For years, rapper Sarkodie has revered veteran rapper Obrafour as his idol and godfather.
He has on several occasions proclaimed that Obrafour is a major influence when it comes to his music and in fact, he has even touted that the ‘Yaanom’ hit rapper is his inspiration.
And after years of featuring the rap legend on some of his well-known tracks -including ‘Saa Okodie No’- some industry persons, who have watched a documentary on the Obrafour’s 20th anniversary in the Ghanaian music space, have started asking questions.
The documentary highlights some of the significant happenings since Obrafour started his rap career and also features key industry persons who played roles in the rapper’s career.
The documentary, which JoyNews has had the privilege of watching, features well-known industry names like CY Lover, Hammer, Tic Tac (now TiC), Kwaw Kese, KOD, Yvonne Nelson, M.anifest and a host of others.
Sarkodie missing
Considering the history between Obrafour and Sarkodie, it has come as a shock to some people, who have had the privilege of watching the documentary, that the latter is not featured in it.
Investigations by JoyNews have revealed that management and producers tried on several occasions to feature the ‘Artiste of the Decade’ winner at the 20th edition of the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards, in the documentary to no avail.
According to sources close to the anniversary planning team, Sarkodie, who was in Ghana throughout the shoot, kept giving the production team one excuse after the other till the team wrapped up the shoot on August 23.
A source explained that after several attempts, management of Sarkodie on one occasion (during a final attempt) told the production team, which shot the documentary at MiPROMO Studios in Dzorwulu, that the rapper was not appropriately dressed for the shoot.
JoyNews also gathers that rapper M.anifest, for instance, who was in Nigeria during the shoot, managed to fly back to Ghana just to be a part of the documentary.
According to sources, M.anifest actually drove straight to the location from the airport but had to go home after he was told he was in too early. He went home, freshened up and later returned for the shoot.
JoyNews has gathered that Obrafour is not happy that his ‘son’ could not get time to feature in the all-important documentary.
Obrafour, during a media engagement on Thursday, explained that “we invited everybody. If you don’t see anyone, ask them why they are not there. Some people were around but they didn’t want to show up.”
Sarkodie’s reaction
When JoyNews reached out Sarkodie’s team for an explanation as to why the rapper did not feature in the documentary, Angel, Sarkodie’s manager said, they tried their best to be a part of it and will never say “No” to Obrafour.
Angel explained that there were definitely arrangement issues because “Sarkodie” was over willing” to feature in the documentary.
According to him, the producer of the documentary called him and communicated that they would like to shoot Sarkodie’s bit at 2 pm on an agreed date but unfortunately, the rapper was still at Pastor Brian Amoateng’s IYES Conference at the National Theatre as at that time.
Sarkodie’s manager further said, Obrafour had later said he was sending the team over to his – Sarkodie – house to shoot the rapper’s part, which never happened.
“It’s just a matter of [mis]communication.”
“If right now self if these people want to shoot Sark[odie] a, he go shoot,” Angel said in pidgin. He noted that they would not have agreed to shoot if they were not interested.
Angel added that the team was at Obrafour’s Pae Mu Ka @20 launch in May this year and Sarkodie was even ready to perform at the main anniversary concert scheduled for the National Theatre on November 9.
An initial 30-minute version of the documentary will be premiered at the Silverbird Cinema on September 25.
The documentary will later be broken down into a 12-part 10 minutes series, to be shown later on TV.
Source: Myjoyonline.com
