{"id":804623,"date":"2020-02-26T09:43:44","date_gmt":"2020-02-26T16:43:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=958138"},"modified":"2020-02-26T09:43:44","modified_gmt":"2020-02-26T16:43:44","slug":"mr-eazi-will-fund-new-class-of-rising-artists-through-empawa30","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/music-news\/mr-eazi-will-fund-new-class-of-rising-artists-through-empawa30\/","title":{"rendered":"Mr. Eazi Will Fund New Class of Rising Artists Through emPawa30"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Nigerian singer Mr. Eazi<\/a> announced the 30 artists who will take part in the second edition of his talent incubator program emPawa Africa on Wednesday. Each artist will receive a $10,000 grant to go towards a music video, along with mentorship from professional singers, producers, and video directors. <\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Eazi launched emPawa in 2018 with the goal of investing in promising artists early so they could develop self-sustaining careers. <\/span>\u201cHe always told us the story of the $1,000 investment someone made in his career and how that made a huge difference,\u201d E-Kelly, a producer and close collaborator, told <\/span>Rolling Stone <\/span><\/i>in 2019<\/span><\/a>. \u201cIf he can give other artists a good kickstart, they can find their feet from then on.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Initially Mr. Eazi helped a pool of 100 artists in Africa with <\/span>$3,000 grants. The money was meant to cover the cost of a YouTube video. While many streaming services that are popular in the U.S. are not available in Africa, YouTube is everywhere, making it the crucial music outlet. \u201cWe\u2019re the pipeline, the interstate that connects all those [African] diasporas,\u201d says Tuma Basa, YouTube\u2019s Director of Urban Music. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The second edition of emPawa will be more focused, providing fewer artists (30) with more resources ($10,000). \u201cWe wanted to be able to have mentors attached to everybody \u2014 that\u2019s easier for 30 people than 100 people,\u201d Mr. Eazi explains. \u201cAnd we wanted to be able to spend the same amount of money but have people have more of it. The cost of videos and the cost of production have increased since the last time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Artists apply to emPawa by submitting short, hashtagged clips online, and a team of roughly ten people helps Mr. Eazi sift through the submissions. \u201cI told everyone in the ecosystem, so some people not even in emPawa see [talented artists] and send them to me \u2014 like Kel-P, who produced most of Burna Boy\u2019s new record, radio stations, there were loads of people looking out.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Eazi then had the unenviable task of whittling more than 30,000 submissions down to 30 finalists. \u201cIt was tougher than the last time,\u201d he says. \u201cWho gets me in the first 15 seconds? It could be the voice; it could be the flow. Then we go a deep dive \u2014 what have they been putting out their profile, other songs, freestyles. Then we reach out to them to send us some music. Then when we\u2019re convinced, we send them in with producers just to get a sense of whether they can go in and make stuff. After all those steps, we select.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The latest emPawa class ranges more widely than the last: The resulting pool includes 16 of the artists come from Nigeria, eight from other countries in Africa, three from North America, and two from the U.K. \u201cWe made a more conscious effort to have more female artists on board,\u201d Mr. Eazi adds. \u201cWe also opened doors to gospel music.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Some of the new emPawa artists have already achieved some success on their own \u2014 a video of Bosom P-Yung performing his pinging single \u201cAttaa Adwoa\u201d has racked up more than a million views in two months. C Natty has writing credits on Mr. Eazi and Tyga\u2019s collaboration \u201cTony Montana\u201d and \u201cOdo Bra.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

The 30 new emPawa artists will get the chance to learn from veteran hitmakers like DJ Maphorisa, E-Kelly, and GuiltyBeatz. In addition, the new emPawa class will have the chance to learn about YouTube \u2014 \u201chow to take advantage of the platform and use it to the best of their ability,\u201d says Vivien Lewit, Global Head of Artist Relations for YouTube Music, which is helping fund 10 of this year\u2019s emPawa artists. \u201cWe\u2019re working together around best practices: How to reach audiences, connect with fans, and engage with them in ways that create not only viewership of music videos but awareness around their stories.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s rare for an artist to take on such a massive mentorship role, to have that much desire to showcase and bring up talent in a real scaled way,\u201d Lewit continues. \u201c[Mr. Eazi] has the ability to impact these artists in a really meaningful way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The #emPawa30:<\/b><\/p>\n

Bemisoul (USA\/Nigeria) <\/span>
Bosom P Yung (Ghana)<\/span>
C Natty (Nigeria)<\/span>
Camidoh (Ghana)<\/span>
Camo Blaizz (Nigeria)<\/span>
Donel (UK\/Zimbabwe)<\/span>
DonFreezy (Nigeria)<\/span>
Dopeprince (Nigeria)<\/span>
Exposuremuzik (Ghana)<\/span>
Fresh Prince (Nigeria)<\/span>
GoodGirl LA (Nigeria)<\/span>
Grace Idowu (Nigeria)<\/span>
James Garlimah (Canada\/Liberia)<\/span>
July 7 (UK\/Nigeria)<\/span>
Kamo Mphela (South Africa)<\/span>
Macjreyz (Nigeria)<\/span>
Marioo (Tanzania)<\/span>
Mizzle (Nigeria)<\/span>
Namenj (Nigeria)<\/span>
Oiza & Meyi (Nigeria)<\/span>
Sishii (South Africa)<\/span>
Solana (Nigeria)<\/span>
Tomiwa Dudobo (Nigeria)<\/span>
TU2 (Nigeria)<\/span>
Xenia Manasseh (Kenya)<\/span>
Yung Meagan (Cameroon)<\/span>
Yusuf Kanbai (Nigeria)<\/span>
Zaman (Nigeria)<\/span>
Zarion Uti (USA\/Nigeria)<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Popular on Rolling Stone <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Nigerian singer Mr. Eazi announced the 30 artists who will take part in the second edition of his talent incubator program emPawa Africa on Wednesday. Each artist will receive a $10,000 grant to go towards a music video, along with mentorship from professional singers, producers, and video directors.  Mr. Eazi launched emPawa in 2018 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-804623","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-21 16:00:30","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804623\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}