Nepman shoots himself in the foot

The Nepmen were business people in the young Soviet Union who were considered to be very intelligent and clever for they took advantage of the opportunities for private trade and small-scale manufacturing provided under the New Economic Policy to prosper.

Now when I heard the name Nepman, one of Malawi's uniquely blessed music artist, I thought he had decided to adopt this name for his entertainment exploits, other than his real name Neppier Longwe, for the same reason that he is capable of taking advantage of the availing opportunities in the industry to make a fortune for himself.

Although he started his career as far back as around 1992, Nepman could not have carved a name for himself with no better outfit than the Young Generation reggae Band and also riding on the home grown dancehall genre.

What a better place to raise his talents, so he attempted to show it off, with a debut solo album called Kuvuma in 2004, but it is only the track Malipe Dance that gained popularity, which nonetheless did still not make his, a household name.

At least by 2015, the hit Na Lero recorded a year earlier, took the local music lovers by storm which he decided to blend with local and traditional musical elements and now made heads turn.

That was a launch pad that sent him into more collaborations, notably with Diktator and Piksy doing Chilibe Season before doing Kadona Aka with Chipililo Mwamcheka.

It is also around this time that Malawian fans living in South Africa increased their demand for Nepman who then started frequenting South Africa for numerous performances.

He told the media that he enjoys massive patronage from the South African based Malawians.

Now four years later plugging into the social media frenzy he decided to insult Malawians that live in diaspora including South Africa. He said some unprintable stuff to Malawians whom he said have run away from their mother land to suffer outside.

He then got a backlash where Malawians especially living in South Africa where he frequents to perform are baying for his blood and he had to make another video clip to apologise.

Now just to show how ill-advised our musicians are, Nepman decided to give a very funny apology which only made things worse. One other lesson learnt is that our musicians clearly lack proper PR fruitage that can sooth those that have been offended or wronged.

One big thing Nepman ought to appreciate is the fact that as a celebrity he needed to realise that all celebrities, are called so because of how they are not only venerated by the public but also how the same public patronise their products, be it musical concerts or products like his music.

Clever celebrities therefore realise that there is only one way to cultivate this positive vibes which is by engaging in positive ways of garnering attention from the fans.

It is professional fatality to return ridicule to the very people that make you what you are. What Nepman has done is poor professional judgement on his part because positive professional conduct towards the people is paramount to the success for all those that are in entertainment business because without the people, celebrities cannot flourish.  

As celebrities there is need to exercise a great deal of discipline.

Look, I started by reminding you that Nepman started around 1992 but only made a breakthrough in 2015 which is to say building a professional reputation takes forever but destroying it needs just a second of one stupid thing. The senseless utterances to the fans like Nepman has done can flush down into a manhole a reputation built for ages.