Reggie Rockstone Goes Wild

Reggie Rockstone, known in music circles as the Godfather of hiplife, was among the artistes invited to perform alongside the American superstar, Jay-Z, in Ghana, on October 6, but that was not to be.

In a communiqu? issued by his manager, Dhoruba Bin-Wahab, it was not Reggie?s intention to boycott the show; his name was merely a ruse used by the event organizers to promote the event.

It was rather the actions of Charter House, organisers of the event, that masterminded Reggie?s exclusion from the bill, stating that, ?Charter House had informed Jay-Z that Reggie?s name had been removed from the list of artistes scheduled to perform because Reggie said he would not perform the ?opening act? as planned?.

He mentioned further that the same Charter House came to inform Reggie that Jay-Z would not allow any local artiste to come on stage with him.?

At the last minute, less than 24 hours before the concert, when we were attempting to formulate the actual on-stage routine between Reggie and Jay-Z for approval by his management team, we were advised by CharterHouse that Jay-Z purportedly had a policy of not performing with any other artiste on stage,? he pointed out.

This, he mentioned, contradicted what the superstar portrayed regarding his liaison with local artistes in performances; emphasizing, ?Jay-Z himself, during the tour, talked openly about his eagerness to work with African artistes.

?He refuted the promoters? claims, stating that from discussions held with Jay-Z?s management team, it was apparent Jay-Z had no hand in Reggie?s removal from the performance bill and did not intend to show disrespect towards Reggie as an artiste. Reggie, as an avid fun of Jay-Z, has enormous respect for him, as such, he did not boycott his show.

He was not there only because doing so would have compromised the respect his many fans had for him. According to his manager, if he had attended the concert as a spectator while billed as a performer, he would have reinforced the often shabby treatment meted out to local artistes when named international artistes perform in Ghana.