The burgeoning hype-man business in Nigerian music industry

At concerts, activations and liter- a l l y every other gathering where an artiste is needed to supply musical performance, if you are about that life, then chances are that you’ve seen a peppy and highly-spirited fellow providing support and ad-libbing for the performing artiste.

That person is a hype-man. His duty is to keep the crowd, to which the artiste is performing, charged up so that they can savour the essence of the artiste’s performance. Globally, the act of having someone as a stage support for performing artistes started circa 1980s and it is usually deployed by rappers.

Their responsibility is to ensure that the room is energized before the rapper steps on the stage to drop the bars. This in turn helps to build the confidence and performance levels of the artiste ensuring that they are not performing to a dead audience. US rapper, Flavor Flav was one of the earliest and recognised hype-men.

He worked extensively with the hip-hop group, Public Enemy which consists of Chuck D and DJ Lord. Even music executive, P.Diddy used to hype for the late Notorious B.I.G, Swizz Beatz and Fatman Scoop. Scoop himself has hyped for various artistes, including Missy Elliot. In fact, Jay Z started his career as a hype-man. Being a hype-man has always been an entry level avenue for music enthusiasts into the bigger musical sphere. In recent times, we’ve seen a lot of hype-men surface in the Nigerian music industry.

Some of them have built a name for themselves and they have collectively registered and stamped the hype-man culture as an integral part of the larger music ecosystem. A significant number of them have even gone ahead to explore relative careers as recording artistes, music business executives and record producers. Think of Special Spesh, the portly and bulbously bearded member of pop star, Davido’s 30BG. He was perhaps one of the first hype-men to be noticed in the Nigerian music industry.

He started as the hype-man for D’Bbanj before the split of the now defunct Mo’Hits Records. Now, he is the personal hype-man for Davido and by extension the 30BG, ensuring that the crowd they will be performing to, is properly fired up for the rendition of the hit music squad.

Today, Spesh also doubles as the Director of Corporate Sponsorship at record labels, DMW and HKN. OAP, Do2tun started his hype-man career hyping for popular Lagos clubs and went on to perform as the hype-man at massive concerts like the Star Music Trek series. He is also the party starter for the YBNL record label huncho, Olamide. Do2tun has gone ahead to venture into being a recording artiste with songs like his eponymous debut, Energy Gad and more recently Afrobeat to the World which featured Olamide and the radio host cum hype-man’s brother, Pepenazi.

The business of being a hype-man is becoming an indispensable staple in the larger context of the Nigerian music industry. Sheye Banks, an OAP with Soundcity 98.5 FM and one of the most sought-after hype-men in Lagos describes it to Saturday Telegraph in the most epicurean and gourmand way possible, “the music ecosystem without a hype-man is like eating food without cutlery. There are some meals you can actually enjoy without using your hands but most meals are enjoyed with either spoons or forks and that’s what hype is about.”

Putting this into more discernable perspective, Toby Shang, the personal hype-man to rapper, Naira Marley, explains, “Hype is a mood changer. It is a symbol of hope. Gone are those days when a DJ slams the music and people jump to the dance floor.

“The music ecosystem has changed over the years. People now need someone to tell them ‘move’ before they move.” “Our job is to bring out the vibe in every song even if the song is not too wavy and also make the people or the fans feel this vibe. We don’t only generate the vibe of a song; we also connect the listeners and the fans to the song” said Hype-man Drop, a hype-man for Lagos-based Club 01. Actually they are right! The texture of the Nigerian sound in recent times has even made the job of a hype-man more conspicuous.

Hype-men play ad lib for the artistes, echoing their words and interjecting as they perform thereby drawing the attention of the audience to specific lines in the song and also helping the artistes catch their breath in between the performance. In this age where we are witnessing a shift into the Post Maloneish laconic vocal style, there’s more vibes and less worded lyrics. Wizkid’s Joro, Adekunle Gold’s Jore, Oxlade’s Away, Mayorkun’s Geng and Of Lagos, all have something in common. It’s the use of less extended lyrics and the adoption of a repeatedly spooky phrase or word.

There’s enough vibes for hype-men to connect the audience to. Even when there was none, they have managed to pull off amazing shows oscillating in between the lyrics of a song so you can have an amazing performance from your favourite artistes. However, this seems like a thankless job. Safe for those who have liaised with mega record imprints or have other alternative careers that have shot them into prominence, hype-men are at most considered to be appendages to the performing artistes. According to Banks, “hype is one of the most disrespected crafts right now in the Nigerian music industry.

Sometimes, we put in the most work and get the least pay.” Shang corroborated this, “Imagine hypemen are the first to get to the venue, do the most work and the last to leave the venue but they are not paid compared to some craft in which they perform for some minutes and leave the stage for another show…our longer hours on stage is not compensated and reflected in our payments.” “The entertainment world doesn’t appreciate hype-men. They don’t give much respect to it as they should.

They should give us our chance. We don’t have to be backbenchers to the artistes” said Akindele Micheal more known as Hype-man Best who doubles as a songwriter and dancer. For Mr. SKB, a hype-man based in the capital city, Abuja, the hype-men themselves contribute to this problem. H e situation of being taken for granted on hypemen who misplace their priorities by being star-struck by artistes rather than holding their front and basically seeing star artistes as co-workers in the business of sating the audience’s quest for an amazing live performance.

“Some hype-men refuse to understand that you have a duty beyond being with the artiste on stage. They need to understand that it is a business. You are a hype-man, you are with this artiste and all you want is just take a picture to show the world you are with this particular person. It doesn’t work that way. You’ll lose your self-respect.” Saturday Telegraph was told that the pay range for hype-men is dependent on a lot of factors including the ‘popularity of the hype-man, the location of the event, the brand organizing the show and relationship between the organizer and the hype-man’.

However, Mr. SKB offered to be specific. “I’d say for an average hype-man, it’s about $150”. $150 is about N60,000. Meanwhile, Hype-man Best suggests that on an average, a hype-man gets N100,000 for an event while also noting that the duration of the event is a factor for consideration.

From pay to recognition and then industrialization of the craft, the hypeman business has more issues than one to deal with. The success stories are far between but this is not surprising. The entire landscape of the music industry in Nigeria is largely unstructured.

Therefore, talents are left to survive or be crushed. You either make it to the top tier or you keep struggling within. But the future is not completely bleak. Banks believes that “there’d be times where we would have concerts and shows strictly created and designed for people to enjoy the hype.

The hypeman culture is the future of entertainment and that future starts now.” Yes, it does starts now and the viability is already being tested. Toby Shang held the first ever hype concert in Nigeria in March of 2019 and it was a success. So, there is prospect but right now, it is a struggle; for relevance and for due appreciation. So, the next time you see that young man screeching, ‘Are you Ready?!’ before your favorite artiste comes on stage, be kind and respond to him with all the energy you can muster. He was probably paid less than one tenth, what your favourite artistes got to be on that same stage.