By Stephanie Lyew – STAR Writer—-

• P

Roberts—

“An artiste is only as good as his or her last hit song or performance,” are the words that Patrick Roberts of Shocking Vibes Productions kept on singing in his interview with THE STAR.

The long-time producer and promoter of Ghetto Splash was answering the question of whether or not he believed entertainers needed to invest more time in rehearsals.

“One of the things to entertain is to do proper rehearsal, and it is very sad to hear an artiste run on stage and state, ‘Me nuh rehearse enuh’ and then expect, if it is there is a supporting band, for the musicians to create magic. Synergy between the band and an artiste enhances the performance,” Roberts said.

The former manager of the Grammy Award-winning deejay, Beenie Man, Roberts believes that artiste managers can channel the path their charges are going – and that includes stage performance.

“Any serious manager will take the career of their artistes paramount by doing right by them. It is not about going to the stage show to collect the balance of the agreed fee, but preparing the artiste for every single performance,” he argued.

“Each performance requires a particular level of preparation too, meaning if you perform in MoBay, it is a different type of audience in Negril; a Reggae Sumfest different from another show. When talking longevity, managers must invest in the artistes’ career and every good performance gives a next show.”

Grammy Award-winning producer DJ Frass shared similar views to Roberts.

“Sometimes I don’t like to go to stage shows,” DJ Frass shared, “because the artistes them boring and to perform is more than just taking up the microphone and repeating the lyrics of a song.”

DJ Frass advised entertainers that there are several studio facilities that can be rented for the purpose of rehearsing.

“The artistes need to come out of them ego and rehearse; nothing is wrong to work on craft, a nuh everybody born to be the best talent and excel at everything,” he said.

“It nah hurt fi watch how a next man perform either, but put in the work so you can do better … remember, people paying money to get the artiste them hear on the recording. It also helps to intro songs, make some interesting argument, use up the stage space … all these things can be rehearsed and as an artiste, you sign up to be an entertainer.”