Hiplife pacesetter Rockstone has described one of Obour, Sidney and Okyeame Quame, as a ‘snitch’ on radio over the weekend when asked by Solid Gold Countdown (SGC) host Mutala Muntari reason why he thought a proposed Association of Hiplife musicians could not materialized after several talks of forming such a group.
The five-album-old owner of Grand Papaz and Rockstone’s Office (Niteclub) thought one of Mutala’s studio guests made up of the three renowned hip life musicians, went behind him to pay ‘payola’ to radio DJs to receive airplay for his songs thereby undermining their collective effort at trying to stop what he referred to as “the industry’s worst menace best needed to be murdered before an idea of a union was going to work”.
[Pidgin Music boss, Panji Anoff who has always publicly said he never paid payola was the fourth panel member in the studios].
“Djs stopped playing my songs because I put my head on the line campaigning against ‘payola’, meanwhile the same person speaking in front of you (I’m not going to name names) would say all the fine words in the studio but would to go back to do the directly opposite so as to paint some of us black”, Rockstone frees his mind on Radio Gold’s weekend show on April 2, 2011.
“You may ask my cousin who has been part of these meetings”, he said about Sidney referring to him as a witness thereby suggesting he was not branding the ex-Nananom member a ‘snitch’. This clue or comment further got listeners closer to whom the doyen of rap and Glo-icon, Rockstone, was referring to- Okyeame Quame or Obour.
Rumours have been circulating for some time now of a deteriorating (if not already decayed) relationship between the hiplife originator and Obour to the extent, members of the Konkontibaa owner’s label, Family Tree Entertainment have always received messages from Rockstone meant for Obour about “a purported stuff/respect the 2005 Ghana Music Awards Artiste of the Year allegedly owed Rockstone”.
“He has never ceased to send the message, anytime he met a known Obour management team member, for Obour to come settle him for what we don’t understand but which he only referred to as ‘dues owed him”, a member of FTE hinted www.myhiworld.com.
“Since then he had gone on air to take unnecessary swipes at Obour including when he said Obour didn’t deserved to be honoured by the ex-president, J.A Kuffour on Accra based Hitz FM Blak Rasta’s programme”, our FTE source added.
A close friend of Rockstone on responding to the alleged beef between Rockstone and Obour said: “Rockstone has always been saying Obour himself knows he owes him and the earlier he comes to pay the better, aside that I don’t think he has the time to beef Obour as he has major businesses to take care of any minute”. A Rockstone confidant says. myhiworld.com failed to solicit response from both artistes as neither would comment.
However, when his microphone came alive on the same programme, Obour said, “I don’t think words alone or talk shop is enough to form a successful Hiplife Association but rather a laid-down rules and regulation from a good leader where an artiste could possibly be punished when they flout any of those rules instead of just talking on air times without number”.
Guess he was referring to Rockstone; suggesting the 2011 Ghana Music Award Best Rapper of the Year nominee didn’t do enough to make the planned association see the light of day rather than playing the blame game.
Further on, when asked who his top 5 hiplife soldiers were, Rockstone said: “I hate to add him (Kenya), but I still think Lord Kenya, Sidney, Obrafour, Reggie Rockstone (yeah, myself) and V.I.P- the strongest clique I’ve ever met- are still the top 5 hiplife soldiers remaining. V.I.P have come a long way-from five to three members and still strong".
However, Rockstone said: “When you allow me to increase the number to ten, then Obour comes in, somewhere”. I remember trying to put together a makeshift hiplife trio comprising Obrafour, Lord Kenya and myself couple of years ago and guess who asked that we channeled our communication through his manager? Lord Kenya”, Rockstone said. “He killed it- A plan to do shows to fill Stadiums”.
Obour continues: “To avoid anyone calling each other a snitch, I think ‘unity’ among us is the best way of solving any problems; though I would say it is even better among hiplifers and worse among hiplifers or ‘our senior colleagues’, who don’t seem to collaborate among each other. Imagine song collaboration between Kojo Antwi and Daddy Lumba. Such a collabo is important to send the right signal to the younger ones”.
Sidney said: “I think we stopped paying payola but young producers or producers of the young musicians who would do anything to get their artistes popular did everything to pay payola because they wanted instant success”. Okyeame Kwame thought talented young musicians could help build the hiplife movement if they didn’t give up on the hiplife brand. “Hiplife is a fusion of Ghanaian music and music of foreign origin.
The moment we start naming new genres performed in a local language, such as twi as twi-pop, then another person rapping in Ga or Ewe would start Ga-pop or Ewe-pop- which would only go to kill the umbrella brand. Let us at least suffix any of those fusions or fragments by the main hiplife; say ‘hiplife rap’ or whatever instead of thinking we could throw away a brand barely one-and-a-half decades old to start new ones. "
In a related issue, myhiworld.com has an exclusive info Rockstone would be renewing his Glo contract this week ahead of the official launch of Nigerian owned telecom giant, Glo’s long awaited entry onto the Ghana market in a fortnight’s time.
