We Can Not Blame All Musicians For The Growth Of The Industry – George Mensah Britton

Ghanaian Music Executive George Britton M. Britton Of GB  Records and  Manager of Sensational Afrobeats artist Camidoh has also added his views on how to sell the Ghanaian genre of music to the world’s largest market whenever they find themself outside Africa.

The Talent Manager made this statement in an open interview on Facebook with DjAshemen and Dada Obee when they were discussing Ghana music and how to advance it to other countries. George M. Britton recently was with Camidoh and King Promise at the AfroNation 2022 which took place in Portugal to make sure Ghanaian songs and culture are heard beyond Africa which has really brought numbers to them after performing sugarcane remix which featured King Promise, Darkovibes Nigerian superstar Mayorkun for the first in AfroNation at Portugal.

In a Learning conversation, when diluting into matters in the industry, he said, ” Listen we cannot blame all musicians for the growth of the industry, we all as people need to grow in that direction, listen, the artist can only get better when the executives are better when the system and structures are better. At the moment what the artist is doing, listen, the artist is doing better. These artists are doing better for themselves with no or little support. Now things are really changing, you know before then we were looking at Jay-Z for motivation but now we are looking at ourselves, today you look at Kofi Jamah in Keyan and say oh what is Kofi Jamah doing in Keyan and other kinds of stuff look I am not saying at first we look at Jay- Z and the others to do what they are doing, you know you look at Gyakie and say oh what is Gyakie in Nigeria you see it motivate as to keep on moving on with our dreams”

He also mentioned that at times Ghanaian artists or some artists from Africa depend on foreign promoters for flying tickets when billed for a show, he fumed that foreign promoters will never add your flying tickets to his budget in no any other way unless he wants to do it, ” we went to AfroNation we spent our own money to fly from Accra to Portugal, to sleep in Portugal and come back to London it was our own money” He said.

Adding up to the conversation was a Ghanaian artist manager, who represents Patoranking’s management in Ghana, also a manager for Kofi Jamar and a plug for promotion, Dada Obee who also shared some experiences he had at AFRIMA back in November 2021.

AFRIMA is a combined effort by music professionals across the continent aimed at celebrating the rich musical heritage of the African continent. About 44 countries vied to be the host of the iconic continental award AFRIMA.

Dada Obee also said, “We did the same too for AFRIMA back in November 2021 and not only for AFRIMA but we wanted to perform at AFRIMA because we saw it as an opportunity for us to upstream and introduce our music to a new audience because AFRIMA is like an award where the whole Africa is coming, like artists from Burundi and some other countries you never hear before so we filled our own bill and we went to perform at AFRIMA and it was a success, we actually go on somebody’s set. When asked by DjAshmen what inspired him to travel that far, He said, “We are seeking new opportunity because we feel like music is beyond Ghana, is beyond Nigeria, we have East African doing an amazing with their music which we can just close our eyes and mention few artists from East Africa which are doing it in terms of numbers and opportunities and all of that. Diamond can actually rock shoulders with any artist from the West and I’m not capping. So we felt like we just want to do something from the ordinary because it was also in Ghana and we pushing our sounds to be already accepted in Ghana, tho we feel like we still have a long way to go”.

Joining the conversation also was Sadiq Abdulla Abu, founder of 3Music Awards and an Entrepreneur, who also added a few to the already point suggested. He started by congratulating  George M. Britton and Dada Obee for their good works, ” I like the zeel with which George and Obee are running with, is very good, everybody has got their inside, I think that we will wish  everybody can run at a certain speed but sometimes and these things remind me every time, what you see or what George sees or what Obee sees is not what everybody sees you get the point, Obee might have seen inside where he works, George might have also seen inside where he works and it’s working for them and they are running with it, you get, sometimes it’s not everybody that understands it that way, The samething like me, what I will see and run with, see last year when we started wilder land somebody picked it up said why are you doing wilder land it’s a waste of time it’s so it’s that and I was like tho I am not thinking about it within the first time because it’s the first time, I am thinking about it in the next 5 years, it is the same thing I take run 3Music today 3Music has it own office their are a numbers of things i can say that are coming up, radio and a whole lot of things up with 3Music and by the time we launch it in August, first week of August it’s like a whole ecosystem we built. But it just didn’t start like that I started with something very small but I run with it”, he said.

African music is now penetrating into the world market as long as Ghanaian music is concerned and we all ort help push it to get the recognition it wanted as Ghanaians, most of the genres that are been enjoyed by other artists in some countries really originated from Ghana and beyond.

Watch the full conversation on Facebook @DjAshmen page for details