Reggie Rockstone, Godfather of Hiplife They may have gone quietly and returned quietly unlike national heroes but among themselves, the three lads who form VIP: Lazzy, Promzy and Prodigal, and their mentor, Reggie Rockstone, have a deep conviction that they sold Ghana well at the just ended KORA All Africa Music Awards held last Sunday in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Reggie Rockstone won the Best Video award for the song 'Ah' which he did with young hiplifer K.K. Fosu.
VIP, riding on the wings of their Artiste of the Year award won at the 2003 Ghana Music Awards, performed an energy filled 'Ahomka Wo Mu' and topped it with an exit piece that got the audience wildly waving their handkerchiefs in response.
"You could feel Ghana in the auditorium of the Sandton Convention Centre," Rockstone told the media on their return to Accra last Tuesday. "Ghana may be messing up in football but there we were, a handful of musicians, making a breakthrough for our country to a potential 700, 000 audience who were watching all over the continent".
Rockstone said he is very grateful to Spacefon for offering him sponsorship to KORA at a time that no one knew he was going to win anything. "I wish to thank Spacefon for having faith in me," he said.
VIP said they were thrilled by the trip. "We were well taken very good care of", said Prodigal. "Not only did we have the opportunity to perform to a continental audience, we also had the opportunity to interact with big names in African music and we appreciate that".
Taking turns, Promzy and Lazzy congratulated Charter House, Ghana's foremost showbiz events managers for good work done.
VIP gave advice to other young artistes to follow three basic rules if they wish to succeed. These three things, they said, are the need for all artistes to be serious with rehearsals; respect the managers and producers they work with; and be aware of their audience and fans and respect them.
On her part, Mrs. Theresa Ayaode, Events Manager of Charter House who was also in South Africa for the KORA event said she was happy that Charterhouse has been able to deliver yet another promise.
She said that Charter House is satisfied that the final stretch of Ghana Music Awards 2003, the event from which VIP emerged as winners to represent Ghana at KORA, went on smoothly.
Mrs. Ayaode said, however, that Charter House has been disappointing with the bashing that they took after Ghana Music Awards 2003. She said that the criticisms from some artistes were rather demoralizing considering the fact that Charter House has been in the process of developing GMA to the level of a world class event.
"We expect objective criticism. That is good for the programme but to engage in vindictive bashing only goes to suggest that the supposed critics only want to destroy the programme".
"For us, we see the potential in the Ghanaian artiste and we will endeavour to continue using the GMA platform to expose that potential. The dream and vision is bigger than what exists now and we hope that other people will see it the way we do," Mrs. Ayaode said.
Reggie Rockstone, Godfather of Hiplife They may have gone quietly and returned quietly unlike national heroes but among themselves, the three lads who form VIP: Lazzy, Promzy and Prodigal, and their mentor, Reggie Rockstone, have a deep conviction that they sold Ghana well at the just ended KORA All Africa Music Awards held last Sunday in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Reggie Rockstone won the Best Video award for the song 'Ah' which he did with young hiplifer K.K. Fosu.
VIP, riding on the wings of their Artiste of the Year award won at the 2003 Ghana Music Awards, performed an energy filled 'Ahomka Wo Mu' and topped it with an exit piece that got the audience wildly waving their handkerchiefs in response.
"You could feel Ghana in the auditorium of the Sandton Convention Centre," Rockstone told the media on their return to Accra last Tuesday. "Ghana may be messing up in football but there we were, a handful of musicians, making a breakthrough for our country to a potential 700, 000 audience who were watching all over the continent".
Rockstone said he is very grateful to Spacefon for offering him sponsorship to KORA at a time that no one knew he was going to win anything. "I wish to thank Spacefon for having faith in me," he said.
VIP said they were thrilled by the trip. "We were well taken very good care of", said Prodigal. "Not only did we have the opportunity to perform to a continental audience, we also had the opportunity to interact with big names in African music and we appreciate that".
Taking turns, Promzy and Lazzy congratulated Charter House, Ghana's foremost showbiz events managers for good work done.
VIP gave advice to other young artistes to follow three basic rules if they wish to succeed. These three things, they said, are the need for all artistes to be serious with rehearsals; respect the managers and producers they work with; and be aware of their audience and fans and respect them.
On her part, Mrs. Theresa Ayaode, Events Manager of Charter House who was also in South Africa for the KORA event said she was happy that Charterhouse has been able to deliver yet another promise.
She said that Charter House is satisfied that the final stretch of Ghana Music Awards 2003, the event from which VIP emerged as winners to represent Ghana at KORA, went on smoothly.
Mrs. Ayaode said, however, that Charter House has been disappointing with the bashing that they took after Ghana Music Awards 2003. She said that the criticisms from some artistes were rather demoralizing considering the fact that Charter House has been in the process of developing GMA to the level of a world class event.
"We expect objective criticism. That is good for the programme but to engage in vindictive bashing only goes to suggest that the supposed critics only want to destroy the programme".
"For us, we see the potential in the Ghanaian artiste and we will endeavour to continue using the GMA platform to expose that potential. The dream and vision is bigger than what exists now and we hope that other people will see it the way we do," Mrs. Ayaode said.
