Editor’s note: This is a guest post by my good friend Bukani Duba. He is an artist, songwriter and producer. His last project The Sweet Science is available here. Connect with him on his Twitter or Facebook. This is part 2 of a 2 part series. Click here for part 1.

1. It is better to define yourself than to be a ‘made man’.

Calm down, I’m not talking about the Mafia’s ‘made man’, I’m talking about one who is created by the industry. One who is advised to create a whole new persona – a new image, so as to rack up publicity. His music is whatever the masses want and his rep is created and carried by the label.

Last year, I would hang with Zwai Bala, the Z from TKZee and frontman of Bala Brothers Productions. I would sit in on his meetings, gaining first-hand experience in the dealings of a seasoned veteran in the industry. We’d have studio sessions and I learned more than I ever thought possible, from my former mentor – and what a mentor he is. But one thing that always stuck with me was the stigma of being ‘Zwai’s boy’; everywhere I went, people recognised me as that – I had no rep of my own. I had not earned the respect of the contacts that I made – there was no reason for them to remember my name. I am eternally grateful for his mentorship, I would not change a thing, but I knew that I had to make my own way.

Record labels do that to the undefined ‘diamond in the rough’. If you don’t know your style, know yourself or how far you are willing to go for fame (your limits), they will define all of that for you.

The real reason we make music is to self-express and hope the listener identifies with what we’re saying – the message we’re portraying. How tragic would it be if you didn’t even have your own voice for that?

2. I don’t feel like I’m ready just yet.

There’s nothing like getting into that sweet spot of creating your own music and actually being able to make a living out of it. South Africa is a strange crowd to deal with and the industry is fickle. The trends are all over the show and to try and follow them would always leave you one step behind – so instead of following, one must lead. That’s what I’m working on. I’m still developing myself as a singer-songwriter, instrumentalist and record producer. Maybe I’ll make it or maybe it’s not ‘written in the stars’ for me but there’s always room to grow and learn. I want to gain as much experience and knowledge about where I’m going before I decide to take off. You wouldn’t go overseas without contacting someone you know over there, or trying to find a safe place to stay, researching the good, the bad and the ugly about where you are going, would you? So it shocks me how many people would walk so blindly into the ravenous entertainment industry – it’s ravenous, believe me, I worked at SAMRO last year; you would not believe the amount of rip-off deals (would-be record deals) I saw, that people ignorantly signed. But I digress.

3. Others made it without winning a competition

The bulk of the industry is made up of artists who worked hard and grinded for their fifteen minutes. They know what it took to get where they are, so they don’t take it for granted. They are proof that it is possible to make it, hence this emphasis people put on TV competitions as the golden ticket to success.

So in conclusion,

TV competitions, it has to be said, have given numerous successful artists their ‘lucky breaks’ and who’s to say that it won’t happen for you or someone you know? Just remember that luck is 2% opportunity and 98% preparation; luck favours the prepared. I’m just gonna let God work on me and trust that I will become the man and musician that He has meant for me to be. I could be years off the tangent or I could be closer than I think. All I know is that when I’m ready, you’ll know…

In the meantime, it would be remiss of me not to mention that I am working on a new concept EP / mixtape – called Material due for release later this year, dealing with the issue of Materialism and its subsequent themes.

Feel free to listen to my single Red Dress, and let me know what you think.

Also, feel free to add your opinions on this topic in the comments section below.

If I had a dollar for every time I heard the phrase, “Wow, you should enter Idols,” I wouldn't need to enter Idols, because the prize money would be rendered obsolete. Ok I’m lying – if I had $10 000 for every time I heard that phrase, then we’d be talking. But the point still stands; I've heard that too many times than I’m comfortable with.

“Wow, you should enter Idols.” As if Idols is the benchmark for good vocalists/musicians. So imagine the surprise on some of their faces when I tell them that I did enter Idols in 2010, and I didn't even make it through the preliminary auditions.

I was with a cast of incredible vocalists that I know to be 1000 times better than me. I must admit I was naive back then, knowing 10% of what I now know about the industry. I learned my lesson, and I continue to learn because this industry devours the ignorant.

