Last week, American rapper Lecrae Moore made an announcement that he will be going back on road again soon to do another leg of his All things work together album tour. In the Facebook video the rapper said he will be doing shows in the USA, Europe and Africa. Finally!
It’s been a while since Lecrae last did a tour in Africa and his fans on this part of the continent were really happy about the announcement because they have been eagerly waiting for something like this to happen for way too long. However the announcement also came with some not so pleasing news . He is only going to do four countries; Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda.
Many of his fans in others countries have shown great disgruntlement with his decision to only do four countries with their comments on the Facebook announcement post. One of the major issues of contention was the fact that he left out Zambia which is considered by some to be the biggest Christian Hip-hop market in Africa.
There have also been a lot of complaints from people in Botswana,Malawi, Ghana and Zimbabwe too among others. Their gripe is not only with this particular tour but that most American Christian artists only frequent specific countries and neglect other markets .
The complaints have some merit to them but on the flip side we must also consider all the other aspects that play out in the background when it comes to the logistics of doing a show. Firstly artist’s are human and it’s not healthy, if possible at all, for them to do shows in every country. They have families that need them and they also have to take time to rest as well because performing is work.
Touring also has a busines side to it. It’s how artists make money to sustain their families and also for them to be able to continue to make the music we all love.Doing shows in some of the countries is hectic because of taxes and regulations and also they have to consider the number of fans in that area because from a business perspective it wouldn’t make sense to for a artist to fly all the way from America to perform to a crowd of 50 people paying aroun $10 dollars each. It doesn’t even cover travel and lodging costs.
In essence there is a lot that goes into the whole business of touring and making the decisions on which countries to include that we as fans are usually unaware of. I haven’t spoken to Lecrae personallyabout it but I’m sure if he had it his way he would probably visit more countries. So I guess, for now, we will just have to be gracious and patient enough to hope that the next time he is able to visit more countries.
If you are an avid fan, you can save up and travel to the nearest City on the tour schedule below. remember to get your tickets early. We will have more information on the tour soon. For now checkout http://www.lecrae.com/tour for info on how to get a ticket
