Tuesday, 26 March 2013

Gallaxy to thrill Fans at Adom 106.3 fm and Airtel sponsored festival at Kwahu.

Gallaxy



It has almost become a routine in Ghana that every Easter people from all walks of life moves to the mountains-Kwahu to spend the holidays with their friends and families.
This year is not exceptional as numerous media  and cooperate bodies are organizing a series of activities and Adom106.3 fm a subsidiary of the multimedia group in collaboration with one of Ghana’s leading Telecommunication companies Airtel are  staging a big platform to entertain it loyal listeners and fans  starting from 28th  to 31th March respectively.

This event will see a host of Ghana’s celebrities and musicians including Gallaxy from Harbour city recordz performing vehemently to satisfy their fans for the first time. The ‘wodo nti’   hit makers will be sharing the same stage with the likes of Edem, Amaky Dede,EL, and the host of others who will also br performing.
This event is going to be their maiden biggest platform for them to perform,  since their official entry into the music industry with their three hit  singles ‘Chop money’ ft Guru, ‘Bo asie mamie ft Dobble’  and the banging highlife tune of the moment ‘wodo nti’.

According to Gallaxy they are not surprise but very grateful to God and the organizers for the opportunity, because they have been working industriously for a moment like this. So this is just one of the numerous privileges that, they will be getting to showcase to Ghanaians  both home and abroad what they have for them.
The duo continues to add that, they are ready to deliver and their fans should expect it. They also used the medium to remind their fans that their second video is coming soon and urge all their fans to keep supporting them Gallaxy.

Monday, 25 March 2013

Edem gives new life to ‘Sika Ye Mogya’



Hiplife strongly expresses its close affiliation to highlife when the former overtly borrows from the latter and rapper Edem’s vibrant re-working of Pat Thomas’ Sika Ye Mogya classic shows how the two home-grown styles can effectively feed off each other.

Edem’s version features Pat Thomas himself. The original piece was done in Fanti but Edem brings a fresh tang to the song with his usual energetic raps. He has also injected a fast club tempo into his version.

Sika Ye Mogya was originally recorded by Pat Thomas in 1991 in Ontario, Canada. The recording session included crack Ghanaian instrumentalists like Paa Joe on guitar and Carl Ricky Telfer on keyboards, bass and flute.

Edem caught attention largely with his Volta Regime album that included hit tracks such as Bra Freme, You Dey Craze and Nyornuviade. His subsequent Mass Production album offered the public other catchy songs like Ghetto Arise and Over Again.

He is an entrenched act on the music scene and trekking back in time to pick on Pat Thomas’ all-time great piece re-enforces the idea that there is a big well of highlife classics that the younger generation can always fall on to keep Ghanaian popular music forever alive.

Pat Thomas’ singer daughter, Nana Yaa is also said to have her own rendition of Sika Ye Mogya on her upcoming debut album.

The power of the showbizer

Samini
People in show business are one the most influential if not the most influential in the world because they cause change in the life of a society.

It is conceived of showbizers by many as scatterbrains and worthless individuals who are drug addicts, womanizers, debauchees, hooligans or crooks. Despite these brutish descriptions of showbizers, which some however consider as misconceptions, it is a well established fact and a reality that musicians, actors, fashion designers, painters, writers, radio and TV hosts, and other creative artists are powerful to the extent that the ramifications of their actions surpass that of the politician or the clergy.

Showbizers the world over have influenced how people dress. For example, an artiste appears on stage in a particular costume and in no time it becomes the dress code of the moment. Let a TV presenter appear on screen with an outlandish hair style (I mean one that may be considered abnormal) and the next day, it is the latest hairstyle in town. Hip hop and its variant genres have become so strong that it is seen as a veritable culture of some sort. Its followers have their way of dressing and speaking, and many people from all walks of life copy their lifestyle.

