Okyeame Kwame and wife share practical tips to remaining successful and relevant as an artist

Multiple award-winning rapper Okyeame Kwame & wife Annica were special guests on YFM’s #RyseNshyne with host NY DJ on Wednesday morning, July 8, 2020.

The conversation was centered around the benefits and detriments of each structure in an artiste’s career and the key to consistency and relevance.

Annica, who’s sometimes addressed as (Mrs. Okyeame) made it clear that everything requires a lot of commitment, and having the ability to pivot as the landscape changes.

According to her, the Okyeame brand has seen so much growth that was carefully planned out from scratch.

“When I met Kwame, I realized this is what he was doing and we needed to make it a business so instead of the ‘agoro’/performance he normally do, we decided we make it into a business."

"So I needed to get knowledge on marketing and brand architecture etc because that was needed in the business. We started to put the knowledge to work and we agreed on doing the right thing most of which are not visible to the eye example setting up a board and then it comes to the image; you need to check out to be consistent with how you want to display and so we put all these together and we started executing them. We needed to be precise and consistent with what we had planned to do because along the line, things pop up and you would want to do it. In the final stage of branding, it’s who you really are so we decided to maintain Kwame as a family man,we started this in 2007 way before we released ‘woso'”

"She made us understand that building a fierce band is about so much more than just building core fanbase, but really lies in learning how to maintain their core support, especially when they may wish to experiment with different sounds or head towards a different musical direction than the ones they first became famed for and also serving your target market."

“When we started, it wasn’t about money. it was about looking through the friends we have and who is interested in his life and also who has what knowledge we can tap into so that is basic. the first do is to make sure you are cut out for the product you’re bringing whether you really want to do it or someone is doing it and you want to do same. the second do is to realize that equity is of the customer; this means that the customer decides what you do. check your target market and make.sure that the thing you’re giving to your target is in the right direction.”

Mrs. Okyeame who plays a dual role as Wife and manager for her husband offered few tips to stay relevant in the fast-growing industry when quizzed by NY DJ;

“There are structures that can be put in place to make you relevant. you need to have a strategy and ones there is a strategy, you follow through then be consistent with it. you have to be looking at what is happening and see if any is in line with your strategy. if there is, you do something about it but if there isn’t, you move on. you need not copy what people are doing, you must be focused and not have a wandering eye, you must have a role model, not necessarily to copy them but to learn from them”.