Established artistes are not mandated to support upcoming artistes - Okyeame Quophi

Radio personality and musician of the Akyeame hiplife duo fame, Okyeame Quophi, has said that upcoming artiste must not mount unnecessary pressure on established artistes to support them.

Speaking in an interview with YFM Kumasi’s NYDJ, he said: “Nobody owes anybody anything. We are here to help talents. If you are qualified and then you meet the right person at the right time, you could be looked at irrespective of where you are coming from. If you come from Kumasi and you think you are an artiste and your act is not ready, it doesn’t mean that someone should actually invest in you”.

Okyeame Quophi explained that looking beyond the surface, there is actually a lot of money and time that goes into growing talents and as such if an established artiste wants to grow an upcoming artiste, a lot of things are considered.

“Today, for you to promote the rapping and bring it to speed or get into mainstream Ghana music,we are looking about GH150,000 to GH200,000,that is recording, music videos, promotions,doing media tours,making sure that your digital platforms are ready, a management and a team working for you. It is not a joke. That is about 2 billion old cedis.

"I don’t think I would like to put my money on the fact that somebody is from Kumasi and think he is a rapper so I should take my two billion and invest it in that person. I would put my head on talent that is ready to do business irrespective of where they come from”, he said.

Personalizing the issue of supporting artistes, he disclosed that he has always supported talents because of the support he also received.

“I for one made a personal decision that Kumasi made me. This is because the kind of support that I got from Kumasi in my days from 1997 and later on even when I got on radio, Luv FM and later Fox FM. I mean everything that I have it is kumasi that accepted me. I enjoyed and I put it in my mind that at every point in time, there is a special package in my life for people that come from the area, especially talents. I still support a lot of people”.

Global Media Alliance Broadcasting Company has employed the whole month of September as the ‘Made in Ghana’ month and dedicated the month to promoting and encouraging the consumption of locally-made products.

This year’s celebration cuts across all the broadcast platforms Happy FM, eTV Ghana and across the Y-Triangle (YFM Accra, Kumasi and Takoradi), and is under the theme ‘Celebrating Ghana through Digital Innovations’.