Afrobeat singer,
Mr. Eazi, has launched an artist empowerment scheme dubbed “EmPawa100”, to empower 100 unsigned
African music acts.
The 27-year-old “Skin Tight” crooner made the announcement at the press launch at La Villa Boutique hotel in Accra, Ghana, where he spoke about his plan for fledging African artistes and his motivation for the project.
The project, which is scheduled to run for 3 years, will see 100 artists from 6 African countries, including Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana, Rwanda and Nigeria empowered with the sum of 3000USD each.
EmPawa100
Artistes will qualify by uploading their original works or covers on Instagram with the hashtag
#emPawa100 on or before
15th December 2018. Mr. Eazi will be expected to select 100 artistes between December and January 2019. The selected artists will be promoted using
Eazi’s Youtube page “Detty TV” and social media platforms.
From the 100, the top 10 will then be selected by a team of judges for a 3-week music business incubator masterclass in South Africa, mentored by include internationally recognized DJ/Producer Diplo of Major Lazer, Nigerian producers E Kelly, Guilty Beatz, Fred Gibbson, and English singer and songwriter Raye, from which 2 finalists will be chosen to perform at the
Ghana Party in the Park Concert in London next year.
Mr. Eazi said that he saw the need to empower artistes after his support for Ghanaian rapper Kwesi Arthur earned him a nomination at the 2017 BET Awards.
Oluwatosin Oluwole Ajibade, popularly known by his stage name Mr. Eazi, was born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. He moved to Ghana in 2008 where he studied at KNUST (Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology) and booked artistes to perform in school shows.
He gained international recognition with the release of his 2015 single “Skin Tight”, and has since signed up with record label Mad Decent owned by Diplo and a licensing deal with Universal Africa, a Universal Music Group subsidiary. His unique music style, Banku music, is a fusion of Ghanaian highlife and Nigerian chord progressions and patterns.
The singer is fresh off the release of his “Life is Eazi – Vol 2” mixtape, titled “Lagos to London”.
Sources:
My Joy Online, Wikipedia, Prime News Ghana
