Very Interesting!! Diary Of An Upcoming Artist (Episode 1)

My father’s words echoed in my head the rest of the day, his stern angry face kept flashing in my mind like it was my brain’s official wall paper.

Everything was beginning to seem impossible; I already had too many setbacks to deal with and now I just added  pressure from my family, severe pressure to quit my hustle, my passion, my first love, MUSIC.

Believe me no other person in this country gives himself hope like an upcoming artist, chai we get hope full body. “One day I go blow” “Soon my music go enter street” “I go dey earn big” that’s the spirit but it’s not easy. You see I hustle hard for money to record a track, struggle to promote the song in the best way I can, buy okrika or boutique clothes to wear for shows, transport myself to a show I wasn’t even invited to talk more of getting paid, buy myself a bottle of beer, beg to perform, waste my energy jumping on stage, and most times trek back home and I still believe one day “Baba God go do am”.

“Enough of this rubbish now look here Mr Man, its either you start thinking about furthering your education or you join your brother in the market and become useful to yourself and this family or leave my house. I give you three weeks, Moyosore three weeks to make a decision >:(” my father had shouted that evening.

Even segun my elder brother who had always supported me from the onset was like “Moyo you know you need to start doing something with your life”.

His message was crystal clear I wasn’t doing anything. Now I know you are feeling my condition.

By the way forgive my manners let me introduce myself, my names are Moyosore Henry Atobatele a.k.a Trust, yea Trust is my nickname, my stage name, don’t ask me how I came about that name, I am the fourth child of five children, two boys and three girls, I finished my secondary education couple of years back and wasn’t thinking about anything else than music.

The thing is I have this serious flare for music and believe me I do good music. People who have listened to my songs tell me they are cool. One great thing is I have real friends who would critic my songs and tell me where I need to make corrections unlike friends who would nod and hail you when they know your track is the definition of a whack job.

Even a small child in my street where I live could comfortably sing my song. I was a celebrity in my hood but that was definitely not the type of success I wanted for myself, because it came with zero money the only benefit I got from that type of fame is that it attracted the attention of local area girls (hello upcoming artist know what I mean- they can relate well) as for me I wanted those hot beautiful slay queens I use to see on the internet 😛

So Trust (that’s me) performs at different hangouts, clubs, bar and even beer parlors where I was paid very little or on most occasion nothing. Sometimes I would even beg to perform in events; how much it hurts after running from one end of the stage to the other with all that energy to thrill the crowd. The funny audience might not even clap or show any sign of appreciation. The MC would have to beg like “please let’s put our hands together for him” or “please let’s clap and appreciate the young man” before the morons will clap :'(

I live in an era where an upcoming artist requesting for financial appreciation from an event organizer before or after an event is a taboo, it’s a sin, infact it is a big crime.

I remember when I met with the organizer of an event I was invited to perform at and was like “Baba you go show me small love o” the organizer started their normal story “Trust you be my person you know be outsider, honestly our budget is tight.

On other occasions organizers will be like “i will lodge u and feed you but I can’t guarantee payment”. The most annoying are the ones that will tell me they are doing me a favor they be like “Trust don’t you know performing in my show is a kind of promotion for you”.

Back to my father’s words I had just three weeks to come up with something. 3 weeks to blow or quit music  😮 and I had to act fast…

TO BE CONTINUED