You Can’t Just ‘Cancel’ An Artiste — Amandzeba
In the last two weeks, rapper Black Sherif has been trending following his fallout with his investor Wayne Charvis.
The man is reported to have given Black Sherif an apartment, four cars, a personal sound engineer and a live band he rehearses with among other perks but felt betrayed by news of the artiste signing a deal with US record label Empire Entertainment.
The fallout, which has been trending for some days now has seen some entertainment pundits and artiste managers calling for Black Sherif to be blocked or cancelled as punishment.
According to Wikipedia, cancel culture or call-out culture is a modern form of ostracism in which someone is thrust out of social or professional circles – whether it be online, on social media, or in person.
However, celebrated Highlife musician Amandzeba has dismissed that suggestion, saying no media house or group of people have the right to block or blacklist any artiste.
“It is just not right for any media house or industry players to deliberately block an artiste because he/she has issues with their managers or investors. We are rather blocking creativity which will harm us in the end.
“Before an artiste signs a contract with a manager or investor, there is a contractual agreement so it is the court that decides who is wrong or right. I heard of Black Sherif’s issue and if it is anything to go by, I will rather suggest that we help him come out of the situation because he is a global asset.
“For instance his collabo with Burna Boy is great. Burna Boy is an international artiste and if a Ghanaian is going that far, all we can do is to support him rather than gang up against him. It will not do us any good. We are rather killing talents. Whatever problem he has with his manager or investor should be between them,” Amandzeba told Graphic Showbiz.
Sound engineer Appietus who has managed some A-list Ghanaian artistes shared Amandzeba’s views.
According to Appietus, there are laws in the country so if any artiste breaches a contract, it is the law that deals with it and not an individual, group of people or media houses.
“I believe we should allow the law to deal with it because both parties have binding contracts. If there is any fallout, it is the court that decides and no one else,” he said.
To singer Camidoh, the industry does not belong to anyone so no one has the right to block the shine of any artiste. “If anyone is hurt by what is going on between Black Sherif and his investor, they can trash it out in court. It is not up to any individual who feels one party was wrong,” he stated.
Artiste manager Emmanuel Barnes popularly known as Mr Logic whose pronouncement on Daybreak Hitz on Hitz FM last week started this conversation insisted to Graphic Showbiz that any artiste who breaches a contract with his manager or investor must be blacklisted by industry players so they learn from the experience.
“The industry needs to start learning this loyalty by having a barricade else these young musicians will drive all investors away. I know a lot of managers who are no more in business because artistes accused them of stealing their monies. It is about time we protected these investors,” he said.
For his part, artiste manager and sound engineer Kaywa stated that a lot of education has to be done when it comes to artistes appending their signatures to the dotted lines of contracts.
“Most times young artistes are in haste to sign contracts without looking at what it entails but there is the need to employ a legal team who would check all these things for both parties.
“But whatever be the case, it is just not right for anyone to say that an artiste has wronged him so they are blocking him. It is not done anywhere,” he said.