Former member of defunct Ghanaian hiplife group Akyeame and CEO of Emklan Productions, Quophi Okyeame has been making the tabloids and dominating most entertainment discussions over the past few days for what many have tagged “skin pain” after stating that multiple award winning artist Sarkodie did not make history as the first Ghanaian hiplife artist to play to a sold out crowd at the Apollo Theater in New York.
This comes after an erroneous impression was made by a section of the media that Sarkodie together with Kwaw Kese, E.L, Banky W, Shatta Wale and the UK based group Composerz made history on the 8th of August 2015 as they played to a sold out crowd at the Apollo Theater in a concert dubbed “Sarkodie History In The Making”.
Yes, in as much Quophi Okyeame admits that indeed Sarkodie made history as the first Ghanaian artist to have flown colleague musicians from Ghana, Nigeria and America to play at the theater but he only sought to correct the wrong impression and twist of facts by the media.
Just as such facts were twisted, so did the media misinterpret Quophi Okyeame’s post on Facebook.
After reading what was flying on most websites I was tempted to think Quophi Okyeame just wanted to stay in the news by tapping into Sarkodie’s glory.
This therefore paved way for a huge argument between us on a Whatsapp platform until he really made me understand what his post on Facebook sought to achieve and I believe he has a very valid point.
Just as he has mentioned on several radio interviews I have listened to, Quophi Okyeame is not against the title of Sarkodie’s concert neither is he undermining the achievements of the young rapper. He only sought to correct a section of the the media who perhaps never knew a Ghanaian music group had ever performed at the Apollo Theater and therefore described Sarkodie as the first Ghanaian artist to play at the venue.
After a little bit of research by my team at www.nydjlive.com, I realized the great Osibisa band played at the Theater o 16th October 1979, ten years after the group was formed in London and just as Quophi Okyeame has been saying all this while, Daddy Lumba together with Akyeame also played at the venue in 2000. A show that was supposed to see Reggie Rockstone perform. (He however could not perform though)
Can we now spare Quophi Okyeame all the insults and accept what real facts are?
