NEWS-ONE has gathered that the tussle
between artiste manager Fennec Okyere and rapper Kwaw Kese on one hand
and the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) about who has legal rights to
use the franchise and brand name, “Ghana Music Week” is coming to a
peaceful end.
Fennec Okyere is said to have agreed to hand over
the rights of the brand name to MUSIGA if only it would be registered in
the Union’s name but not the name of another private company.
Though
MUSIGA was putting up a bold face in the media, NEWS-ONE has been
reliably informed the Union has sent emissaries to dialogue with Fennec
for a settlement of the tussle and this seemed to have yielded some
positive result.
“I am ready to go to the Registrar General’s
Department and change the name from mine to that of MUSIGA so the Union
owns the franchise and this would save us all because if you remember,
after MUSIGA held the first one, we were told that a certain company had
registered it and if I had not gone to do this, by now the story would
be that Ghana Music Week belongs to a private company,” Fennec noted.
In
an earlier interview with NEWS-ONE, Fennec explained that he and Kwaw
Kese went ahead to register “Ghana Music Week” as their company because
they felt Obour and his administration were trying to outsmart the
members of the Union.
Fennec, who has been receiving threats on
his life over his claims on GMW, added that Obour had earlier admitted
on radio that the music festival was owned by a company called Yendi; a
story which turned out to be false.
According to him, his sources
had told him that Obour was getting ready to register the GMW
celebrations as his personal entity, and he felt that was unfair to the
entire creative industry.
“My Brother do you know what has
brought about this fight? When Obour was asked who owned Ghana Music
Week sometime last year, he said it was owned by a company called Yendi
and our checks at the Registrar General show that that was not true.
Which
means Obour and his people had decided to register the name of the
Union’s event in their private name so that many years after they were
gone they will own the event and claim royalties. It is a clear case of
Obour using his colleagues and trying to outsmart them,” Fennec
revealed.
Meanwhile, checks by the paper disclosed that since Mad
Time Entertainment threatened to sue MUSIGA and any other cooperate
bodies involved with the GMW festival jointly and severally, Obour and
his administration have been behind closed doors deliberating on how
best to resolve the issue.
It is officially confirmed that
Charter House, organizers of the prestigious Vodafone Ghana Music Awards
and event giant in Ghana, is hitting Ghana again with another uniquely
prestigious award scheme dubbed Ghana Entertainment Awards.
The long awaited official launch is scheduled to happen at the plush Villa Monticello in March this year.
The
scheme seeks to award all sectors of Ghana’s arts and entertainment
industry. This is perceived by professionals in the industry as a step
in the right direction considering its diverse scope.
The Ghana
Entertainment Awards is designed to award people in all the different
sectors of the creative arts industry and shall reward excellence in
music, movies, radio, TV, fashion, arts writing, events, sports and many
more.
Yaw
Sakyi, host of TV Africa’s “Rundown”, was the only live wire during the
just ended second edition of Ghana DJ Awards at the National Theatre,
Saturday February 22.
Yaw, who went to the show to enjoy himself
as an industry observer and to also present an award, ended up on stage
as the only MC for entire awards event, because the advertised MC for
the night, for some reason, decided not to show up.
According to
an official press release from the organizers, prior to the event,
Nigerian Comedian Klint De Drunk, was to be the MC but for unknown
reasons, he was conspicuously missing from the venue from the beginning
of the show to the end, and organizers didn’t even have the decency to
apologize to the audience and explain why the MC couldn’t make it.
This
perhaps was one of the numerous reasons why the show started late. As
usual the show started after 11pm with most of the people having been
sitting for hours waiting. Care-taker MC Yaw Sakyi, who couldn’t believe
he was on stage as an MC, walked on stage with his signature laughter,
introduced himself as the MC apologized for the late start, and took
over the stage to kick the show running.
Without any idea as to
what the running order and the program line-up was, Yaw improvised and
hosted the show like he had been paid for it. Inviting stars like Praye
Tiatia, Adolf Tagoe and some people from the audience randomly on stage
to entertain the audience, he interacted with selected people quite
professionally.
Yaw Sakyi saved the disgraceful situation so
well that after a few minutes everybody even forgot he was not the
original MC for the night.
As if absence of the MC was not
enough, the audience had more unforgivable hitches during the award
presentation. Award presenters were embarrassed on stage because after
they introduced themselves and said the popular phase “and the nominees
are” there was no screen and there were no nominees. This happened ones,
twice and after the third time the presenters themselves had to mention
all the nominees before they eventually name the winner.
Performances
on the night were virtually like a dancehall show at DJs awards night.
