What's Happening To Kelly Handsome?

If you are a Naija music industry buff, Kelly Handsome is one name you'll most likely hear and shake your head in nostalgia or in sadness at the way he unceremoniously faded out of music existence. (he probably won't agree to this).

I am a fan of Kelly. I must say he's incredibly talented, he could write, he could sing, he could produce and he had the ability to be dynamic and not cage himself.

But what do you do with an especially difficult to manage, an artiste with great skills but a lousy public image?  It’s an energy drain on the people who manage them, and eventually the entire music community gets tired of the emotional roller-coaster.


 Kelly is taking his come-back very seriously. Over time, he's made up with his estranged label (Not that he's back on it) and he's making reconciliatory moves towards the people he once thought wise to take pot shots at. But is the industry ready for Kelly? or is Kelly even ready for the industry?

He recently performed at Owerri and the performance generated some interesting media mentions, some of which Kelly apparently didn't like. i won't bore you with the details, you can read it HERE.

His alleged response gives me pause. If this come-back attempt is going to work out, i must say, making good music has a minimal part to play here. Kelly needs to repair his relationship with the media and making snide comments at bloggers is not the way to do it. 

An all out PR campaign will not be a bad idea for Kelly at this point. Apart from mending fences, he will need to connect with the present day generation of music consumers. the social media generation. the kids who could barely remember his "maga don pay" days. 

I have spent time on Kelly's sound-cloud page and i love everything i heard. (well, almost all! lol) but like i said earlier, it's gonna take more than great music. We need to see Kelly again. he needs to be in the news (positively!), he needs to be on radio, he needs to be on the screens again, right now, all i see is a blog mention here and there and that's not enough. 

If more apologies and fence mending is needed to get him where he needs to be, then Kelly, please get to work and watch your mouth and your temper this time. OK?