Article and photos by Overtime Media
These three Cs/keys to success were revealed on day one of the Island Music Conference, held in Kingston, Jamaica last week, thus igniting an intense 5-day retreat packed full of informative discourse, celebrity appearances, sightings and engaging interactions throughout. The opening panel featured several top Artistes’ Managers detailing and discussing the ins and outs of their roles and functions. IMC Co-founder, Sharon Burke joined Africa Creative Agency Head, Colin Gayle (Manager of South African “Water” Star, Tyla), alongside Friends Only Founder/Natalie Prospere and host, Madeline Nelson of Amazon Music in sharing stories about their various artiste clients and how they helped them to achieve mainstream and international success.Friends Only is a multi-hyphenated company that represents artists, songwriters, producers, and engineers; including Grammy-winning producers D’Mile and Camper, multi-platinum songwriter Varren Wade, and 4 time Grammy-nominated singer Lucky Daye.
Prospere’s roster also includes her brothers; Grammy winning songwriter and emerging Reggae artist MediSun and producer/engineer Mitymaose, who has landed numerous placements in TV and Film. This proud Jamaican-Montserratian-American has also achieved numerous prestigious distinctions with her clients, including 18 Grammy nominations in the 2020 awards.
Following the lunch break, an insightful, eye-opening and eyebrow-raising Keynote Address by Island Music Conference (IMC) Chairman, Orville “Shaggy” Burrell rivaled the information shared by music business entrepreneur, Bob Frank and Romanian Music Producer and Songwriter, Costi Ionita which convinced the gathering (somewhat) that AI is a tool to be harnessed and not feared by those in the entertainment industry. “You should not be afraid to be an independent artist and bet on yourself,” said Shaggy, as he sat alone onstage sharing his beliefs and experiences. “I’ve been without a major label since like 06, I think. The last major label I was on and signed to was Universal and I remember the minute I was dropped from that label and I was dropped because I insisted that I wanted to put a dancehall record out and we didn’t see eye to eye on that but I put it out anyway and that song was Wild 2nite and dem drop me right after that.”At that time, Shaggy had released his successful Hot Shot (2000) and Lucky Day (2002) albums under MCA Records, which was absorbed by Universal Music’s Geffen Records after it became defunct in 2003.
He then released the Clothes Drop (2005) album under Geffen, which featured Wild 2nite with Olivia. The song peaked at No. 61 on the UK Singles Chart and was a top 40 hit in Finland, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. Shaggy shared how being dropped fueled his next hit, Church Heathen. “The very next song I wrote after that was a song called Church Heathen and that spent 19 weeks at # 1,” he recalled. Shaggy’s personal testimony of how he overcame professional hurdles which had threatened to derail his success at various points in time during his storied career echoed in the minds of attendees, even as their concerns about emerging AI advancements were massaged into mere cautionary notes by assurances from Frank and Ionita that humans still controlled the programming of the software and its functionality. Thus, limiting the horrific notions of a computer-led takeover as being purely fantasy largely based on various sci-fi movies and tv productions.
These were the top takeaways from day one of the sophomore edition of the Island Music Conference, which also included two intense discussions, with the first rooted in assessing the classification and authenticity of several emerging music genres such as Trinibad, Reggaeton and Dennery Segment, which were eventually determined to be and labelled as “sub genres” of genres already in existence instead of new genres by the day’s end.
The penultimate panel of the first day featured renowned and often controversial ZJ Sparks hosting a few of her colleagues in radio, including DJ Spex from Canada, DJ Trini from Washington DC, Kikora from Guadeloupe’s La 1ere radio and US-based Rapper/Singer, Songwriter, Producer and son of Shaggy, Rob Banks (Richard Burrell).Scores of entertainment industry personnel assembled in Kingston, Jamaica for the IMC, with the main goal expressed being to increase the presence and visibility of Caribbean content creators, artistes and brands in the mainstream markets of the entertainment industry.
Special attendees were then invited to a luxurious experience that evening at Devon House for the “Chairman’s Dinner” event hosted by Wayne Marshall and featuring the first appearances by US R&B Star, Mya; Haitian Rapper, Producer, Musician and Mogul, Wyclef Jean and Jamaican Deejay turned US Reality TV Star, “Spice”, among others.
