Nii Funny has poured his out about the predicament of Ghanaian musicians which really need urgent consideration. The Ebreki me crooner believes beneath the gloss, there is gloomy aspect of Ghana’s entertainment which impoverish many of his colleagues. He also detailed the bureaucracy involved before one can really make it big in the industry.
See below for his thesis:
“If musicians in Ghana would come out and truthfully tell their stories and the trials the go through, I’m not sure it would help in sparking some positive change. But the situation is bad yet because of things thing called branding and hype, we are all pretending it is okay. It is never okay and if nothing is done about it, our industry can never grow.
There is no help from any sector or institution. If you are a Ghanaian musician, you are on your own. If you do not have strong links in the system, you would never get the shows no matter how your songs are good. In fact, the songs would forever remain on the streets and never get pushed or promoted on mainstream media for you to get the exposure. And when you talk about these issues, some people say you are talking because you want hype. The system is bad and it has to change.
It is even worse when you do not have someone investing in your career. You may easily get frustrated and give up no matter how good you are. I think our situation is just like footballers who are very good but never get links to the national teams. Our society does not groom talents. They watch you struggle on your own and all they do is criticise, criticise and criticise and even when you try to do your best as a musician, our society is such that we tend to promote music from other countries, especially Nigeria, as if that is how Nigerians promote Ghanaian music in their country. But how far can my voice go when the elders in the music industry are all silent as if what is happening is right.
I have not been around for a very long time but already I can feel the frustration and I now understand why some of the best musicians we have had in Ghana grow old and become poor. It is not that they do not know how to invest. The truth is their intellectual property out there should be enough investment but the works are being used for free and very little is being done about it. Annoyingly, the very persons who use music for free are the same persons who laugh at music right owners for being poor.”