Most of the artistes who performed are dancehall artistes. The likes of
Mz Vee, Stonebwoy, AK Songstress, Episode, Pope Skinny, Diamond amongst
others.
Discovery of the year Dj Bryte, DJ Slim from Kumasi, and
DJ Foe also did their own things on the turntable to entertain the
crowd. One of the highest points on stage was when guest DJs like
Nigeria’s finest DJ Jimmy Jatt, DJ Rab from New York, and South African
queen of turntable DJ Divalash, were introduced on stage.
The
stage design was not fit for an awards event. The only visible thing on
stage was an oval-shaped Redbull branded DJ stand on a bare background.
There
was no backdrop or any set design or screens to display the name of the
event on the stage (Sakora stage). The sound and light were manageable
but could obviously have been better. Attendance was about 50% of the
National Theater capacity.
Yaw
Sakyi, host of TV Africa’s “Rundown”, was the only live wire during the
just ended second edition of Ghana DJ Awards at the National Theatre,
Saturday February 22.
Yaw, who went to the show to enjoy himself
as an industry observer and to also present an award, ended up on stage
as the only MC for entire awards event, because the advertised MC for
the night, for some reason, decided not to show up.
According to
an official press release from the organizers, prior to the event,
Nigerian Comedian Klint De Drunk, was to be the MC but for unknown
reasons, he was conspicuously missing from the venue from the beginning
of the show to the end, and organizers didn’t even have the decency to
apologize to the audience and explain why the MC couldn’t make it.
This
perhaps was one of the numerous reasons why the show started late. As
usual the show started after 11pm with most of the people having been
sitting for hours waiting. Care-taker MC Yaw Sakyi, who couldn’t believe
he was on stage as an MC, walked on stage with his signature laughter,
introduced himself as the MC apologized for the late start, and took
over the stage to kick the show running.
Without any idea as to
what the running order and the program line-up was, Yaw improvised and
hosted the show like he had been paid for it. Inviting stars like Praye
Tiatia, Adolf Tagoe and some people from the audience randomly on stage
to entertain the audience, he interacted with selected people quite
professionally.
Yaw Sakyi saved the disgraceful situation so
well that after a few minutes everybody even forgot he was not the
original MC for the night.
As if absence of the MC was not
enough, the audience had more unforgivable hitches during the award
presentation. Award presenters were embarrassed on stage because after
they introduced themselves and said the popular phase “and the nominees
are” there was no screen and there were no nominees. This happened ones,
twice and after the third time the presenters themselves had to mention
all the nominees before they eventually name the winner.
Performances
on the night were virtually like a dancehall show at DJs awards night.
Most of the artistes who performed are dancehall artistes. The likes of
Mz Vee, Stonebwoy, AK Songstress, Episode, Pope Skinny, Diamond amongst
others.
Discovery of the year Dj Bryte, DJ Slim from Kumasi, and
DJ Foe also did their own things on the turntable to entertain the
crowd. One of the highest points on stage was when guest DJs like
Nigeria’s finest DJ Jimmy Jatt, DJ Rab from New York, and South African
queen of turntable DJ Divalash, were introduced on stage.
The
stage design was not fit for an awards event. The only visible thing on
stage was an oval-shaped Redbull branded DJ stand on a bare background.
There
was no backdrop or any set design or screens to display the name of the
event on the stage (Sakora stage). The sound and light were manageable
but could obviously have been better. Attendance was about 50% of the
National Theater capacity.
One of Ghana’s finest rappers,
M.anifest, also known as Kwame Ametepe Tsikata, says he does not want
his private life to be like a soap opera watched by the public.
Giving
an insight on his off stage life, he further revealed that he “always
had a keener or deeper interest in music than the normal person” adding
that he had an interest in writing as well.”
“I was in my first
rap group when I was in Secondary School. It was called Rebel Camp -
there was nothing rebellious about us though. It was just a nice name.
But that was just how I got my feet wet. When I went to university, I
got the chance to experience more of the different aspects of the music.
I was hanging out with more producers, I saw different shows,” he
stated.
Commenting further on how his music career began he
stated that “I saw definitely more artistes outside of hip-hop so I
basically dived into a music making aspect and maybe took a bit of a
back seat even to the creation. Without going to a music school, that
was music school. By 2005 when I finished college, I basically begun
attacking it and in 2007 I released my first album, Manifestation. I did
my first album the DIY (do it yourself) way; I recorded it, mixed it,
got some money doing a Pepsi jingle, used that money to print CDs myself
and I did everything myself,”
“I’m married to my music. My
private life will be my private life which is the beauty of it. I give
the people a lot in my music and if they listen to my music, they will
know so much about me more than I want them to know. But one thing I’m
not interested in is becoming a public soap opera and people talking
about whom is he dating and all that. It is of very little interest to
me because I feel like there is a lot to be done creatively with my
music that I don’t need any of that distraction. It is an unhealthy
distraction for people to be vested in what is my private life,” he
added.
