ADVERTISEMENT

Top 4 breakups in Ghana music industry

Check out top four (4) breakups in Ghana music industry.

Becca and former manager Kiki Benson

The Ghana music industry has seen music groups fall apart, friendships turn sour and celebrity marriages collapse to the surprise of many. One other form of split worth focusing on is the artiste-management relationship.

Some artistes who were on top of their career either left or got dumped by their respective record labels for one reason or the other. Unfortunately, regardless of what caused the separation, some of these artistes have had their careers affected as they have been unable to find their feet after the split.

1. Asem and Richie

They were arguably one of the best artiste-management pairs in Ghana’s music industry. Asem and Richie’s Lynx Entertainment teamed up to release hits after hits, only to breakup. Asem’s biggest hits included "Give Me Blow", “Pigaro”, “No More Kpayor” and "2010 Fylla'. Suggestions were that the artiste disrespected the whole Lynx Entertainment crew as he felt he was bigger than the record label. According to Albert, manager of Lynx Entertainment who spoke to Ghanamusic.com, disagreements between the two were becoming too much.

ADVERTISEMENT

“The whole matter is that we disagreed on so many things. And the best thing; was to make him go. We didn’t want to force him to do things which were against his will. Too many disagreements within us,” he said.

Asem’s side of the story was that, he had a contract with the record label which was to expire in November 2010. He made it known to the crew that he would not renew the contract. But, “Eight months to the end of the contract, Lynx released a statement that they were dropping me from the label.”

His thoughts that the label was overburdened with artistes made him set up his management team.“So I set up a team to manage my brand (Asem) separately though I still stayed with Lynx as my record label; a suggestion Lynx was cool with. I guess the new development came up due to some decisions my new management started taking on my behalf, which didn't go down well with Lynx,” he explained.

2. Becca and Kiki Benson

Singer, Rebecca Acheampong known in showbiz circles as Becca parted ways with her first manager, Kiki Benson of EKB Records, after working together for almost a decade. Although it came as a shock to many who subsequently begun speculating the cause of the split, Kiki Benson and Becca discredited the claims saying, the contract between them had ended.

ADVERTISEMENT

“There is no issue it’s just that we don’t have a management relationship anymore. That is all,” Kiki was quoted to have told peacefmonline.com.

“A lot of Ghanaians are used to Becca and Kiki combination but we are not working anymore. At a certain point you have to move on to do other things. We are all grown-ups and our contract was over and we decided to move on amicably,” Becca said on Happy FM’s showbiz extra.

Becca and Kiki first met at Reggie’s Office in 2006 where Reggie Rockstone introduced her to Kiki to consider managing her because he believed Becca had a great talent. Becca, under EKB Records recorded songs like U Lied To Me, Daa Ke Da, African Woman among others and won couple of awards.

3. Eazzy and Richie

Eazzy announced her presence in the Ghanaian music industry in July 2009. She recorded hit songs like Wengeze, One gal among others under Richie’s Lynx Entertainment record label. In 2012, the record label issued a press statement that it was no longer managing Eazzy. They claimed that the two had agreed that she be managed by Kofi Otchere Darko (KOD).

ADVERTISEMENT

But Eazzy told News-One that she had rather decided not to renew her contract with Lynx Entertainment.

“I am surprised about the statement from Lynx because the contents are not true. They have never agreed with me that KOD should be my manager. My contract with Lynx expired on April 8 this year and I did not want to renew it. I left Lynx and there was no arrangement that I would be handled by KOD. I am putting together a management team and KOD is one of the persons on my new team. Lynx only got to hear of KOD because I told them that he was putting together a program for my album launch at Rockstone’s Office on Friday April 27. I planned to announce my departure from Lynx during the album launch and to also tell who my new management team would be. I do not know why Lynx issued that untrue statement,” she said.

4. Shatta Wale and Bulldog

Music lovers woke up to what could be arguably the most unexpected breakup in the history of Ghanaian music: the Shatta Wale and Bulldog split. Bullhaus Entertainment including its boss, Lawrence Nana Asiama Hanson, also known as Bulldog on Saturday, October 31 issued a press statement that it has ended its working relationship with Ghanaian dancehall artiste, Shatta Wale without citing any reason(s). But Shatta Wale in a sharp rebuttal stated that he had planned to sack Bulldog but the latter outsmarted him to put out a statement ending their working relationship.

“I wrote a letter that I was going to put him out for people to know this is what I want to do. He (Bulldog) doesn't work like a manager... But he went and wrote that he has stopped working with us. So they know I was going to give them the letter,” his voice note played on Happy FM said.

ADVERTISEMENT

Shatta Wale under the management of Bulldog recorded songs like Holy Bible, Dancehall Commando and Shatta City. He won several awards including 2014 Ghana Music Awards Artiste of the Year.

JOIN OUR PULSE COMMUNITY!

Unblock notifications in browser settings.
ADVERTISEMENT

Eyewitness? Submit your stories now via social or:

Email: eyewitness@pulse.com.gh

ADVERTISEMENT