Fashion designers like Mawuli Okudzeto, Kofi Ansah, Bee Arthur and others have contributed to the dressing culture of this country. Is it not interesting how entertainment doyen KOD will create and design his own clothing and people will not just admire it but copy him? A few years ago, wearing suits on top of jeans trousers was slovenly and unbecoming for formal occasions but artistes have soon made this dress code acceptable almost everywhere.

Someone would like to have a tattoo on his body just because his favourite actor, singer or footballer also has tattoo on some part(s) of his body.

Showbizers or creative artistes are one the few groups of people whose names are used by their fans to christen their children. In fact, fans do not care whether these celebrity names they are adopting for their kids were created by the artistes or have always be in existence, let alone dig into their meanings. They just revel in the fact that they are naming their children after stars.

Lyrics of a song can be inspirational, derogatory, suggestive, leering or insinuating. Testimonies abound from people whose lives, upon listening to certain songs have transformed for the better. Others also have engaged in unscrupulous activities after listening to some particular songs.

This case is no different from movies. Movies more often than not epitomize the culture of a people. Any adoption of cultural practices of a people into another would bring a change in the lives of the inhabitants of the latter. A case in point is the current use of explicit sex scenes in Ghanaian movies; something that jars with the indigenous culture of Ghanaians.

It could also be said of creative writers like William Shakespeare, Efua Sutherland and Chinua Achebe (may his soul rest in peace) as very powerful and influential personalities because they used their literary works to affect society. While Shakespeare's English was deferred to and used by his contemporaries, Chinua Achebe used satire to critcise people in power in Nigeria. Efua Sutherland would also be remembered for authoring books that portrayed Ghanaian culture.

One other power that showbizers have is creating language. Remember Barima's 'Abuskeleke' song|? 'Abuskeleke was a word that supposedly originated from the Western Region of Ghana or somewhere in Ivory Coast and was used to describe a lady who is kittenish and promiscuous. It was made popular by Barima in his song and was later used to refer to ladies who were indecently dressed and it has since become part of the lexicon of Ghanaian languages.

'Bye bye' is an English world used to bid people farewell. Until recently there had not been a Twi version for it. Not even professors of Linguistics could help Twi speakers out. It took Dr. Duncan, a radio presenter of XFM to couch 'ekyire' to be the Twi version for 'bye bye'. Up till now, 'ekyire' has become part of Twi vocabulary to mean 'bye bye'.

Credit: Kwame Dadzie -  Deputy editor-Flex Newspaper

Sunday, 24 March 2013

My Song Was Inspired By the Ghana DJ Awards – Prodigal (VIP)




VIP fame who released his first single of his first solo project, ‘DJ’s’, which is already receiving massive airplay, Prodigal revealed that the song was inspired by the Ghana DJ Awards.
Prodigal, who joined Sammy Forson to premiere the song talked about the composition of the Hip Hop song which features an outstanding vocal performance by Sweetio singer Raquel, revealed that the song was inspired by the emergence of the annual Ghana DJ Awards. “I saw the nominees list on the internet. Our DJs have been very supportive since we got on the music scene over a decade ago. This is a way to say thank you”, he added.
On ‘DJ’s’, Prodigal mentions over 40 DJs and record promoters including DJ Black, DJ Jimmy Jatt, DJ Rab, DJ Booty Brown, Benny Blanco, Big L, Killa Fingers, Fiifi Banson, Dr Pounds, DJ Kess, Merqury Quaye, Jay Foley, Jeremy, Fiifi Pratt, DJ Mensa, DJ Mic Smith, Kwame Faakye, Bola Ray, Kwame Sefa Kayi, DJ Carlos and a host of others.
Talking to Sammy Forson on VIP, he said, “VIP is still together. However, we will be working on solo projects in between time.”

