MOST ZAMBIAN ARTIST’S MANAGERS ARE “CHIPANTE PANTE WORRIORS” AND “BOOKING AGENTS” SAYS NEZ LONG AND SHAWN KAYSTAR
In a now deleted post on Facebook, former top Zambian rapper Macky 2’s manager Shawn Kaystar made remarks that triggered an unintended response after he called out artist managers in Zambia for merely being “booking agents.”
Shawn Kaystar wrote,”Many of your so-called managers are in fact booking agents. They just get calls for event bookings.” Media personality Chimweka was in agreement with the remarks as he sarcastically said, “Chair. Why all this violence(laughing emojis)?” Meanwhile, rapper King Illest felt it was about time someone said it. “Somebody had to say it,” the rapper said.
The thread continued with dancehall and rapper Nez Long throwing in a list of things he felt Zambian managers should be doing but were not, calling them “chipante pante worriors” as he said, “Somebody had to say it, no strategy, no planning, no brand positioning, no set targets or goals, just chipante pante warriors.”
Well, despite the post receiving overwhelming support from fellow industry peers, social users took it as a shot at Yo Maps’ manager DJ Kandeke as they started taging him under the post.
Over the years, Yo Maps’ manager DJ Kandeke has been under scrutiny on Zambian social media for his management techniques, which most social users felt were not up to standard for an artist of that calibre, at some point even called for his dismissal.
Shawn Kaystar went ahead and deleted the post. Before he did, he tried to clarify the situation as he sent praise worship messages for the top Zambian artist’s manager. “Stop tagging Kandeke in here. Kandeke is one of the most hardworking chaps I know. he has branded Maps so professionally,” said Shawn Kaystar.
He further continued, “The thing I like about Maps/Kandeke is (that) Kandeke has so much power over his artist, which I personally didn’t even have over Shaka(Macky 2) in those days. Kandeke can say we are not putting this song on day, Yo Maps Yo would listen. Have seen Kandeke say we are not going to this event, and for sure, it doesn’t happen.”
Regardless of the outcome of his opinion, many social users agreed with the former manager. The social users raised the same question: Do Zambian artist manager really perform their duties according to international standards, or are they clueless?
