More interesting revelations have come out of a secretly recorded conversation that captured Richie Mensah, Chief Executive of Lynx Entertainment, confiding in a friend why musicians Asem and Eazzy left his record label.
NEWS-ONE has laid hands on
a copy of the said tape in which Richie described Asem as an ingrate that
repays good with evil.
Richie, on the same tape,
was also heard describing Eazzy as a hypocrite because she really stood by Lynx
and gave the company a lot of encouragement when Asem left, only for her to do
the same thing a few months later.
He went on to describe
Eazzy’s decision to leave as unexpected, painful and a stab in the back. ‘It was unexpected, and felt like the
greatest betrayal.’
Richie and Eazzy have been
friends and close confidants for many years even before her signing onto the Lynx
label.
On the tape, Richie
revealed that his relationship with Eazzy became stronger during the Asem
breakaway period and it was one of the reasons why he kept faith with the music
industry after the incident.
Richie said after Asem’s
departure, Lynx threw all its resources behind Eazzy’s career with the aim of
putting her on a higher pedestal. Lynx went ahead to shoot one of the label’s
most expensive videos till date, for Eazzy’s ‘Go Go Wind’ single.
Eazzy |
Richie said it was while
shooting the video that rumors started making the rounds that Eazzy was
considering leaving the label although Eazzy vehemently denied the reports.
According to Richie, it
therefore came as a shock when, on April Fool’s Day last year, Eazzy hinted
that she wanted to leave the label and then days later went ahead to make it
official.
“It hurt even more, when I had to break the news to my
mom who was personally involved heavily in Eazzy’s career. So difficult, that
it took two weeks of mustering courage to be able to finally divulge the news
to her. The news broke her completely and kept her crying for two days…”
He said it was only after
Eazzy’s departure that the Lynx team found out about her joining the Big
Brother Africa reality show even though she was still on the label when she
auditioned.
Following another
betrayal, Richie said, he decided to stay away from the music business even
though he had just released ‘Changing Faces’, the first single off a 17-track
album that he had already completed and getting ready to release.
“I completely lost faith
in this business.” Instead he dedicated his creative energies to other ventures
such as Lynx TV, his company’s new entertainment magazine show, as well as Lynx
Communications, a subsidiary of Lynx Ghana Limited that is into advertising.
He maintained that his
only link to the music industry during the period was working with D3 on their
album, since they had already been signed on to the label.
However, after
a prolonged break from music, and with a new year in, Richie said, he’s ready
to let go the past, and has learnt to forgive and forget; revealing that both
he and Eazzy still communicate regularly.
So Richie is back on to
making music again; focused on making music again and 2013 will perhaps see him
more prominent in the music industry.
The video for Richie’s
first single in over 10 months, aptly titled, ‘This Is Love’ was released this week.
The most affected person in the Lynx artistes
saga however, according to Richie, was his mother, Mrs. Alberta Mensah, who has
been the main pillar of support for the label right from the start. She is said
to have urged him to quit music and not sign on anymore artistes to the label
due to what she referred to as ‘Asem and Eazzy’s ingratitude.’
But as it stands now he
didn’t take his mother’s advice. Perhaps one day one of them will be telling
the other, “I told you.”
Richie started Lynx
Entertainment fresh out of high school supported by a loan taken out by his
mother on her teachers’ salary. His dream was to build a family of great talent
that would make great music and change the face of the music industry.
As a result, the label
invested heavily in Asem’s career, sparing no expense in ensuring that he would
rise to the level of a grade A level artiste in Ghana.
Asem was the first artiste
(apart from Richie) signed onto the Lynx Entertainment label right out of
Senior High school and was made the
poster boy of the label, as he consistently churned out hit after hit, all of
which were produced by Richie.
After Asem came others
like OJ Blaq, Eazzy, Ziggy and now D3.
Credit: NEWS-ONE
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