Afrobeat singer Gabriel Oche Amanyi, popularly known as Terry G has shared concerns about the alleged prevalence of cultism in the music industry.
He lamented the industry’s unity is being undermined by the
influence of cults and fraternities.
According to Terry G, this trend is discouraging some
musicians from pursuing their craft, as they feel pressured to join cults to
advance their careers.
To further lessen the pressure, he advocated reduction in
cultism’s influence to foster a more harmonious and supportive music industry.
According to him: “In my time, cultism used to be in the
universities. But it has entered into the music industry now. If we can remove
it from the music industry, we would be [one] family again.
“But if there’s frat [confraternity] in the music industry,
people like us who are not cultists cannot operate anymore.
“When we held sway, there were people doing cultism but it
wasn’t violent. It was about love. They said it was for solidarity purposes.
“But now, I can see the same family fighting among
themselves. So that’s just the major problem of the Nigerian music industry. A
lot of musicians are even scared to do music. They want to do cult before they
do music now because that would pave way for them than the music. Let’s try and
reduce the rate of cultism in the music industry.”