Shattered dreams; “We’ve been duped” - S.M Bratherz

The enthusiasm with which this new hiplife group entered the music industry with their hit album titled “Obibini Baa” seems to be waning after encountering situations of  false accusations, misplaced identity and deception which have not only damaged their image but have also cost them a huge amount of money running into over a hundred million (old Ghana cedis).

The group is called S.M Bratherz and is made up of Eric Setteh (a.k.a Shockie), 19 years old, and Kurankye Jonas (Marino), 22 years old.

The duo told The Weekly Fylla that they were still in the process of rebuilding their image which they claimed even never existed in the public domain though some of the songs on their album were still making waves on various radio stations in the country.

“People still believe that a track of ours, ‘Wo Neme Hemaa’, which is being played on air was actually done by Castro and Screwface. But that is wrong, we composed and sang the song ourselves and we didn’t even feature any of the mentioned artistes. We rather featured an up and coming artiste called Dada” Shockie said.

According to them, they first got to know about the public’s misconception over who the rightful composer of that song was during an event at CP, Mallam in Accra where they were guest performers.

“The moment we started performing that song on stage, the crowd got irritated and ordered us off the stage with claims that we were not the original composers of the song. We were physically attacked and had to run out of the event grounds”. Marino lamented.

Though this, they claimed, had affected their image and has not made them popular as they should be, their greatest worry is the bad management they have had and they blame their predicament on the various managers they have worked with over the past one year.

They said that so far, three managers, who were all radio presenters, have sucked them virtually dry of every amount of money they invested into their album but they have still not seen any good results.

“These managers have collected about 150 million cedis from us with the promise of giving us good promotion and publicity but all these have turned out to be empty promises.

We kept on changing managers for three times but all of them just duped us and now people don’t know who we really are though they hear our music on air.”

The two young artistes have been managing their own affairs in terms of promotion and publicity ever since and they have gathered some success by single-handedly negotiating and performing at shows such as the Oman FM Akwaaba Bash, Music Music and the Ghana @ 50 bash held at the fore-court of the State House some weeks back.

However, they still face serious financial crisis since they have lost almost every investment they pumped into their music. “We have now planned to sell the rights of this album to any well established producer who is willing to buy and then move on in life.”

Though they still have plans of remaining in the music industry, the 2006 Nungua Preseco graduates said that their stay in the industry would depend on the financial support they gain from a willing producer or any sponsor. “Our sister, Valerie Amankwah of Foxy Brown Records produced this album and we are grateful to her for her patience and support during these trying moments.

We also thank our mom, Georgina Nifah for her moral support. And we would like to say to our fans out there that they should not confuse our name with that of Okyeame Kwame’s boys called Bradex” they said.