Ghanaian rapper and songwriter, Okyeame Kwame, has revealed that his biggest failure, was his inability to maintain ‘One Mic Entertainment’, as a record label instead of a communications and events firm.
He made this disclosure during an interview with an Accra based radio station, where he stated that if his record label was able to stand the test of time, it would have been one of the greatest label in Ghana. Okyeame Kwame further asserted that the record label was turned into an advertising agency, ‘Firm Bridges Communications‘, which later became ‘OK communications’, since they had all the facilities that an advertising agency needs already.
“If you ask me about ‘one mic’, it was one of the things that I have done and failed woefully; yes I failed. I think that success is planning to do something, and actually achieving it. This is not how I envisioned one mic entertainment to end, because if it was still operating, it would have been rubbing shoulders with Lynx Entertainment. After all, we had the people who had the knowledge but we failed woefully”.
Recounting how he started his record label, he noted that there were established ones who had a wider reach of audience. However, with the emergence of the internet, all the established record labels complained about how business was faring, and therefore resolved him, to start his record label, since, none of the established ones were ready to sign him. He further noted that things were moving smoothly with his record label, until one day, when his team called it a day on the business.
“Before we came out, we had record labels that had reached. There was ‘Despite music’, ‘Ajikos music’, ‘You name it’, ‘Precise music’, and these were established record labels in Ghana and New York. All those people will produce an artist and spend money on them and distribute music. So, the artist was making money. Then came file sharing and the internet, they all stopped and started saying the internet is not working. So, for an artist like me, Obrafuor, Samini…all of us had to start our record label whether we knew how to manage or not because you either evolve or dissolve.
“So, I started ‘one mic entertainment’ based on Narcissist song ‘All I need is one mic’. That song incited me …I said even though it’s difficult I’ll do it, as long as I had a mic to amplify my voice… we started and it was going well, we produced many hits…we started managing Kofi B, Ben Brakao, but along the line, my team just gave up because of reasons I can’t mention”.
Speaking on his educational background, he revealed he will be going back to school to bag his Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy). He noted that he wouldn’t want to be just an artist who will be remembered for his songs only, but, something greater.
“I am working on having my Ph.D. The school is not to teach you how to be creative, but, teach you the theories behind the creation… I am growing and it will get to a point where I won’t look this cool and then what will I do with my art? I want to be able to become an ‘Nketia’ or ‘John Collins’, where I can sit back and gather data and write books to encourage young people”.
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