Jesse Royal sounds off on music business

Grammy-nominated singer and songwriter Jesse Royal has stressed the need for entertainers to make wise financial decisions.

The Modern Day Judas hitmaker said it is important that creatives hire specialists to help in the management of their financial affairs.

"It is super important for artistes to manage their funds and have people smarter than them work in their fields and manage their funds," Jessie Royal told THE STAR.

"Surround yourself with people who are smarter than you; and not even just smarter than you, but people who can help give you more information about what is going on in the world," he said.

He was the guest performer at Barita's Wealth Management Brunch, held inside the Mercedes-Benz showroom at Silver Star Motors Limited, 51 South Camp Road in Kingston, on Sunday. Following his performance, the entertainer dropped some financial gems during an interview with THE STAR.

"Jessie Royal is not going to go on the stage and ask my accountant to play the drums, but I know that when I make the funds, it needs to get to the accountant to help me ... . It's not necessarily about weh yuh mek or how much you know, it's just how you figure out to maximise what you are earning," he said.

Jesse Royal is getting ready to jet off to Brazil next week, having just returned to the island on the weekend from a performance in Saint Petersburg in Russia. He didn't hold back as he called on Jamaican artistes to ditch the short-term mindset and start thinking like business moguls.

"Mi kinda preach dah message deh to all of my co-workers, because for far too long, we have been the product on the shelf, and the supermarket stays open while our product gets removed from the shelf. So we need to understand the importance of running a business and not just singing some songs," he said.

The reggae singer warned that Jamaica's music scene is entering a new era, and those who fail to prepare will get left behind. He reasoned that Jamaica's music industry has been "sowing", and now "it is reaping time"; and he hopes his fellow Jamaican artistes will put themselves in the correct frame of mind and position to reap.

"That is also important, because you can pray for a shower of blessing, [but] member seh the shower of blessing a guh come with mud, so mi tell people seh there is a time to sow and a time fi reap. Mi tell people seh when it's reaping season, mek sure yuh nuh out de in a di field a try plant when you fi a reap; and mek sure when a planting time, mek sure yu naah climb the top a some tree weh nuh have nuh fruit. The reality is understanding the time and being able fi utilise it in a di right way," Jesse Royal said.