Drug abuse, recklessness common in music industry but my father's voice helped my self-control - Okyeame Kwame

"My father was afraid I'd become a musician, because he was afraid I'd become a drug user and a drug addict," Okyeame Kwame has revealed.

"We fought from when I was 14 up until when I was 21 when he said: 'Okay, go ahead and become a musician'," he revealed.

He said this was because when he turned 20, his father had realised there was no convincing him to abandon his music dreams.

A negotiation ensued, he explained, noting his father made him make two promises; to stay away from drugs and acquire his first degree.

Most fathers who object to their children "going into the arts" is because of this very fear, the rap star indicated.

Intimating these parental concerns are often true to reality, Okyeame Kwame, alias OK, noted instances when senior colleagues in music and media personalities advised to "drink this, smoke this, take this pill" to cope with "butterflies" in the tummy or stage fright.

He noted stage fright "is natural," and frowned on the use of hard drugs to control them.

The drugs will "lower your inhibitions, and once your inhibitions are lowered, you're able to express yourself which is true," he conceded, but asked worriedly, "What happens after that expression?"

OK said he had been offered the advice to use drugs to boost his performances "like a million times".

However, "I kept hearing my father's voice everywhere I went. Going to play a show in Europe, immediately you land, the first two people that will come to your hotel, they'll bring weed and ask you where they should take you for the girls [and such]," the Woso hitmaker said.

The rapper, singer-songwriter, businessman and author bemoaned handlers "give these young [musicians] wild ideas, telling them if they're going to be successful, they'd need to – they'll mention some names of some artistes who also used drugs and became success.

"Once you start, they'll be buying it for you for free. Once you become addicted, you'd buy it yourself and buy some for them."

The Hiplife legend spoke to Kwame Dadzie on Accra-based Joy FM's Showbiz A-Z programme.