Starboy Nathan X-Factor exit - Just a two cents

So, last night the UK witnessed X-Factor contest Nathan Fagan Gayle ejected from the show at judges houses by Nicole Scherzingertower (no spell check, so if it's wrong, it's wrong). You can read my timeline TweetView/TweeteReview here



Everyone questioned why Nathan sang a NeYo song in front of NeYo to which he replied via Twitter

FYI I was given a Neyo Song to sing... I did not chose it myself bytheway lol
— StarboyNathan (@StarboyNathan) September 29, 2012

The fact he sang another song, yet they chose to show the one above is a bit unfair of the producers



I'm not gonna lie, I was 100% certain he'd go through. Must've taken a lot of courage for him to go on there, he has experience of performing and is a million and trillion, gazillion times better than Rylan.



Nathan's choice to enter the show was a major talking point for "urb*n" music followers from his first audition (click for TweetView), as the singer a.k.a. Choice FM rapology winner Nathan NFG a.k.a. UK r&b singer Starboy Nathan has been well-known on the underground scene since about 2004. Fagan Gayle supported JLS and The Wanted, songs with Flo Rida and Wretch 32 and reached top 40 last year. "Why would he go on there?" was the question on everyone's fingertips (Twitter innit). For the first time in X-Factor history, they allowed managed acts to enter the show which green-lighted him the opportunity to audition.

If u wanna kno why I did X-factor watch this youtu.be/_jZPPzEIbpI
— StarboyNathan (@StarboyNathan) 

 This is my new Freestyle To mark the anniversary of my Dads passing its called DarkRoom it sums up how I feel right now youtu.be/0kF0UJKfJNw
— StarboyNathan (@StarboyNathan) September 30, 2012



Only 2, 614 viewed the song in a similar amount of hours live and 209 RT's compared to 1,403 ReTweet's on the explanation vid. 12.4% of those interested in why he's on the show actually listened to his track. There are lies, damned lies and statistics, but I can't go around the stats on this one.

(Disclaimer: figures taken at 10:30am 1/Oct/2012)

Nathan raises some good point in his monologue. The best one is the bit about people power. People power is stronger currency than PR and pluggers. Even as a signed act, people requesting your songs will always put you in better stead than if you have great PR people as as unproven urb*n act. Urban specialists don't care about him, grassroots don't care for him, pop radio don't care for him, so as a result short-attention span pop buyers don't get the chance to care for him. Why would they search him when Connor Maynard is here? Dappy is cooler than Nathan at grassroots and pop fans care more for him. Justin Bieber, The Wanted, One Direction, JLS all nyam that same food.

Problem here is Nathan has almost 100k followers, 80k before the show started and still doesn't have people power? The chart hit he mentions in the video, "Diamonds", has over 1.5mil views on Youtube, "Caught Me Slippin" ft. Flo Rida sits on 118k and "Hangover" ft. Wretch 32 has 611k (nice song so I'm embedding it below) all been online a year minimum. Apart from the Flo Rida, those are pretty decent figures for an independent in my opinion.



In an ideal situation (all three songs recorded and ready to release), I'd have released Wretch 32 song, followed by Diamonds, then Flo Rida. Flo Rida song is by far the worst of the three, but maybe a Flo Rida name may have worked for him. Instead he did it the complete opposite way.

I don't like the song, but of the three above "Diamonds" is the lane he should be in. With male "r&b" there are two categories; sex factor or aww factor. You're either Trey Songz or Ne-Yo. R. Kelly or Joe. Joe/Ne-Yo can't be Trey Songz/R. Kelly and vice-versa. This is where Trey Songz was going wrong before. And where it went wrong for The-Dream.

I've never heard a girl say they fancy or wanna bang Nathan, so he has to play the sweet boy with loads of lyrics and gifts to get girls to like him. Man dem, we either know that guy or are that guy. Not saying that's the case in his real life, I don't know him, but musically that's usually how it is.

In my opinion, the reason for lack of conversion from YouTube views to buyers is he's built a solid catalogue of "nice/that's ok" songs. You hear them on radio, nod a little, may find out who sings it, but ultimately nothing really pulls at your emotions which eventually pulls 79p out of your pocket.

Also, he's aiming at pop audience with middle of the road urban-pop songs + no people power while alienating the core urban demographic that don't buy but give a buzz. It's hard to hit the Ella's in the rural areas without touching Kerry's on ends/suburbs that plays songs on the back of the empty single deck bus with her mixed race pals (see N-Dubz).

It's that grey area artists get into when they think they're too big for the grassroots urb*n (see Craig David) and don't have the genuine hits to compete with the likes of American counterparts the levels of even a Jason De-who-knows (where he went?) or marketing budget to compensate for lack thereof (see Rita Ora).

I mention American counterparts, because not only is he a don for nice songs, they all sound American. UK market doesn't tend to respond well to USA knock-offs (see Fundmental/FDM). We blacks love it, but the likes of Joe, Donell Jones, Jagged Edge and 112 didn't crossover to the UK mainstream that well. Even Trey Songz had to pop it up before success over here (first top ten UK single Simply Amazing isn't a US single yet anyway) and that's after supporting NeYo and someone else's (maybe Usher) arena tour.

