While Nigerian music keeps gaining global recognition and acceptance, there many people working tirelessly behind the scene in making things to happen in the industry that is propelling the career of many of these artistes, one of such people is Quadri Rasheed Atanda, a thoroughbred and seasoned Artiste Manager.
Atanda popularly known in the Nigerian music space as MC, is leveraging on his more than 15 years’ experience across the travels, tourism and entertainment industry to build a name for himself in the music industry as he is currently handling the artiste management of the accomplished disc jockey Oluwafemi Sodimu popularly known as DJ Boombastic and music youngster, Fatiah Kanyinsola Ojediran popularly known as Phatiah.
On his foray into the industry, he stated “As an active member of Climax Travel and Tours, I was involved in playing roles relating to organization, administrative and managerial activities in projects that included music and entertainment events, those opportunities gave me a glimpse into what it takes to work with media, music and entertainment personalities.
“Thereafter, Climax Entertainments and Events came into existence as an offshoot, or call it a sister company to Climax Travels and Tours, so the opportunity arose, and we had likes of DJ Boombastic, Zlatan Ibile, ID Cabasa, Skaliey Mental, Clever J, QDot, CDQ, DJ Kaywise and other celebrities too numerous to mention across the music, films and entertainment industry patronizing our organization, that exposed me a lot to the music, films and entertainment industry.
“Various music and entertainment industry acts that patronized our organizations observed my competencies and requested for various freelance services relating to artiste management from me, moreover Phatiah became a musician and the company engaged me as her Artist Manager, with DJ Boombastic requesting my services as his Media and Publicity Manager cum Personal Assistant.
In addition, I mingled with and understudied the likes of artist manager Tumi Slizz of City Pluggers and music producer ID Cabasa of Coded Tunes, and others”.
Speaking further on what makes a good artiste manager and how artistes can sometimes be a pain in the neck, he has this to say. “A good artiste manager must be able to keep up with the trends in the music industry. He or she must also have the ability to network and build good relationships with people in the entertainment and media. And must have the will power to put artiste in check when going overboard because many artistes are eccentric in nature. Overall, managers must make sure they build a good image for their acts”.