Herty Borngreat Responds- “vote For Me To Win”

Herty Borngreat



Have you ever found time to really analyze the impact of Herty Borngreat’s musical talent and versatility on the music scene? Which other musician can match up to Herty Borngreat’s exploits and impact so far as her musical career is concerned?
With all due respects, aren’t many of our gospel musicians merely singers? How many of our gospel artistes can stand up to Herty’s achievement of featuring two hiplife artistes on two different songs and making hits out of them? Herty Borngreat has been able to expose her great touch of musical delivery coupled with her versatility and as such it comes as no surprise she has been nominated variously for the upcoming Vodafone Ghana Music Awards.
For Herty Borngreat to be nominated in the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards, that means her impact on the music scene in the year under review was so remarkable. Last year at the RTP AWARDS, you should have been there to see the way Herty Borngreat dazzled the audience with her performance and to put the icing on the cake, she ”killed” the rap verse of Sakordie on her song ”bebrebe” and that of Trigmatic on the track ”Ka No Seyaa”.
Kindly help me out, have you heard of any gospel artiste getting the opportunity to be invited for Legon Artistes Night? For Legon Artistes Night, it is mostly the secular artistes who get the chance to perform but Herty Borngreat became the first ever gospel artiste to perform at the Legon Artistes Night. Not only did she perform, she awed the students so much that, they showered some ”kuffour” dollars on her.



That is not all, have you cared to find out exactly what happened when she performed at the 2ND edition of the Ghana Gospel Industry Awards organized by Adom Fm? Have you also considered her performance at the high profile Victory Party held at the Oxford Street after the December 2012 Elections? Your guess is as good as mine.
I have critically studied both Best Collaboration of the Year and Gospel Artiste of the Year awards of the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards that Herty Borngreat has been nominated for and I don’t see why she doesn’t deserve to win the awards. I am totally in support of Herty Borngreat winning these two awards and I need you to help me in this regard.
Kindly text G1 to the short code 1767 as many times as possible,  so that Herty Borngreat will win the Gospel Artiste of the year award. For her to also win the Best Collaboration of the Year Award, show your love to her by texting J2 to the short code 1767.
When you vote for Herty to win these awards, you have done obviously the right thing to propel her to greater heights on the gospel music scene. I rest my case.
.flexghana.com
Ebenezer Narh Affum

Friday, 22 March 2013

Chinua Achebe is dead



Foremost novelist, Prof Chinua Achebe, is dead. He was 82.
PREMIUM TIMES learnt he died last night in a hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
A source close to the family said the professor had been ill for a while and was hospitalised in an undisclosed hospital in Boston.
The source declined to provide further details, saying the family will issue a statement on the development later today.
Contacted, spokesperson for Brown University, where Mr. Achebe worked until he took ill, Darlene Trewcrist, is yet to respond to our enquiries on the professor’s condition.
Until his death, Prof Achebe was the David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and Professor of Africana Studies at Brown.
Below is how the university profiled him on its website.
“Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe is known the world over for having played a seminal role in the founding and development of African literature. He continues to be considered among the most significant world writers. He is most well known for the groundbreaking 1958 novel Things Fall Apart, a novel still considered to be required reading the world over. It has sold over twelve million copies and has been translated into more than fifty languages.
“Achebe’s global significance lies not only in his talent and recognition as a writer, but also as a critical thinker and essayist who has written extensively on questions of the role of culture in Africa and the social and political significance of aesthetics and analysis of the postcolonial state in Africa. He is renowned, for example, for “An Image of Africa,” his trenchant and famous critique of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Today, this critique is recognized as one of the most generative interventions on Conrad; and one that opened the social study of literary texts, particularly the impact of power relations on 20th century literary imagination.
“In addition, Achebe is distinguished in his substantial and weighty investment in the building of literary arts institutions. His work as the founding editor of the Heinemann African Writers Series led to his editing over one hundred titles in it. Achebe also edited the University of Nsukka journal Nsukkascope, founded Okike: A Nigerian Journal of New Writingand assisted in the founding of a publishing house, Nwamife Books–an organization responsible for publishing other groundbreaking work by award-winning writers. He continues his long-standing work on the development of institutional spaces where writers can be published and develop creative and intellectual community.”

