VIP Leaves Paradise Entertainment

Yet another great partnership in showbiz has come to an abrupt end. Pan African Hiplife group VIP (Vision In Progess) has parted ways with their management company, Paradise Entertainment after two years.

The Nima based Hiplife trio made up of Promzy, Prodigal and Lazy disclosed this to Peacefmonline.com in an exclusive interview.

According the group they are now on their own and they are doing everything from singing in the studio, promoting and marketing their music, shooting music videos, managing their image and anything that has to do with VIP all by themselves.

The group told Peacefmonline.com that they had a two year management contract with Paradise Entertainment and when it ended, they decided not to renew the contract. They added that even though they chalked a lot of successes with Paradise Entertainment lead by CEO Duke Banson who managed their previous award winning “Progress” album, there were a lot of other things which was not working well at the management level.

VIP revealed that some of the things that happened under the management of Paradise Entertainment did not project a positive image of them, hence the decision to call it quits with Banson.

“You walk out there and people tell you things about VIP and you wonder when or how that happened”.

The group is now under their own record label BDN (Boogie Down Nima) Records established some six years ago with offices in Ghana and US. They are also in collaboration with with their American based business partner Hashin Harma based in the Bronx, New York.

“We have gone through a lot in our music career when it come to Executive Production and Management from the days of Precise Music, to Goodies Music Production, Paradise Entertainment and Muvingi Records over the years and we want to do things on our own now. We want to get close to our fans and people who made VIP who we are,” the hiplife trio said.

Though the group has already helped nurtured a new artiste FOI on the BDN Records, they emphasized that their doors are opened for any new rapper or singer who believes he or she has the talent.

“We want to discover talents and train them so that they will continue what we are doing,” they told Peacefmonline.

The group is preparing to launch their seventh album titled “7/11” (Seven/Eleven) after releasing a couple of hit singles which has taken over the airwaves. They first released “U Be My Taste” followed by “Kiss Me Quick” which features R2Bees.

They took the whole nation by storm, when they launched their new and third single titled “Change Position” live on five top five Radio Stations in Accra; Peace FM, Okay FM, Joy FM, Hitz FM and Y-FM at the same on Friday July 22, 2011 on the stations’ respective Drive Time Programs.

Asked about their impressions regarding the music industry, they were optimistic about prospects for the future of Ghana Music and commended Radio Presenters and the media in Ghana for supporting Ghanaian Music.

“Most of the Radio Presenters used to play a lot of Nigerian music but now it is not like that anymore because we realized that our people like more dance and party music and we are giving them what they like which is making the Presenters play our songs now because even though we as VIP try to make our music sound Ghanaian, it can match up with the Nigerians any day and played at any part of the world. We are now gaining grounds and we thank all Radio Presenters, TV Stations and the Ghanaian media".

VIP is going on with a social responsibility project they started called “Giving Back to the Hood”, where they support needy but brilliant children from their hood (neighborhood) financially from basic (Primary) School level through University. They have enrolled six children so far at various levels of education.

They performed a show-stopping act at one of the Big Brother Amplified eviction shows that blew the minds of music lovers in Africa and are expected to perform in UK, in the first week of August at the PARTY IN THE PARK event organized by Akwaaba Entertainment. They have also been nominated for the “Best Pan African Group” category in the Nigeria Entertainment Awards (NEA) 2011, coming off in America on Saturday September 3, 2011.

This year, some of the awards they have swept include "Artiste of the Year" and "Hiplife/Hip-hop Artiste of the Year", "Ghana Music Awards 2011 Best Group", the "Best Video" in the 4syte Music Video Awards, "Artiste of the Year" at the City People Awards in Nigeria and the "Best Group" at the Joy FM Nite with the stars.