Shut up and move on!

I don’t espouse break-ups in music groups but I have also realized that it is an inevitable phenomenon that transpires within the entertainment industry.

Some break-ups are for good reasons and others are obviously necessitated by silly reasons. Break-up of music groups is not new, dating way back, way before Ike and Tina Turner broke up, before Michael Jackson separated from The Jackson 5 and way before the Lumba Brothers went their separate ways.

One observation I have made concerning break-ups in Ghanaian music is the fact that they are less tumultuous: regardless of the reasons for the break-up which varies from clash of ideas to disagreements on money – the group members keep the reasons for the break-up on the quiet and move on.

Praye’s break-up came as a shock; it made the headlines and served as a topic for jousting on most entertainment discussion platforms. After a year or more after the break-up, you expect these guys to have moved on with their lives and respective careers, but no, they still talk about the break-up, assigning the same old reasons for the rift – and it is becoming a nuisance. Are you guys the first group to break up? Give us a break!

VIP broke up on the quiet, so did Lifeline Family, Sass Squad, Nananom, TH4Kwagees, Buk Bak, Akyeame and Wutah all did same, so members of Praye should please hush it and move on.

The aftermath of group break-up is the same; the first scenario is that, the artiste who breaks away from the group makes it big as a solo artiste like Lionel Richie from The Commodores, Diana Ross from The Supremes, Michael Jackson from the Jackson 5, Robbie Williams from Take That, Justin Timberlake from N’Sync, Beyonce from Destiny’s Child, Bobby Brown from New Edition, 2Face from Plantashun Boys, 2Chainz from Playaz Circle and T-Blaze from Lifeline Family.

The second scenario is that, the remaining members of the group triumph with the group whiles the break-way artiste slumps like VIP and Friction, Brian McFadden and Westlife, Latoya and Latavia and Destiny’s Child, David Ruffin and The Temptations.

The third is that, most members of the group go on to have hit songs like Daddy Lumba and Nana Acheampong from Lumba Brothers, Beyonce, Kelly and Michelle from Destiny’s Child, Sydney and Omanhene Pozo from Nananom, Wyclef and Lauryn Hill from Fugees, Dr. Dre and Ice Cube from NWA.

The last scenarios that pertains after a group break-up is that, all members of the group struggle with their solo joints, like Layzie Bone, Krayzie Bone and Bizzy Bone, all from Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, like Bright and Ronny who came out with lopsided solo albums after the first Buk Bak severance, as well as Fiifi Sela and Atsu Koliko from TH4Kwagees. What about Afriyie and Kobby from Wutah? They seem to be floundering with their solo careers if you ask me.

With the four scenarios mentioned, members of Praye should realize that they will fall in any of the categories depending on the direction their respective careers go and they should also know that music enthusiasts are tired of hearing about their rift, on who said what or who did what and the cacophony that goes with it. We’ve had enough!

I love ‘beef’, a violence-free one because ‘beef’ gives opportunity to the artiste to express his angst and frustrations on wax, on a record without holding punches. It’s the best way to settle scores for artistes to do all the ‘dissing’ in a song. If Praye Tintin is still agitated over the break-up and feels he was treated unfairly, he should do what every sane rapper will do.

He should stop wasting our time casting vituperations at his ex-group members and quit the ‘girly’ attitude of threatening harmless female presenters. He should rather enter the studio, get a banging production and pour his grievances on the song, ‘diss’ all of them and put it out there – finito!

My advice to the two remaining members is simple; you guys are prepping an album with the release of a new single. Leave issues on the break-up and concentrate on promoting the single and the upcoming album. Questions on the break-up will always come up whenever you guys mount any platform to promote your song, but it behooves you to respectfully shirk such questions.

To Praye Tintin: My brother, you are making too much jarring noise about this break-up. If you claim you were a pivotal member of the group who wrote most of the songs and contributed enormously to the success of the group, then prove them wrong and yourself right.

Go out there; soak yourself into making a hit song, feature one or two good singers and you are on to becoming a Michael Jackson or Lionel Richie. Stop calling into programmes or answering calls on radio and TV where your ex-group members are granting interviews. It is glaring that those guys don’t want you, so my brother, forget them and surge on.

It is sad that a group like Praye, considering the cohesion, understanding, respect and camaraderie that existed between them, that saw them annex so many awards – could not solve their petty squabbles like it prevails in many groups and I do understand when some TV and radio presenters try to create some avenue for them to settle their differences. But it is enough; these guys are grown men with grown hairs all over their bodies and they should know what is right and wrong for them. Leave them alone!

To all the feuding members: You guys should realize by now that, what matters is good music which translates to airplay and then performances. These infantile bickering will not produce hits, unless maybe, you put it on a record. Concentrate on your respective careers, give it your all, get the necessary support and stop the noise-making on the break-up.