Wednesday, 20 March 2013

Morning Shows Hate the Arts - Kwame Dadzie


Kojo Oppong Nkrumah
I have written on this topic before. Yes I have, and I am writing again because sometimes it takes a lot of spanking to mold the character of some recalcitrant children. Some radio presenters must be advised to stop being mischievous.
I remember I wrote on this topic when most morning show hosts made Christiana Love (now Obaapa Christy’s) divorce case their daily bread. In that article, I bemoaned the act of morning shows for discussing entertainment stories on their mediums only when they are negative.
  
Recently, it has resurfaced. Someone should tell those morning show presenters and their producers that they are enemies of the arts. After Chris Brown came to Ghana to take huge sum of money and to corrupt our society, morning shows decided to pick the issue as topic for discussion.
   
My problem is not about condemning what is wrong. My problem is why they go mute on entertainment when something good happens in this turf.
   
Since the morning is the peak for most radio stations, it means programmes at that time command wider listenership. Again, these are the shows most of our leaders and influential people in the country listen to, which means issues discussed at this time have greater impact and hearing than others. But it is usually politics, commerce, agriculture, energy and sports that are mostly talked about.
   

If you hear them talking about entertainment, it is either Agya Koo has been arrested for visa racketeering, Christiana Love is divorced or Chris Brown smoked weed on stage.
  
So they mean they never heard of the 3million Ghana cedis given the arts by the government? Couldn’t they have used their platforms to say, find out how the budget money was going to be shared equitably among stakeholders of the arts, considering that last year the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) arrogated all the 2million cedis to itself?
  
There was a music week celebration during the week. Do they mean they didn’t hear of that too? Why do they always want to magnify the negatives and leave the positives? Bernard Avle of Citi FM and Adakabre Frimpong Manso of Adom FM are the main culprits of this practice. If they won’t hit the positive sides, they shouldn’t discuss the negatives at all.
  
I am still looking forward to seeing which radio station will start doing a complete entertainment morning show, with proper entertainment discussions like they do at Asempa for sports.
   
My ears and eyes are widely open and all my senses are active. I will be back!

Ghana's Dj Kess battles with the best of Africa!

Dj Kess

After winning the Best Female DJ at the maiden edition of the Ghana DJ Awards in February, DJ Kess will be doing battle again for ‘Best Female DJ’ at the upcoming African Global DJ Awards  Scheduled for Johannesburg, South Africaon May 4. She was nominated alongside DJ Nana (Nigeria), Dj Pieces (Nigeria/USA), DJ Lambo (Nigeria), DJ Cndo (South Africa), and DJ Soupamodel (Nigeria/USA).

DJ Kess is currently DJ/Video DJ on Soundcity, a radio DJ on YFM (playing 7-10pm Mondays- Thursday and 9am-12noon on Saturdays) and an entertainment TV host on ETV Ghana. She discovered her talent at Archbishop Porters Girls, Takoradi where she was the schools official DJ.  She has been doing it professionally for the past 7 years. She is known for being a radio DJ on YFM 107.9 playing on the Y Lounge with Ace Radio Host Jeremie between 7 – 10pm, from Mondays to Thursdays. She also doubles as a club DJ as well at Bella Roma, a popular bar & night club in Accra. She has rocked live concerts with Mario &Shontelle, The Red Lipstick (All female) Concert etc.

DJ Kess is not only known back home in Ghana, she represented Ghana at the Big Brother Africa House in South Africa 2011, playing jams that had the housemates raving and begging for more. After rocking in South Africa she performed, amongst others in Benin (Etisalat, Concert 2012), Nigeria (Copa Coca Cola, 2012) and Liberia (DJ Kess LIVE at Club Dejavu, 2012).

The African Global DJ Awards winners will be decided by a panel of judges (along with popular votes on the website) likely to be headed by Nigeria’s legendary DJ Jimmy Jatt. The event will be hosted by Barbz of Big Brother Africa fame, Denrele of Channel O, Lerato, Ugandan rapper Navio, DJ Jam Jam from the United Kingdom and Adams Ibrahim of Nigeria’s Soundcity.

