Hip-life Legend calls on gov’t`to invest in the arts

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 Source: ghanamusic.com

A popular Ghanaian Hip Life musician, Reggie Rockstone, has called on the government to stop considering gold, diamond and timber, as the only natural resources that it can invest in, and consider investing in the arts.

Reggie Rock Stone made the call when he granted an interview to this reporter, at the Ghana, Guinea, Mali Restaurant at Finch and Milvan in Toronto, over the weekend.



The hip life artist was in the country for a short holiday, and this reporter managed to trap him at this popular Ghanaian restaurant.



Of late, most Ghanaian artistes have been performing here in Canada, to make their fellow Ghanaian citizenry, who have chosen this country as their current place of residence, feel at home, and after Agya Koo, Ofori Amponsah and other artists, it was the turn of Reggie Rockstone to also perform to entertain Ghanaians.



He observed that apart from the natural resources, the country was blessed with talented artistes, but the sad thing was that they were not being invested in, which when done could also bring, if not the same foreign exchange being earned now, then more of that.

When asked of his opinion about some of his colleagues who had become involved in politics, he did not see anything about bad about it, saying, “whatever one thinks is good, is what he enjoys, therefore if they think joining those political parties will make them happy, there is nothing wrong about that, since they may be true supporters of those parties, so coming out boldly now does not change anything, since the choice of voting is by the conscience of the individual, and trust Ghanaians to go by that when the time comes.”



But the musician was quick to condemn, the illegal use of songs composed by some of his colleagues, by certain political parties without seeking the composer’s permission.



He asked those parties to seek the owner’s permission before use, for peace to prevail.

Source: ghanamusic.com