Renowned musician and CEO of Creative Reality Entertainment Arts and Music (C.R.E.A.M) Platform, Oladapo Daniel Oyebanjo, popularly known as D’banj, delves into the essence of the MTN Best of the Street, a musical talent development initiative designed to unearth raw talent from grassroots communities in Nigeria and provide a global platform for these aspiring artists to exhibit their skills, executed in collaboration with CREAM Platform.

Reflecting on the project’s second edition, which witnessed an impressive influx of over a thousand entries, and saw the winner walking home with a grand prize worth 50 million naira, D’banj underscores the pivotal role of the streets in shaping talent and opportunity.




What do you see in the street and why do you think this project is important?

The street is where everything is and even I came from the street. Today, the biggest export we have is crude oil. Crude oil is found in the street, that is, in the ground, it is picked and refined into different products.




The same thing with talent, it is natural, God-given. You can pick it up and refine it, that is why MTN Best of the Street is so important. Today the biggest export, more than crude oil, is the creative industry. It is important to go out there instead of waiting, go out there and amass this talent so that we can nurture them, and make sure they don’t make the same mistakes we made so that they can maximize their opportunity, there is no better time than now.

How important is the partnership with MTN for a talent discovery program like this?




First of all, MTN has been a supporter of the creative sector and MTN is the biggest telco that we have. The world is digital today, meaning that MTN is in every household, and they don’t have to wait for anything because they have over 80 – 90 million subscribers.

They are already there, that’s why it is so important because MTN and the CREAM platform can now partner together to pick these talents without them leaving their homes, paying transport to come to Lagos, looking for accommodation and all that.

The fact that you have MTN and you know the CREAM platform means an opportunity can be presented to you and that is why I think partnering with MTN is very key.


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https://crispng.com/the-street-is-everything-and-i-came-from-the-street-dbanj/