Ghanaian Hiplife singer A-Plus expresses his views on National issues



A-Plus
Controversial hiplife musician, Kwame Asare Obeng popularly known as A-Plus has said that Ghana is currently enjoying an atmosphere of freedom of speech than it did under the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration.
The musician, known for his affection for the 2012 NPP flag bearer  Nana Akufo-Addo was of the view that Ghana had gone past the days where musicians and individuals were constantly threatened and harassed because of their political views and comments.
A thriving democracy
A-Plus, who recently released another controversial song My Last Coup D'état, told Myjoyonline.com in an interview that the situation has seen much improvement under the NDC administration and the improvement is a test case for the country's democracy.
Asked if he faced any intimidation after the release of My Last Coup D'état which touches on several issues – including the 2012 IEA debates, Ayariga coughs, the 2012 general elections, Akua Donkor and Dr Nduom's Tundra saga – A-Plus said he is “surprised by the attention” the song has received.
According to him, “Ghana has gone past phone call days where people are threatening you. All the phone calls that I had were very encouraging, people love what I do. Even some of the people I was talking about call me and we laughed over it.”
The laudable situation, he added, is “a test case for our new president, for our democracy. It makes me understand where we are democratically. It makes me understand the mindset of Ghanaian s at this point in time.”
“I can confidently say that it's better than when Kufuor was in power… Kufuor's was better than that of Rawlings so it keeps improving,” A-Plus stressed.
He said that, “After I worked for Nana Addo by extension the NPP, NDC won the election and they didn't come chasing any of us,” adding that musicians who endorsed Nana Addo have won awards and have also seem much improvements in their careers.
The musician noted that if a musician endorses a political party right now and he or she does make a hit, then “you yourself don't know how to make music. The politician won't change your career in anyway.”
He alleged that in 2007, when he released A Letter to Parliament, he received several phone calls, even from the Office of the President, “where people wanted to take me to court,” and considering the improvements, “where we are today, ...Ghana is better than what we had in 2007 in terms of democracy.”
Economic hardships not NDC's fault
Commenting on the current challenges – power outages, water rationing, increase in fuel and the shortage of gas – bedeviling the country, A-Plus said the NDC cannot take all the blame for the situation.
“All those who have ruled this country must bow down their heads in shame. We won't limit it to any particular government. It is something that is a disgrace to this country after 56 years [of independence] we don't have anything and we have never had anything,” he lamented.
“We must work hard to make sure it does not happen again,” he urged.
The Kufuor government had its ups and down, same with John Mahama's administration, he said but advised that the country should plan ahead to better the lot of Ghanaians.
Patronage of political songs
While many will say A-Plus is treading dangerously by doing political songs and the implications of not making commercial music sales, the artiste thinks otherwise.
“I have sold more CDs than most people who are making music today,” he said, adding, it is rather unfortunate that there is a dip in CD sales.
A-Plus, who has eleven political songs to his credit, released The Unexpected Wednesday. The song, he said, will tell Ghanaians why he released My Last Coup D'état.
Source:Myjoyonline.com 

Tuesday, 19 March 2013

Okyeame Kwame tries the azonto dance in advert

Okyeame Kwame

Looking forward to something big after his 2012 Versatile Show, Okyeame Kwame takes his versatility to another level by conceptualizing and producing a coca cola commercial.
Coca Cola, over the years is known for bringing out artistic and high profile commercials.
So if you are asking why Okyeame Kwame, the answer is simple; he is versatile.
Having been looking for something very interesting to watch on the internet, I stumbled upon the coca cola advert and was impressed.
Okyeame Kwame played the main role and takes the viewer into an exciting atmosphere with some Azonto dance and some handshakes among a group of youth who cannot get more of the energy derived from drinking coca cola.
It begins with the handshake and is filled with some suspense that I want you to uncover. Waiting any longer? Click on the following link, www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sfo66Eh4bs, and watch the video.