Ghanaian artiste, Kaakyire Kwame Appiah has revealed the genesis of the corrupt act of paying media houses to play or promote one’s song, started media guru Kwame Despite.
Kaakyire who later became an accomplice made the confession in an interview with Hammer Nti on the show “Hammer Time” on Kumasi based Pure FM.
He confessed saying;
‘I want to show you where payola came from. I was recording my song 24 at the Ghana Films Studio with five engineers, then I went to Despite to get inlays for my new track and also to collect money he (Despite) owed me. After listening to the song Osei Kwame Despite told me it was a good one and showed interest in doing business with me by being the main distributor.
According to Kaakyire Kwame Appiah, after Despite paid his debt, he asked of how much he would charge him should his name be featured in the “Bronya” hit song.
He added that, ‘After telling him the price for a studio recording of ¢40,000 cedis (old currency), he agreed to pay me ¢100,000 and also gave ¢20,000 each for the five engineers working on the record. So he started paying Payola to the sound engineers to include his name to the music.’
Eventually, Kaakyire Kwame Appiah featured Osei Kwame Despite’s name in the later part of the music.
