Society gives musicians pressure – Okyeame Kwame

One of the reasons artistes are unable to invest in other ventures is the level of pressure mounted on them by the society, hiplife artiste, Okyeame Kwame has said.

According to the rapper, society pressurises artistes in their prime to build and perhaps settle down instead of advising them to invest the wealth they have acquired in order not to be a burden in future.

“The society gives some sort of pressure to musicians. When I started making hits, my mother kept telling me to buy a land and build a house. After five years of being a hot artiste, you should have saved enough to diversify or reinvest in your career. But if you are an Akan like me, you would have been forced to build a house with your money. That means you are now going to search for an investor,” he said on Happy FM’s Showbiz Xtra, Saturday.

Okyeame Kwame mentioned that the pressure comes in different forms. People’s desire to hear new songs from an artiste, according to him, can lead to releasing a good piece at the wrong time although he acknowledged that the quest from the fans can have a positive influence on the musician.

“When people see you in town, they express how they have missed you and ask when you will release another song. Such comments can encourage you or demoralise you. Maybe the type of song you want to release is not trending so you want to wait but there is pressure on you. As such, if you are not ready, you rush and do a shoddy work and you won’t get the needed attention,” he told host, Dr Cann.

His comments come on the back of concerns raised with respect to some veteran artistes’ inability to survive despite how flourished their music careers were.