Ironside Speaks On Synergy Between Content Creation, Music And Fashion

Nigerian-born fashion enthusiast, social media influencer, content creator and entrepreneur Charles Aghogho, popularly known as ‘Ironside’, has spoken on the links between music, fashion and content creation have always been somewhat tenuous in the Nigerian entertainment industry.

According Ironside, the rise of Afropop acts like Davido, Wizkid, FireboyDML, Burna Boy, Rema and others, paved the way for partnerships with multinational brands but lack of structure is still a big problem.

Charles who was born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria, but moved to Capetown, South Africa said the lack of structure here makes verifiable data hard to come by and, without data, it becomes difficult to prove that brand collaborations, international or local, will bear tangible fruit for both the artiste and/or the brand.

“In Nigeria, artistes seem to only just be wisening up to this, there is no verifiable one-stop-shop for accounting for music streams or content in Nigeria,” he said.

“There is some data – such as the Apple Music Top 100, and the music chart publication, TurnTables, which accumulates charts across different channels such as Triller, TV, airplay, and more – but pertaining to a verifiable source for all cumulative streams, there is little data.”

Charles further said Nigerian artistes are increasingly seeing the value of branded collaborations with diverse brands especially when it concerns influencing fashion trends.

“But, it takes two to tango so for these industries to truly benefit off each other, Nigerian brands must also be willing to collaborate with not just musicians, but content creators too,” he added.

With Afropop vis a vis music at the forefront of conversations emerging from the continent, Ironside said now is a good time more than ever for content creators and fashion stakeholders to place their bets on upcoming and promising Nigerian artistes, and capitalise on the self-sustaining cross-promotion that collaborative ventures between content creators, fashion and music have to offer.

Charles Aghogho is also a philanthropist and the founder of Ironside Foundation a non-profit that focuses on empowering the youth and women.