This Ain?t Showbiz - Lord Kenya

Ghana?s hiplife rap ?heavyweight champion,? Lord Kenya, has told Ghanaians to stop pretending that Ghana has a Showbiz industry, ?because there is nothing like that in this country?.

?Businessmen, marketing officers, journalists (publicists), lawyers, and other relevant professionals should come together and form companies to manage musicians, actors and other players in the arts on strict business lines, then we can say we have a Showbiz industry in Ghana,? the lord of hiplife music suggested..

Speaking in a no-holds-barred interview in Accra, Lord Kenya, who is also known as Philip Abraham Kwaku Akpor Kainya, said most of the people in Ghana who called themselves managers, promoters, publicists etc; knew practically nothing about how to create and run businesses in the arts.

He said many promising musicians and actors in this country who started well and made some good money had ended up as paupers because they were not surrounded by the right people.

He said many promising musicians and actors in this country who started well and made some good money had ended up as paupers because they were not surrounded by the right people.

?We, the artistes, after we have produced our songs need qualified professionals who can help us to make good money and invest in viable ventures. I?m sorry to say that very few artistes in Ghana have big businesses to show for their hard work?.

He said actors and musicians in other countries, particularly Nigeria, were not any better than those in Ghana and wondered why many of them were richer than Ghanaian performers.

He also called on artistes to unite to cut out what he described as the Mafia in the arts who were milking artistes and actors dry while the artistes were spending sleepless nights to produce music and movies.

?We, the musicians, beg the radio DJs to help us to create wealth so that we can all enjoy. There should be work before success and not the other way round,? Kenya said.

The celebrated musician also stressed the need for people in the arts to take their ?spiritual lives? seriously. ?We need to put God first, you know?.

In a separate interview, Jimmy Quist, an actor of ?Efiewura? fame, who is also a radio show producer at Citi FM, suggested that banks should invest in the arts, ?because it is a very lucrative area".

Marketing professionals, he said, should take musicians, actors and their works as products, brand them well and sell them in and outside Ghana.

?The movie terrain is rough so one should not just walk out of the School of Performing Arts, University of Ghana, the National Film and Television Institute, NAFTI or any other film school and jump on set. We need to work hard and be prepared to learn. We also need qualified professionals to help us along the line,? Jimmy said.