So Ambe was surprised that a blog refereed to him as a “South African based Cameroonian artist” as he took to his twitter account to make the complaint.
There is more to this tweet than what was written or what most of us understood.
Firstly, I don’t think Ambe is based in South Africa and I’m sure he just went there for a brief visit and will be coming back. He didn’t attach or mention the blog, but I would think “currently based in SA” could be a better line.
However, you will notice that the above is just a front view reaction to the tweet but there is a lot that can be gathered from it. Key points: 2 months in South Africa, Finalizing his album.
These two lines could probably be headlines for blog posts on another day. Why will a top-level Cameroonian artist spend over 2 months in a different country finalizing his album?
As we saw in his latest single, staying out that long and working on an album means working with foreign producers, foreign video directors, foreign mixers, foreign studios etc. What does this say about these same people or facilities who are home-based?
We’ve also seen debates about Ambe’s style and genre of music which seems to have changed following the new song “Don’t Go“. A style which many perceive to have been changing almost every year the past decade. If he feels comfortable staying out of the country, working with other people and feeling confident and comfortable with the new style like he mentioned in another tweet, what does this say about home-based producers and other music stakeholders?
Maybe Ambe wants us to wake up and change the headlines to be that he shot his recent video in South Africa, or that he has spent more than 2 months in South Africa which may be something good, branding him as a good artist; or again, following above paragraphs, he just exposed many people whom he has worked with in the past to get his career to what it is today.
The truth is that Ambe has for the most part of his career since from the “Rendez Vous” days proven to be a good ambassador of the Cameroon system of education – Jack of many trades, master of none. No doubt he is talented, and he has been versatile, touching and leaving, from genre to genre, style to style etc.
Many people argue that the quality of “Don’t Go” in terms of quality, maturity and engineering is far more better than his previous productions. He may just have needed something different, a different adviser or coach to capture what he can best master.
We may be seeing another Ambe in his upcoming album, an Ambe with a new style that he masters and can make him the superstar that he deserves to be considering how long he has been serving the industry.
