GHANAIAN CELEBRITY ARTISTES SPEAK ON HOW EGO HAS DESTROYED MUSICAL GROUPS IN GHANA

…And A Peep Into the Struggle Faced By Artistes In Ghanaian Music Industry  

Producer/singer De Thompson aka DDT

By De Flames in Accra

Ego has broken many musical groups more than most people think or have imagined! So says some top music stars and promoters in Ghana. Usually, people think it is about money or women, but not all the time, it is more of ego and selfishness. Ego in music groups have been known to create tension and a sort of competition which shouldn't be so.

According to Producer cum Singer De Thompson aka DDT, “ in Ghana, music group members always clash over simple things, because everyone wants to take the high role of leadership in doing things. Also, the fans push us around to make us know how inferior we are compared to other group members, which makes others assume the erroneous believe they can do everything.

These definitely breeds confusion, fights, arguments and eventually break ups. But if everyone could agree that this person is better than me in this area and vice versa, there would always be peace and understanding. But in all these also, every group must have a leader. Not someone who's going to boss over everyone, but the person that would be seen as the fulcrum of the unit, who would take the high role in everything that comes up. Other members must be tolerant enough to allow that, with this, there will be business always. As a group, you are suppose to reason together in order to achieve a common goal. But when ego sets in, it will surely retard the development of the group.

Dada Hafco

Highlife act, Dada Hafco has blamed the break-up of most groups on artistes’ egos. According to him, groups do not break up because of money, women or any other reason but rather it is merely an ego matter.

Speaking to Andy Dosty in a phone interview on Hitz FM’s ‘DayBreak Hitz’, he said he believes the Nframa group fell apart because group members do not like one member being the leader or getting more accolades than the others.

“I have been here for a little longer and I have been around groups, I have seen groups, I’ve been friends with groups, I have been in a group myself and all that I’ve witnessed through and through has been ego! People being selfish and not wanting others to take high roads, boils down to that”, he added.

When asked if ego was the cause of Nframa’s split, he said, “I believe so. One thing is that if group members can never agree for one of the members to be the leader, there would always be a problem”.

“This has always been the problem of most of the groups that got disbanded, not money or women. It has always been about who is leading or who is getting more accolades from the people and therefore other members don’t like it. This sums up what it’s about”, he reiterated.

The ‘Yebewu Nti’ singer went on, “when every member wants to be on the frontline, problems come.

“Being in a group is business. You’re business partners and you should allow each member to thrive best where they do best. Everybody should find out where they do better and then do it but when every member wants to be on the frontline, every member wants to take the high road, that is where the problems come and that is the reason why groups get disbanded in Ghana”, he stated.

Mframa group is highly noted for ‘Feeli Gadoochi’ which features Kwabena Kwabena. Dada Hafco has songs like ‘Friends’, ‘Yebewu Nti’, ‘Afutuo’, ‘Fall Down’, ‘Mayentena’, ‘Bedianka’, among others.

Narrating his experience, another insider in Ghana music industry, had this to say: “Let me also tell you about the reason why groups split or breakup and it’s far from ego!!! 

Choirmaster Honeho

Look, we all witnessed how the whole Ghana rallied behind praye to reunite and after the unity we thought we will get the support as perceived. A group that split for more than five years and is cash trapped, how do we fund our new project? So we decided to plan and embark on a comeback tour to raise funds for the project. Remember things had changed in the game so therefore as a legendary group we needed to step up, trust me of late if you wanna get a very good standard video your budget should be more than 8000Ghc and above, not to talk about the greasing of palms "payola" to push the track both on radio and on the street so you definitely need some funds to run it. 

“Now all the proposals and arrangements have been made by managers so the next step is to go look for sponsorship and support and that is where the WAHALA Dey!! First of all, we went to the ministry of tourism with our proposals thinking that because "Ma People" Go support their government sometime back they will help but that was our first disappointment. No help!

“We met KOD sometime back at Starr fm, he's actually one of the loud advocates of #prayecomeback and we were discussing about how we needed support from Nestle our own Nescafe 3 in 1 and he said ‘oh let me give you Richards number call him he will sort you out, meeting is over next day we first messaged Richard on whatsapp and via normal text in the morning he came to read all of them but no reply ok cool, I waited till like lunch time I called and fortunately he picks up "oh Choirmaster I saw you message then I was a bit tight" I said cool no problem so I presented our request to him he said brilliant Charlie I will call u back ok, whim!!!  No call , but I didn't call him back I waited till the next day I called and messaged he hasn't picked or replied till now and I'm talking about 5 months ago ooo till now no picking! 

“We heard that kasapreko is handled by the government so once again Charlie because I think say my people go support their government they will support us but once again whim!! No help!! Disappointment!!! 

‘‘We moved to adonko bitters too to look for support, we presented our proposals still today no support, not to talk about the individual people who we know are capable  of supporting that we have approached but still no help.

“See, I came to the USA just a week ago, my manager and I entered a shop to go get some clothes , I saw my manager approached the shop manager and told him I'm a celebrity from Ghana. There and then, they gave us celebrity discount I said ah I was shocked, same time I was introduced by the shop manager to a big laptop company in Australia and I was blessed with 3 laptops I said wow!!! So what is it that we are not doing right in our own hometown our own people that we are not getting the support from them, and why do our own people keep tossing us about like coins?”

Every member of a group must know where they thrive best and work on that space. They must know how to allow the best orator amongst the group members do the talking, also, whoever is the best writer, should be allowed to do the writing for the group and so on.