Musician cum entrepreneur, Mr Eazi is focusing more these days on the business aspect of music and not just the art. His emPawa initiative, a talent incubator for rising African artistes produced the talented Joeboy and a couple others in the first phase, mentoring them on all the aspects that a lasting career in music requires.
The next phase will reportedly grant 30 new artistes funding and mentorship from the likes of Diamond Platinumz, Sarkodie, Kwesta, Guilty Beatz, E. Kelly, DJ Neptune, Juls, Diplo and Mr Eazi as it reopens its portal to submissions from Friday, August 15.
Consideration for artistes requires them to; upload a short video (up to 1 minute in length) to Instagram of them performing an original song, cover, or freestyle, with the hashtag #emPawa30.
According to a press statement; “The #emPawa30 will include 10 artistes from Nigeria, 10 artistes from other countries on the African continent, and five U.K.-based African artistes, with the remaining five spots open to African-born artistes in countries around the world, including the U.S. and Canada.”
In partnership with YouTube Music, emPawa will be providing support for the 10 Nigerian artistes to be chosen. The initial phase in November 2018 had some notable successes – from the likes of Ghana’s J. Derobie, Nigeria’s Joeboy and a couple others.
“It’s critical to develop the next generation of talent – and there is so much talent exploding out of Nigeria and the African continent right now. Africa is setting the tempo all around the globe,” YouTube’s Global Head of Music, Lyor Cohen commented.
Submission for emPawa’s second instalment will close on September 15, after which all entries will be evaluated by Mr Eazi and his team.