The dust is yet to settle over Gomez Oba’s short-lived resignation from music. To put it in context. If you were to turn off your phone and travel from the nation’s capital, Yaounde to Maroua in the North, you would turn on your device and not know he had left music or the music space was mourning. Or would you?
Gomez’s supposed resignation hardly came as a surprise to many who felt he was simply taking his usual antics to another level. For someone who had spat on the same dish in which he was served a chance at music, many fans felt even the apology to Mr Leo was not satisfactory.
Beyond the insults, the appeals and exchanges between him, fans, colleagues and social media platform owners, some aspects should not be buried without a funeral.
One of Gomez’s reasons for dropping the mic, he said, was the high levels of negativity in the Cameroonian entertainment space.
Regardless of the work you put in in, the industry, he said, never fully gives you your deserved accolades, and adds salt to injury with name calling. Gomez is not the first artist or entertainer to raise this preoccupation, but his words appeared to have been missing in the myriad of conflicting messages and apparent uncertainty he kept expressing over the years.
Even OGs like Jovi and Valsero, as well as hard workers like Ko-C, Stanley Enow and more have faced similar of even worse fates. For an artist with four albums, ten EPs and a mixtape, you would expect that if for anything, he should be respected for his art and dedication to the entertainment industry. His own colleagues however lead the line to rub him in the mud.
Ko-C too has had the nation dancing since the days of Bolo but remains a ‘midget’ in the face of many. Mr Leo and his black trousers have had their fair share, same as Tzy Panchak and his juice cup.
Kameni and the incredible Askia would tell you same. Let’s not even wake Tilla.
While it is undeniable the fact that sometimes entertainers ignite the fire themselves in their endless search for notoriety, the truth remains that the Cameroon entertainment industry is hard hearted. Not only does it not forget, but hardly does it know the existence of a word as forgive. It is for this reason that even in cases of supposed wrongdoing or subtle disagreement, insults rain galore and more cliques emerge.
What this creates, is an atmosphere where cliques and bashing sometimes code-named cruise, obstruct art and makes the artist unable to feed from their work. It is partly for this reason too that making millions off project sales and event ticket sales remains an illusion for many entertainers.
Maybe no one heard it because Gomez said it, or because he has been crying wolf before and now that he needed them to listen, no one cared. But maybe also, we all know this too and are waiting to crucify whoever says it aloud. In fact, the possible reasons are endless.
If we are to take the industry by its own mantra, the internet never forgets, it is only logical then that we acknowledge that the negativity we give will come and haunt us. In fact, it probably already is.
The signs are clear already and like every natural act of retribution, you won’t be wrong to believe it will keep getting worse until efforts are made to change the status quo.
Until then, God help us all. We deserve the industry we’ve got.
Giyo Ndzi
