More interesting revelations have come out of a secretly recorded conversation that captured Richie Mensah, Chief Executive of Lynx Entertainment, confiding in a friend why musicians Asem and Eazzy left his record label. NEWS-ONE has laid hands on a copy of the said tape in which Richie described Asem as an ingrate that repays good with evil. Richie, on the same tape, was also heard describing Eazzy as a hypocrite because she really stood by Lynx and gave the company a lot of encouragement when Asem left, only for her to do the same thing a few months later.

He went on to describe Eazzy’s decision to leave as unexpected, painful and a stab in the back. ‘It was unexpected, and felt like the greatest betrayal.’ Richie and Eazzy have been friends and close confidants for many years even before her signing onto the Lynx label. On the tape, Richie revealed that his relationship with Eazzy became stronger during the Asem breakaway period and it was one of the reasons why he kept faith with the music industry after the incident.

Richie said after Asem’s departure, Lynx threw all its resources behind Eazzy’s career with the aim of putting her on a higher pedestal. Lynx went ahead to shoot one of the label’s most expensive videos till date, for Eazzy’s ‘Go Go Wind’ single.

Richie said it was while shooting the video that rumors started making the rounds that Eazzy was considering leaving the label although Eazzy vehemently denied the reports. According to Richie, it therefore came as a shock when, on April Fool’s Day last year, Eazzy hinted that she wanted to leave the label and then days later went ahead to make it official. “It hurt even more, when I had to break the news to my mom who was personally involved heavily in Eazzy’s career. So difficult, that it took two weeks of mustering courage to be able to finally divulge the news to her.

The news broke her completely and kept her crying for two days…”He said it was only after Eazzy’s departure that the Lynx team found out about her joining the Big Brother Africa reality show even though she was still on the label when she auditioned. Following another betrayal, Richie said, he decided to stay away from the music business even though he had just released ‘Changing Faces’, the first single off a 17-track album that he had already completed and getting ready to release. “I completely lost faith in this business. ” Instead he dedicated his creative energies to other ventures such as Lynx TV, his company’s new entertainment magazine show, as well as Lynx Communications, a subsidiary of Lynx Ghana Limited that is into advertising. He maintained that his only link to the music industry during the period was working with D3 on their album, since they had already been signed on to the label.

However, after a prolonged break from music, and with a new year in, Richie said, he’s ready to let go the past, and has learnt to forgive and forget; revealing that both he and Eazzy still communicate regularly. So Richie is back on to making music again; focused on making music again and 2013 will perhaps see him more prominent in the music industry. The video for Richie’s first single in over 10 months, aptly titled, ‘This Is Love’ was released this week.

The most affected person in the Lynx artistes saga however, according to Richie, was his mother, Mrs. Alberta Mensah, who has been the main pillar of support for the label right from the start. She is said to have urged him to quit music and not sign on anymore artistes to the label due to what she referred to as ‘Asem and Eazzy’s ingratitude. ’But as it stands now he didn’t take his mother’s advice. Perhaps one day one of them will be telling the other, “I told you.”Richie started Lynx Entertainment fresh out of high school supported by a loan taken out by his mother on her teachers’ salary. His dream was to build a family of great talent that would make great music and change the face of the music industry.

As a result, the label invested heavily in Asem’s career, sparing no expense in ensuring that he would rise to the level of a grade A level artiste in Ghana. Asem was the first artiste (apart from Richie) signed onto the Lynx Entertainment label right out of Senior High school and was made the poster boy of the label, as he consistently churned out hit after hit, all of which were produced by Richie. After Asem came others like OJ Blaq, Eazzy, Ziggy and now D3.