BREAKDOWN OF SARKODIE-ACE HOOD’S MIX UP + MY OPINIONS

On May 15, 2015, Sarkodie officially announced a new feature with popular American musician Ace Hood, via a tweet attached with the recording session video. Ace posted a picture on Facebook as well about the upcoming track, titled “New Guy”. As you’d expect, the internet went wild over the history-making collaboration. Fast forward to May 21, he granted an interview to Bola Ray on Starr 103.5 FM.

In the interview, he hinted that Ace Hood actually contacted his agents in the United States for which he was informed by them. He added the “Bugatti” hitmaker’s largest fanbase next to US is in Accra. Therefore Ace checked who he can collaborate with from Africa considering the sound he prefers, and luckily for Sark, it was him.

However, the next day, one young man with the twitter handle ‘@cazalbek’ who seem to know the details about the collaboration tweeted furiously how he thinks Sarkodie is disrespecting Ace, attaching a link of 233Prime.com’s post of Sarkodie’s interview. After a while on that same day, the Hood Nation general himself replied to the tweet after being mentioned by @cazalbek, revealing that the track got done after he received $25,000 for the feature. Social media went haywire after this, with some calling him a liar, and others still hailing him as our music king.

As it stands, the full story which will include the truth isn’t known, as Sarkodie and his management have kept mute about it. We can’t testify who’s saying the truth, and who’s telling the lie. There are a couple of issues I want to address on this issue.

To begin with, I personally think Sarkodie for how professional I know him to be, and how he puts his brand first won’t just make a statement which he surely knows is false. In my humble opinion, I think there was a mash-up in between, and a probable misinformation between him, his management and agents. All the same, if he wasn’t cock sure, he shouldn’t have spoken with such confidence. As a celebrity, every word that comes out from his mouth to the public is taken serious even more than his songs. Hence, it’s necessary for an artist to have an intense session with his team before an interview because it’s a very crucial and important moment in an artist’s life. The “Illuminati” hitmaker may have to completely confirm all information before he releases or says it.

On to Ace Hood, I expected him to act more professionally, by contacting the management and agents of Sarkodie before tweeting that. Just reading a website post isn’t enough to confirm the authenticity of some news, especially when you have direct relations with the artist.

Sometimes I get worried as to why people don’t respect bloggers, but I blame it on some non-professional bloggers. The 233Prime.com’s post boldly reads “Sarkodie Reveals How Ace Hood ‘Begged Him’ For a Collaboration”, which isn’t entirely true because the word he used was “contacted”. This probably made Ace Hood disgruntled so much that he wasn’t able to hold on to his piece. Bloggers instead of trying to put the paralyzed industry in shape are crippling it the more with non-researched information. Please, fellow entertainment journalists/bloggers, let’s not twist information or post unconfirmed news just to get views and traffic. Let’s see our job as a profession and respect our brand.

I must say, I was of mixed feelings when I saw tweets of people to Ace accusing Sarkodie of tricking Ghanaians with Konvict Music’s signing and dissing him as well.

Let’s understand almost each artist has a standard charge for a feature, which is dynamics. Upon unconfirmed checks in 2014, I found out Ace charges $20,000 for a feature. It’s no big deal for Sarkodie’s management to pay such amount to Ivy League Hit’s signee. Fellow Ghanaians, whether we’re proud of him or not, Sarkodie is the biggest act in Ghana at the moment. With an empty industry, he has been able to soar through the fire to get this high, staying relevant and growing each year since 2009. He has climbed so many stages around the world. He is still the only Ghanaian musician to have won a BET award. Also to his credit is an MTV award. All I want to say is that we should support him to reach the skies. I’m not saying we can’t complain or criticize him when he does wrong, but some of us are going too far with this. Let’s be conscious and understand there are lapses in the life of every great artist. Little do we know how this affects our artists. Let’s stay with him in this moment and rise his spirit people.