Emma Ugolee: Media personality claims D'banj and Don Jazzy led the rise of payola

Emma Ugolee mentions names as he speaks honestly about the rise of payola in the industry.

Media personality Emma Ugolee has spoken about payola in the Nigerian music industry.

In a recent interview with Ms Uduak of The Africa Music Law Show which was released via her podcast on Monday, April 9, 2018, 'The Gist' anchor shared experiences of his journey and how payola has penetrated deep in the music industry.

From his days as presenter of 'Top 10 Music Video countdown', the hurdles and challenges he faced and the present imbroglio facing the Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON), Emma Ugolee bared it all, but perhaps the most riveting was his take on Payola and how it emerged in the Nigerian music industry.

The cool talking presenter who has had to undergo a kidney transplant in the past did not his mince words when he said, 'Payola has ruined a large level of the industry'. He continues, 'I tell D'banj and Don Jazzy, these are the first two people who turned... it was starting to grow slowly but when these boys came in from London, they turned it all around".

 

Emma Ugolee goes ahead to describe how they went about it, saying "They now started carving designer bags, giving to presenters, bringing huge sums of money and then you know they were changing Pounds to Naira, putting it in the pockets of these presenters".

"Presenters didn't want to hear anything else but Mo Hits at the time." He goes further to name other artists who allegedly joined in the act. "Now that went on until the new crop of youngsters also came in and just totally took it to a different level.

I am talking about Kcee Limpopo, I am talking about Davido, I am talking EME, at this point, these ones now moved on to bringing laptops, designer clothings... the guys at Five Star Music were known to have given cars to some presenters.

 

"At this point, they are not going to play anything else but whatever you have, it doesn't care the quality you are bringing to the table,"  he concludes.

Payola is an illegal practice where a label, artiste or an interested party pays a radio station or presenter in exchange for airplay for a certain artiste. It is one of the oldest music arrangements that exists worldwide and as stated on an episode of the now rested 'Facts Only', “Payola has moved from radio and TV to becoming an integral part of the media,” and states that it has stifled the level of creativity in the industry.