Music of Thursday, 24 June 2010

Source: Samuel Baah /flexnewspaper

Accra and Tema Based Hiplife Artistes Battle For Supremacy

The air waves is already saturated with football as our gallant black stars have started doing all the necessary magic for the whole world to see.

There are some people who hold the view that the world cup fever has swallowed all events in the country but I have a different view.

I remember reading the headline of another tabloid with a headline which suggested that “Entertainment events have been buried because of the world cup”. To me, I feel it is no and a big no for that matter because nothing in the world can over take the entertainment and arts industry.

In my opinion, what I think they have to say is the fact that the attention of the entertainment fever is not in our country but far away South Africa where the real action really is. If one thinks that the entertainment industry is not active in the name of world cup, then he should ask him or herself why some local musicians were invited to perform in South Africa.

Musiga also had the opportunity to present some musicians to perform after the matches in South Africa plus some other private event organizers who are cashing in on the occasion. Though football is made up of a team, our musicians are not seeing that fact to emulate and to know why our team was able to beat Serbia in our opening match.

They should remember that Asamoah Gyan did not get that penalty through his sole efforts but because Kelvin Prince Boateng wanted to kick that ball in a more dangerous fashion. All these are not the subject of this piece but the fact that our musicians want to re-introduce that issue of West Coast and all that in the Ghanaian music industry.

It is even in the wake of this that`s why many musical groups are even breaking apart by the day, weeks and months. The current trend in the music industry which many artistes are even refusing to accept is the fact that now the artistes leaving in Tema seem to be uniting forces to both fight the artistes in Accra and to compete them unnecessarily in their musical career.

Funny enough, these musicians in Tema are currently topping many musical charts making them feel superior above their Accra counterparts.

Go to Tema to gather hip life artistes and names like Sarkodie, Nana Boroo, R2bees,Konfi,Danso Abiam, Dadie Opanka, Chemphe and many more will crop up whiles Accra is likely to give you names like Obour, VIP, Asem, Richie, O.J. Blaq K.K. Fosu, Samini, Reggie Zippy, A-Plus, Sydney and many more will appear on your sheet. Numerically, the musicians in Accra are far more than those in Tema but it looks as if they are bigger and louder than their Accra counterparts. Teaming up with powerful sound engineers such as Kaywa, Jayso, KillBeatz and the rest is one significant factor that has contributed to their rise above the Accra musicians.

Anytime a musician in Tema launches an album or organizes any program, the only thing he has to do is to put the names of the artistes in Tema on the bill and they will represent in their numbers as few artistes will go from Accra for the show.

It therefore comes as no surprise when some artistes in Tema record songs to diss some particular record labels based in Accra. (Lynx vrs R2Bees).And when they did, they featured many hard tongue artistes from Tema.

It is on record that the Chief Executive Officer of Lynx Entertainment Richard Mensah has denied allegations that his camp is really in loggerheads with Tema based artistes R2Bees. Though he said his label is not in any battle with them, pundits know very well and understand what is happening behind the scenes.

Flex newspaper is yet to unravel the real deal behind the fighting and the feuding of artistes in Tema and those in Accra so keep your eyes on the road.