Earlier this year, the Space exhibition centre in Stockholm, Sweden, introduced the Avicii Experience, an immersive exhibition dedicated to the life of Avicii, the world-famous Swedish DJ and dance music producer who died from suicide in 2018.
In one of its rooms, visitors are greeted by a mix of bewildering strobe lights, paparazzi camera clicks, delirious audience cheers and the loud hum of aeroplane engines.
It’s an effect that’s meant to depict the dizzying realities of his life as a global superstar constantly on the move and under relentless public scrutiny.
There’s nothing quite like stardom, in all its varying degrees. “Fame puts you there where things are hollow,” David Bowie mused on his single “Fame” back in 1975.
The pressures and anxiety of fame is something artists have been grappling with for decades.
Even in the midst of unprecedented success, mental health issues seem to be always lingering. One might even argue that they heighten with growing success.
A case in point is Nigerian Afrofusion star Burna Boy. Last week Friday Burna Boy released his new album, “Love Damini”. Despite being in the midst of a rapid global takeover, Burna, who is renowned for his joyous anthems, sings soberly throughout about themes like having nightmares of the day he falls off.
Even in his recent interview on the popular US podcast “Million Dollaz Worth of Game”, Burna shares how he’s often anxious and uncertain because of all the hate and criticism he receives on social media.
This is coming from an artist who won a Grammy Award last year and filled up New York’s iconic Madison Square Garden this year. On the album’s breakout hit “Last Last” he bemoans his work-life imbalance: “I put my life into my job, and I know I’m in trouble.”
Lately, this seems to be a common thread, particularly among black men. Megastars who are living hollow lives. As a result we seem to be losing black male entertainers, particularly musicians, to suicide at a frightening pace.
Prior to rapper Riky Rick’s death by suicide earlier this year, he spoke of experiencing similar sensations as those which the Avicii went through.
On his haunting single “Home”, one of his last releases before his death, Riky shared some insight into his state of mind: “All this pressure gon’ be the death of me, fake love killing my energy / I’m the greatest of all time, but I’m tired and I wanna put the ball down.”
He went on to reference a conversation with his mother. “Mama told me, ‘Look where you are now if you leave it Riky we all down, if you leave it we all suffer,’ that kinda pressure is a motherf*cker.”
This pressure and anxiety isn’t something that’s just affecting the biggest artists. Last week Sunday, rising hip hop artist Tumi Tladi allegedly committed suicide after a series of social media posts in which he appeared to be saying his goodbyes.
Rising vocalist TBO, whose amapiano hit song with Kelvin Momo “Funa” thrust him onto the public scene last year, shared how he’s experienced first-hand how challenging it is as an upcoming artist in the music industry.
“I have noticed and witnessed that being in the music business can be very depressing, especially as an upcoming artist because there’s this overwhelming pressure to succeed and please everyone.
“Being an upcoming musician is like having a job that does not pay immediately. My first decent cheque I got in music was five years after I started being a musician, so you can imagine what I was going through during those years.”
He added that social media is also a big cause of depression because people tend to forget that musicians are humans and that they have emotions.
“People hide behind their phones and say the worst things you can think of just because they don’t like your music, and it’s very wrong. If you don’t like the artist, move on and listen to the artist you like.”
On Thursday night, during an AMPD Studios handover event in Newtown, musician Gigi Lamayne, who was the host of the evening, made closing remarks in which she said young black men were the victims of unfair societal pressures and scrutiny and that they needed society’s support in these dark moments.
In her impassioned remarks, she described suicide as the new pandemic and pleaded with the audience to be more kind and supportive towards black men.
Platinum-selling South African singer Mariechan shared a similar position when we spoke. “For generations societies have encouraged and conditioned men to be ‘strong’ and not admit when they’re struggling,” she said.
“Mental health amongst men is so much deeper than we can comprehend because they face a different type of pressure that deals with strength, providing, success, pride, security, stability, etc.”
Shortly after Gigi’s speech at the event, I spoke to producer and DJ Profound, who spent a lot of time with Riky Rick during the 2019 iteration of Riky’s Remy Producers competition, which he won, and who also recently produced for Tumi Tladi.
Profound shared how he felt what’s going on in the entertainment industry is a reflection of what’s going on in the country right now.
“We have one of the highest suicide rates and I know that a South African man is way more likely to commit suicide than a woman. I think social media and the rise of it has kind of revolutionised the way society thinks and functions.
“The average man is expected to be rich to be deemed as a man that’s respectable. You have a lot of men that are just getting by, but according to the new standard, getting by is not enough.
“And for the men who do have enough, they’re technically not allowed to take a day off because if they take a day off someone else is going to compete.”
Profound cited this inability to freely take time off as a possible contributing factor to deaths like Riky’s.
“For example, Riky lost Killer Kau, The Voice and Mpura,” he explained.
“These were people who were his friends in real life. But he was not really allowed to take a break because if he decides to take six months off, Major League is going to drop another episode of Balcony Mix, Focalistic is still gonna tour in America, Cassper is still going to show off his McLaren and that’s what people are going to gravitate towards.
“People are not going to gravitate towards a crying Riky. People are only going to gravitate towards a Riky wearing Louis Vuitton, Prada and Gucci. But Riky’s also a human being with feelings.”
He added that the entertainment industry sometimes is purely entertainment and his job as an entertainer in this pressurised industry is purely to entertain people to make them forget about their problems.
“So sometimes it’s very difficult for us to be able to deal with our own pain. The way I see entertainers is the same as a doctor who’s not allowed to be sick.”