Why Tema Artistes flourish; what they do right that others need to emulate

• Posted on January 3, 2014January 3, 2014
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• 1 Comment

Music in Ghana now is headquartered in Tema, a Metropolitan town in Ghana. Hitherto, Takoradi and Accra were the heartbeats of music in Ghana as the top Artistes and those whose names on front-pages bring amazing statistics to the medium.

Critically mention top 5 names in Ghana music and 4 or all of them will be Tema Acts. With BET nestling in Tema and over 80 awards in the city, no one can argue Artistes from the region are not flourishing.

Carefully analyzing what makes the Tema Artiste expand and burgeon, one conclusion anyone who is close to the fraternity would come to is UNITY. Even though there are some petty misunderstanding and ‘beefs’ among few of the Acts, the force of unity over powers the beefs.

It is rumoured that when an Artiste wants to feature Mugeez (R2Bees) on a song and the song is not produced by either Killbeatz or Possi Gee, he would overlook it. Killbeatz and Possi Gee are two Sound Engineers from Tema.

If anyone has carefully noticed, any link to a new song which is tweeted or facebooked by any Tema Artiste is from the website of a Tema Blogger and unless for retweets, they would not first handedly promote the link of other websites which are not brewed in Tema.

R2Bees on 29^th December, 2013 had a show in Takoradi and ‘privilegly’ I got the chance to spend time with the management at the plush Stellar Lodge. The duo came together with their ‘musical team.’ The MC of the event, MC Coaches was flown to the Oil City as well as DJ Mynor, a Tema resident DJ and all supporting Acts (Tiffany, Humble Dis, Criss Waddle) were Tema gurus.

Again, they make great use of the Social Media. They understand the need and relevance of social media in this era where the lives of people are lived best on the internet, particularly the social media. Twitter is highly utilized by Tema Showbizers and that is one thing that has made them famous even those who are known for doing nothing.

Good branding and scarcity. Too much circulation reduces value and Tema Artistes understand why they should be scarce in order to be appreciated and valued. One Blogger in a discussion revealed that, he hardly sees the top Tema Artistes in the club if not an event but on a normal day, other Artistes from the parts are seen all over and often.

You cannot change a winning team, my favourite success quote. Even though some may not admit music in Ghana is mothered in Tema as at now, the winners in the game now are from that region and one objective part of this piece is that, the Writer is from Takoradi and not Tema so if others would objectively learn from the great names now, then Ghana Music would go far.

Long live Ghana music, long live Ghana and God bless us all.

Author: Nana Kwesi Coomson (www.233times.net)