Certainly all is not well between former members of the popular hiplife group of the late 90’s and early 2000’s, Akyeame. Following recent comments by Okyeame Quophi advising musicians not to form groups, and blaming Okyeame Kwame for their disbandment, his actions have been interpreted as bitterness in certain sections of the media. However, the rapper/producer/video director/radio and TV presenter says he has too much going for him at the moment to be bitter or jealous about his former group member.
According to Quophi, he is very disappointed in the way the writer on Ghanacelebrities.com made him to look, just because he had expressed his general opinion on the issue of break ups in our music industry, citing Akyeame as an example.
“The story contains bias and it’s evident that, it was tailored to destroy me as a person and to speculate what my feeling probably is, concerning an issue I have refused to comment on for seven years. Seriously my decision not release records after ‘Quophilosophy’ was basically to allow my brother to have his shine since it looked like he was too hungry for it and anything from me would be destruction,” comments Okyeame Quophi.
“I have Emklan to run, a wife and two kids to take care of, a radio show every morning, a TV show every weekend, and other businesses and obviously don’t have any idle time to discuss people. Who I choose to be happy for is my prerogative and don’t think needs publishing. What the writer doesn’t know is, it was jealousy and ill advice of his sort and not diverse opinion that destroyed eleven years of blood sweat and tears that was used in making the Akyeame name. That is years of my life and money I am talking about. At the, end of the day, the writer is trying to make a name I guess.”
According to him, he and Okyeame Kwame were on cool terms before the release of his last album. He traces the root of any problem that may exist between the two to a number of factors.
“He lived in my house on and off for almost two months, sometimes with his dancers. He received any financial assistance he needed from me during the promotion of the album. That was the period we recorded the two new songs we have. If I am not miscalculating, he even impregnated his wife in my house. During his acceptance speech at Ghana Music Awards, who did he thank for allowing him stay in his house? Was it not KOD?”
Quophi adds that things got worse with the release of Obrafour’s controversial hit, ‘Kasiebo’
“Later his beef became, why I played Obrafuor’s Kasiebo so much on my radio show knowing the song was against him. As a good presenter, I put my choice of music last and rather satisfy the needs of my numerous listeners. What they want to hear is what I play. This I discussed severally with him and even together sought ways to curb the problem. As fate would have it, when people started talking about this same issue, he decided to play the devil’s advocate. He placed a call to my elder brother saying i had joined forces with others to pull him down. That I think is very funny.”
But even before ‘Kasiebo’, there appeared to be some dissatisfaction with Okyeame Kwame’s Ghana Music Award Song of the Year, ‘Woso’. According to Quophi, the song in its entirety is just the Twi version of a song (Shake Dem Demons Off), which he produced for an American rap artiste by name Dark Side, when he was resident Recording and Mixing Engineer at All for Won Studios in Columbus Ohio, USA.
“I contracted a graphic designer friend of mine to pull a job for me on my computer. He discovered the song (the original by Dark Side), copied it and later played it to a Kumasi based radio presenter who later aired the song. As I speak, am still dealing with this graphic designer. If I had wanted to sabotage the progress of the song in any way, would I have waited till later? Why he didn’t call for clarification and went on to make those baseless accusations I don’t know.
He explains that he is only human and can only take so much; and that he can’t continuously be around people that always expect him to justify his every action. Hence, he is better off apart. According to Okyeame Quophi, solo acts stand a better chance of succeeding in the industry than groups, and he would not at this point in his life want to get himself involved in anything as such.
“When I agreed to do a come back album, it was for the fans of Akyeame who kept pushing for it. Unfortunately, it’s evidently beyond repairs and that cannot materialize. That Ghana Music Awards performance will be the last. I am done with it, and a name change is on the way. For my music, it’s gotten even better against the wish of the haters and will be putting out singles for my fans soon from
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