Through my experience of being on a TV Talent show I have put together five points as to why I feel they are not a true reflection of talent or an artist's music career, if you’ll indulge me.

1. TV competitions are TV shows, not Talent shows.

Imagine my surprise after being in the cold for five hours in that queue, and hearing some – let’s be honest – less than average vocalists practicing in the queue, then seeing those people make it through the prelims, whereas nobody in my above average group made it.

How did that happen? One word: ratings. Wooden Mic is one of Idols SA’s biggest drawing cards, so the ridiculous vocalists take precedence over some talent.

Another point could be made by a dynamic that I saw in Season 3 of The Sing Off, America’s popular all a-Capella talent show. One of the favourites, right off the bat, was a group called Vocal point. Their performances were amazing from the first episode until their last; one could have scored all of their performances, save one, above 90%. The problem with that is that the crowd got so used to seeing them perform at that level, that they soon became bored of them and focused on other teams who were struggling. Although Pentatonix (the eventual winners) were undoubtedly a cut above the rest, I still felt that Vocal Point, and Afro-blue, for that matter, were hard-done-by to be eliminated before Urban Method (3rd place). The underdog appeals to people more than the one who’s got it together. You sell an underdog story and you've got yourself ratings. I've seen some not-too-bad vocalists get picked over some amazing talents, because the latter had ‘nowhere to grow’. Hardly fair, is it?

But if we’re being honest, the amount of real talent there is at the auditions is too great. We could never choose if every good person made it, so they filter out some good people and hope they will try again the next year. That’s understandable, I guess.

2. Winning can be likened to winning the lottery.

Some may argue that you win on talent, but like I mentioned in the previous point, most of the talent is filtered out before they even see the celebrity judges (let it be noted that I do not accuse every TV competition of this, some are actually based on talent). My point is that by the time you make it to the finale, you have defeated odds that are arguably over a million to one, taking into account the amount of people that auditioned, the sometimes random selection of those who make it through and the fickle voting process.

By those odds, it makes one wonder why people don’t say, “Wow, you've got a talent for finance, you should enter the lottery.” Yes, some ‘talent’ shows have as much to do with talent as winning the lottery has to do with finance.

You see, a millionaire is not someone who wins a million bucks; it’s someone who earns a million bucks – consistently. How many stories of bankrupt former lottery winners have we heard? You cannot live a millionaire’s lifestyle if you aren't earning a millionaire’s salary. It takes years of hard work to make millions; you make mistakes and you learn from them, you sometimes lose money because you take risks but the experience you garner in the process teaches you how to live once you start earning in that bracket. Overnight millionaires do not have that experience; they don’t know how to keep millions and most just squander all of it.

They don’t have the financial literacy that millionaires have and don’t know how to handle the amount of responsibility given them. It’s like making a recent graduate the CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

Now, of course there is the exception to every rule: those who build a successful business with the money they won and those who are frugal with their winnings. But these people have at least some experience or knowledge about business and dealing with money; it never comes from thin air.

The parallel I’m making is this: A lot of the time, the winners of these shows, more often than not, disappear into obscurity. I could probably name a maximum of three winners of Idols SA. I don’t even remember the dude who won just last year. I do remember Brenden though; who I feel had more claim to the title of ‘Idol’ than did Musa (I just looked him up). Their problem is the same as overnight millionaires’. They usually don’t have enough experience and knowledge about the industry that they are diving headfirst into, and have to deal with a level of responsibility that they haven’t worked for. They don’t have their own contacts; they don’t have their own ‘style’ cultivated through years of trial and error.

Again there are always exceptions, and Khaya Mthethwa is one of them. When I met him last year on the set of Clash of the Choirs SA, I could tell that he was a hard worker. Plus, he had been involved in the music industry for a while before he entered Idols. He knew who he was, he knew his style and he had good contacts with whom he was able to make something happen after his tenure on Idols. He didn't expect to be spoon-fed and that gave him the edge over some of the previous winners of Idols.

To be continued...

Q & A:

What do you think of talent shows on TV? Leave a comment below