GAPI reacts to pronouncement by Kwaw Kese

Kumasi, Dec.15, GNA - The Ghana Association of Phonographic Industry (GAPI) has stated that it has competent members who were capable of producing or managing any musician in the country. It has therefore, described as unfortunate, a pronouncement by Kwaw Kese, a hiplife artist on an Accra based TV station that, there is no good executive producer and record label company in Ghana. Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in Kumasi in reaction to the pronouncement, Mr John Mensah Sarpong, President of GAPI condemned the pronouncement and said he was surprise to hear such a statement from Kwaw Kese.

He said GAPI has and continue to produce and manage many popular musicians including hiplife artists and mentioned VIP, Esther Smith, Kwaku Gyasi, Ama Boahemaa and many others, as some of musicians whose works have been produced by producers in the country. Mr Mensah Sarpong stated that, the fact that Kwaw Kese produces himself did not mean "a lack of good and capable executive producers and record label company in the country".

Kwaw Kese is said to have stated during the interviewing segment of "Soundz Splash", an entertainment programme on TV Africa on Saturday night that, there is no good executive producers and record label company in the country.

Mr Mensah Sarpong said he did not know the yardstick which Kwaw Kese used to measure or describe a good producer or a good record label company and said as far as he was aware, members of GAPI were doing what was supposed to be done in any part of the world. Mr Mensah Sarpong said members of the Association took a serious view of the pronouncement and called on Kwaw Kese to render an unqualified apology to the Association.

He asked Kwaw Kese to be very careful and not to try to create problems for himself in the music industry. He said GAPI is a professional Association, made up of competent members, who have helped tremendously in the music industry and position it firmly in Ghana. The statement stressed the need for musicians to be mindful of their utterances and actions, which might seek to create unnecessary tension and confusion in the country.