Worried about this, I went round trying to get the views of some of the young and upcoming artistes who are gnashing their teeth.

LOCATION: At the barber shop

ARTISTES: Nnunsin, Bohyeba, Gbagbladza (of the Last 2 Fame)

My survey proved a lot of limitations in the industry and I came out with a lot of findings upon listening to the views of some of the young ones such as the trio ‘Nnunsin’ (upcoming starlets) made up of Nkete, Drent and Omega present at a barber shop and this is what they had to say:

Nkete: “We have good stuff but hey we are new so why should they (executive producers) come in to produce us. They don’t want to take that initiative rather focus on the household names”.

Drent: “The Ofori Amponsah’s, Daddy Lumba’s, Kojo Antwi’s, Obrafour’s, Batman Samini’s, Castro’s, Kwabena Kwabena’s, VIP’s and the likes started from somewhere. I mean somewhere like where we are now so imagine what would have happened if some executive producers hadn’t taken the risk to produce them. Would they have been where they are now? The industry would have been dead by now. As the day goes by, old ones fade away and new music babies come into existence. Some executive producers had to take the risk for the present greats to make it big other than that, it would have been the old acts like Ramblers, Osibisa, Nana Ampadu, George Darko, Adofo, Awurama Badu and the likes”.

Nkete: “To add to what my partner said, for all you know some of the young acts have better songs as compared to some already established ones”.

After a long chat with the group, another young hiplife artiste stepped into the barber shop to share his view on the issue under discussion. Bohyeba, the young entrant pointed to the fact that “some of the Executive Producers go in for albums of great artistes not taking fully into consideration whether it’s good or not. Once the artiste has made a mark on the music scene, his album is good. So names make them produce albums. They no longer see it as a business where it involves taking risks and either making a profit or loss. They are in for one motive; to make money and not to help bring upcoming artistes into the limelight”.

“Even if they will produce you the young artiste, it’s a ‘who you know thing’ and not solely because the album is good. And hey lest I forget, some of the old artistes sometimes sabotage we the young ones by telling the Executive Producers not to invest in us ‘cos’ they don’t want us to be like them. As someone will say ‘Ahooyaa’ (Jealousy).

Gbagbladza (of the Last 2 fame) also commented on the same points and in addition had this to say: You know what, some of the dj’s are also a part of we not coming out. Since they have their favourite engineers, if a song or an album of a new artiste was not produced by their favourite engineer, they convince the Executive Producers not to financially produce the song or album. So it’s like as if they determine which albums should come out and which shouldn’t.

All the artistes: If the Executive Producers are real business men, they should sit up and look for good albums no matter the risks they have to take and not listen to what others say.

Well, well, well. I have to go but the story still unfolds. Let me get a taxi and move to my next location.