thing becomes apparent; that is those who are doing music for the love of music and are not competing for status placement appear to be less stressed and somehow they seem to be loved and appreciated more by the public as oppose to those who get involved in the music industry and focus all their attention and energy on being bigger than others. Artists, Producers, Label Owners, Booking Agents, PRs and other professionals in music that are working in their respective fields because they want to work in that particular field and genuinely enjoy what they do and are not in competition with anyone tend to have a unique likeability about them. Persons seem drawn to them and they seem to get countless opportunities that allows them to continue to soar. More importantly they make decisions about their career from the right place and not a place of wanting to be above anyone. I believe with all my heart that the reason why so many urban music posters, flyers, CD covers etc. all have half naked women on them, and why calling our daughters, mothers and aunties a bitch has become the norm and why the overall lyrical content coming from youths today is not inspiring and uplifting is all because everyone is busy competing with everyone else. No one is making their decisions based on what they truly want to do. They spend all their time watching what others are doing and then tell themselves that they have to outdo them.

Unfortunately the persons involved in the urban music industry (hip-hop, reggae, dancehall, soca, R&B etc.) seem to be in constant competition with one another. It is said that ‘both the dancehall and hip-hop culture strives on competition and so it is necessary in these genres’. I fundamentally disagree with that statement! My position is that if each of us spend our time thinking, planning creating and executing ways to advance our careers then we will not see the need or even have the time to worry about what others are doing thus being unable to see them as competition. As for competing lyrically, I am an avid lover of both hip-hop and dancehall and history has taught me that not a lot of good can come from competing lyrically, yes it may be very entertaining to onlookers but have you ever stop to think about what it’s doing to the person in the competition?

In the interest of time I will close this article by saying that each one of us has unique talents and abilities that was given to us by the Creator therefore the only person we can and should compete with is ourselves. And we do that by challenging ourselves to become better every day.

I sincerely hope that this was useful to you.

CEO/Owner
MJE & MJMagazine