Don’t talk down on artistes’ creativity —Rex Omar

FOR the past couple of weeks, Sarkodie's feature on Bob Marley's Stir It Up has been a major highlight on conversations about the creative abilities of artistes.

With varied opinions on his delivery on the song taking centre stage in the ongoing exchanges, veteran Highlife artiste, Rex Omar is not happy about the development.

Speaking with the Graphic Showbiz on Monday, February 6, the Abiba hitmaker questioned the reason for which people call-out the creative skills of artistes.

According to Rex Omar, who is also the Board Chairman of Ghana Music Rights Organisation(GHAMRO), no one had the right to judge the works of artistes, particularly when such works positively projected the country on the international stage.

He argued that condemnation of creative works affected the confidence of creatives in putting forward their products, which was a bad score to the growth of the industry.

“No one has the right to talk down on anyone’s creative prowess, especially when they make great strides and are putting Ghana’s entertainment industry on the global map.

“It is a very bad thing to do because these international collaborations offer our industry and the artistes many benefits like selling our culture to a bigger audience, increasing the revenue streams for our artistes and also widen the scope of their audience and so when we have people who deliberately talk down on these things knowing fully well the numerous benefits that come with, it becomes a worrying situation.

“Bob Marley is a global icon and for his estate managers to find Sarkodie worthy of this great move, I believe they have seen how big Sarkodie is and the impact his feature will have on a remake of that classic.

“If Sarkodie’s collaboration had been offered to an artiste in Nigeria, you will see how his fellow artistes will throw their weight behind him and celebrate him, but here in Ghana, we have colleague artistes talking down on this feat,” he added.