Rex, Others Kill Ghanaian Music

The politics of music can be just as intoxicating as the politics of governing a country. It seems musicians who get into the politics of power play within the industry lose themselves eventually to the animosity and factionalism it brings. Most of them end up dropping their musical instruments entirely. One typical example is Carlos Sakyi, but he’s not alone in this. The likes of Alhaji Sidiku Buari, Mac Tontoh, Charles Amoah and Rex Omar can be mentioned as Ghanaian musicians who have been so caught up in the politics of music that their fans hardly hear them sing these days. It can easily be explained away by any of them that it’s because they are trying to get the system in order; that there are too many problems in the industry to release an album. But if they don’t go to the studio to record and release albums will there be an industry for them to save in the first place? What can you redeem when there is nothing left to redeem anyway? Carlos Sakyi is more of an entertainment analyst on radio these days than a musician. Some have expressed doubt as to whether Carlos is still as good on the keyboard as he used to be in the good old days. When was the last time we heard from ‘asikopapana sikopaa’ Alhaji Sidiku Buari? Let’s hope to hear a song from him now that he’s no more president of the Musicians Union of Ghana. Even Diana Hopeson released an album that was poorly promoted and generally unknown among most music-loving Ghanaians. The politics of music probably took away most of her time. Now that Nat Brew (Amandzeba) has a position in the Musicians Union of Ghana we hope he would continue releasing good albums. Charles Amoah hasn’t released an album for years now. Rex Omar hasn’t been to the studio for years now. Carlos Sakyi and his fellow ‘musicians’ must realise that music is their calling. If they stop releasing albums it means they are refusing to heed their calling and would not at all contribute to the music industry, thus leaving it gasping for breath. Or have they decided not to release any more albums for life…if it’s so they should be bold enough to tell their fans. If all they want to do is to be leaders and hold big positions in the Musicians Union of Ghana or Professional Musicians Association of Ghana, then the advice is they should school themselves accordingly so they can manage the unions better. These musicians should choose between playing politics and playing music. If this year’s Ghana Music Awards nominations come without a ‘Highlife Song of the Year’ category it would be because most of the Highlife musicians were too busy doing politics and scrambling for power.