Nathan's song "Do Without My Love" is a knock-off what Stargate were doing in America at the time and coming across like a Mario imitation, as big as it is "Come Into My Room" is a knock-off Marques Houston's "Clubbin'", this new song "Dark Room" is discount Drake... Even "Who Am I?" is discount Dappy "No Regrets". Following the trends/not having your own unique sound doesn't usually fare well when building.

 I don't like to do the comparing game because everyone has their own route, but look at AnGeL. Mixtape with a bunch of hot street level rappers raised awareness, "Ride Out" sounded slightly American r&b, but mainly Island Pop, a bit Gyptian "Hold You" (toy piano especially) and featured UK bashmenty/hip-hopy rapper Sneakbo. Quality song, has over a million views over two channels. Along with his own Wretch 32-assisted single "Go In, Go Hard" (1.1 mil views) which although failed to chart in top 40, it scraped it mid-week in the late 30s. All the above set him up nicely for what was to come with "Wonderful" (3 million views in 3 and a bit months).



Radio 1 didn't playlist it, so Island/Universal released it a few weeks early, entered mid-week top 30 and as a result Radio 1 playlisted it before it creeped up to top ten. Why? Because he built up a fan base at grassroots and released a top quality "r&b" song drawing on various influences such as acoustic guitars, d&b rave drums and electric rock guitars which gave it a unique British/non-American feel.  "Wonderful" b-side "How Do I Lose?"  featuring Chip probably equivalent to Nathan ft. Wretch 32 "Hangover", but "How Do I Lose?" is for the Kerry's on ends while "Wonderful" penetrates the Elizabeth's nationwide. Nathan didn't cater for the Elizabeth's.



546k views since July

People say "X-Factor judges house is great exposure", but who remembers any of the other contestants that reached judges houses? Is it really a good thing to get kicked out of the competition at judges houses when you've been singing for that long in life?

To quote a comment on "Diamonds" video:

How can you degrade yourself and and get judged by tulisa SMH he better win!!!!

FRIESTY T 1 week ago 21  

Or hear Big Narstie give his opinion when he first went on

And on his exit. "You basically cheated"



Not my personal opinion, but many will agree with the above. 

All the fingertip service on Twitter showing support is all well and good for the first few days, but fact remains only 12% of those who watched his reason for going on X-Factor listened to his song. We'll move on next week once live shows start. Likeable, humble and talented guy, excellent performer, engaging in interviews and most things you need to make it, but it all comes down to the right songs (build momentum before hit) + right team theory a.k.a the main equation that matters in music. When the dust settles, Nathan is still faced with the same problem before he went on X-Factor and Big Brother before it - can he make a hit? 

Nathan's career is not over. We live in times where Chris Brown battered Rihanna and R. Kelly made number 1's after allegedly sexing off people pickney. From he doesn't make anti-Semitic or homophobic comments, he's still one good song away. But it's probably gonna be harder to get there than it was before.

I'm a man that doesn't believe in critiquing without putting forth possible solutions. My advice is find a uniquely British or European-based producer that has an interesting take on "r&b" (a.k.a. black people singing) not USA-sounding. Begging America is the way to hell. Name many artists it has worked for? Bet I can name more it hasn't. And more that have broken through with a UK/Euro sound (see Taio Cruz/Jay Sean/Craig David/Mis-teeq). And Taio Cruz was a Yank beg ("I Just Wanna Know"), before going Electro with British producer Fraser T Smith ("Break Your Heart") and smashed it ("Dynamite"). Remember Shola Ama's "Imagine" produced by Rodney Jerkins? Bet you remember the UK garage remix though. 

Mark Morrison used the bass from an American r&b sample (Chuckii Booker - Games) on "Return of the Mack", told a story, wrote a simple yet catchy great song, twanged his accent and turned it into a song pretty similar to what Jamaicans/Jamericans were dominating the charts with at the time (see Ini Kamozi - Hotstepper). Try something like that if you want. Us Brits are great at fusions. 

And write interesting songs people can feel based on people's perception of you and your voice. Ups-and-downs of love & life, tell a story or situation people can relate to directly instead of generic stuff 90% sing. See Ed Sheeran for a good example of sweet boys making gal dem scream. Miguel too.

If he's willing to take a big risk like going on X-Factor, he should take more risks musically. 


At least issue some good dance-based remixes, mixtape, features (feature for feature with Wretch 32, no?) and/or work with some exciting grassroots UK rappers with reasonable credibility (not too hood, that's just forcing it). That's probably a good start. I guess the question is will they wanna work with him? Money's the answer. Engage with urban specialist blogs too. Simple? Yes. Generic? Yes. Does it work? Yes. If it's good material even better. Does Nathan do it? Don't know. I know I don't really remember anything. If the above fails or is a bit long, make people dance or the greatest song of his life like Tinie Tempah "Pass Out".

Rule 101: Analyse what Craig David did right and what he did wrong. 

We here at Marvin Sparks dot Blog Spot dot com wish Nathan all the best on his future endevours. You can't knock a man trying to live his dream, especially when he's willing to risk his credibility to further himself. What he does with his life doesn't effect any of us, so making fun or laughing at an obstacle is uncalled for. He's the one waking up to bills, the disappointment in not making it through and questions what to do next. Look at him when he finds out he hasn't advanced to the live shows (vid below). I wouldn't wish that on anyone (except Flo Rida, Jason Derulo and the cornershop man that didn't let me off pennies for an ice lolly).

All the best.

[The above is all my opinion.]