Answering the question on the reactions from his dad after
becoming a musician, he stated that “I think he is fine with it. Who
wouldn’t be? He was at my studio release party last December. Everybody
likes good music, so does my father.”
Call it a bluff or brag but hiplife artiste Tinny says no artiste in Ghana can match up to him so far as rap goes.
According
to him, he has been silent for some time and has been waiting to see a
rapper emerge who would overtake him but as yet no one has been able to
do that.
“Ever since I released Anaconda three years ago, I have
been silent and wondering if there was a better rapper than I, but I
have come to realise there is ‘no size’. “I am still the best rapper”,
Tinny told Showbiz in an interview last Monday.
To prove that he
is the best, Tinny is asking for rappers who think they are better than
him to come forward and do battle with him to determine who is the best.
Asked
what makes him think that way, Tinny, who describes his fellow rappers
as nonentities on his latest single, Koom, said surprisingly a lot of
rappers now sound like him. But he insists that he is the original and
is always on top of the game.
“I am not bragging because the
evidence is there for all to see. If you listen to the rap I did on
songs like I Believe I Can Fly, Ringtone, Maamle, Anaconda and Kaabu
Ame, you would recognise that I am the best in the game.
According
to him, he did his latest track to prove to his fans that he was the
best among the lot and was not lost in the game as people thought.
Tinny said the ideas for his latest single came to him after he read an online article with the headline, ‘Where is Tinny’.
Having
read the article, Tinny said he felt the timing was now right to
release Koom when the realisation hit him that he had no match.
“I
know my colleagues will take me on but I fear not because I am telling
the truth and they know it. I have never disappointed any artiste who
has featured ame on their songs but most of them disappointed me when I
featured them.” Tinny said.
He stated that although he has been
away for some time, he was planning to have a concert under his Bard Man
Records label in a couple of months time.
Away from his music
career, Tinny confirmed that he was a father of four children and not
seven as it was being rumoured in the media.
Veteran Nollywood star, Pete Edochie
who is popularly known for his 'no-nonsense, strict father' roles he
plays in movies has been off the scene for a while.
In a recent interview, Pete who brings the character we love to hate on our screens revealed why he is afraid of death.
"I
smoked for 21 years before I quit, and each time I got tensed up, I
looked for a cigarette, and psychologically I was puffing away the
anger; but there is no other thing it does for you physically but to
destroy your lungs".
Is he afraid of death and does he think about it?
Yes,
I think about death. Why shouldn’t I? I think about death not because
it is inevitable but because I would like to be prepared to meet my
Maker when the time comes. That’s why I am afraid of death.
“
There is nobody alive who likes dying. Even if a man is 100 years, loses
his sight, becomes a vegetable and inconveniences others, he still
wouldn’t like to go. So, yes, as a normal human being, I think of death.
Merely thinking of death encourages me to avoid excesses”.
why did he give up smoking?
“
As a young man, I drank a lot. I could drink any bottle under the
table. It was because of peer pressure. We enjoyed ourselves
‘alcoholically’. We were not given to subduing the womenfolk as a mark
of accomplishment; we always got together to drink and smoke cigarettes.
“ As we got older, I felt there was a need to cut down on all
the excesses. I gave up smoking though I smoked for 21 years. I gave it
up when I discovered it wasn’t serving any purpose”.
how does he now ward off anger after giving up smoking 21 years ago to manage his anger?
“ I don’t get angry easily anymore; I used my Fabian philosophy to stop that”.
Is he a fulfilled man?
“Yes. What else am I going to ask from God? I have a brilliant wife and brilliant children. So, yes, I am fulfilled”.
One of the Nigeria's celebrated
filmmaker, Osita Iheme who is widely known as Pawpaw has celebrated his
34years anniversary in faraway in Obeagu Village, Nkanu East, Enugu,
Nigeria.
He celebrated his 34th birthday among his colleagues, friends and fans of Obeagu Village in Enugu.
Pawpaw
as he widely known in the filming industry is presently on film
location with his pair, Chinedu Ikedieze (Aki) and some other actors.
The
celebrant; Osita Iheme said 'I feel great and honored to be with these
people and I'm also fulfilled with this little present from colleagues
here to mark my day, I'm so glad with the love they shared with me,
though this is just a mini-celebration to mark the day, the bigger one
will coming after here' he affirmed.
