This is part 2 of the interview with Richie, Asem and OJ Blaq. Check out the first instalment at this link.

Museke: What is the inspiration for the songs you write?
Asem – Inspiration is divine, someone might say, you look at your environment and write songs. God inspires you to see what you see around. What people say through conversation and when someone passes a phrase, you catch it and use in the studio. You use someone’s experience - life experiences.

OJ Blaq – It comes from around, reality, what happens in the world and the people in the studio. Everybody around would give you ideas, it’s like a family. People give pointers, Richie directs most of the works I do. Anybody around who is also musically inclined chips in, and if it works out, we take it. We don’t mind who talks, if it’s good for what Lynx is doing, it’s allowed. You see realities around. If you feel what you bring (that) something out, it would make people comfortable, then you use it.

Richie – It comes from within and without. Music is inside of me so I get some ideas from divine inspiration and some from my environment and people around me.

Museke: Richie, where did you learn to make beats and what are some songs you’ve done beats for?
It was self-taught. I started making beats because I was suffering to find producers who could make beats for the kind of music I wanted to do. I have this belief that with determination everything is possible. I started when I was 17.
I have done beats for Scientific (Till Africa unites), Heated up (Irene n Jane), Tinny (Incomplete), Okyeame Kwame (Wo so n Mmaa), Amandzeba and Irene and Jane (Don’t want to be lonely), Tiffany (How we do it), Asem (Gimme blow), OJ Blaq (Me kura mu), among others.

Museke: What musicians would you want to collaborate with?
Asem – I would love to do a song with Kojo Antwi. One artiste that I always admired was Okyeame Kwame. Also Gyedu Blay Ambulley. Akon as well, and would love to do a song with Magic System, as well as Freshlyground and Rocky Dawuni.

OJ Blaq – Rocky Dawuni, Atongo Zimba; they are the guys I want to do something with that would have international impact. I also want to work with the TKZee boys, Eedris Abdulkareem, T-Pain, and Rick Ross.

Richie – Kojo Antwi, Osibisa, P-Square, Lionel Richie, R Kelly, Ludacris.

Museke: Richie, Frema has been hailed as an excellent video. Who shot it and should we expect more videos soon?
Abraham Ohene Djan – he is one person I really admire. Frema remix video is coming out soon shot by Prime Target.

Museke: For you Richie again, how is Lynx entertainment going and what other musicians are on the label?
We are trying to do music that just sells not just to Ghana but all over the world. We want to mix cultures from other countries to sell all over the world. We do African hip hop, African RnB, African dancehall, African pop, African crunk, African rock, etc. It’s a studio and a record label. The first 3 artistes are Richie, Asem and OJ Blaq.

Museke: What challenges do you face in the Ghanaian music industry?
Asem - I think for an artiste in Ghana the greatest challenge is payola (for a young artiste in Ghana who is not established). Once you become established, they (the deejays) become your friends. It’s about trying to get your music across your immediate environment.

OJ Blaq – Playa hating; even if you r doing music, people don’t want to listen to you. It’s good for people to criticize and appreciate. It’s because sometimes when they hear the music, they don’t want to understand.

Richie – As an executive producer, challenges have been getting funds to promote the music. But as an artiste, I haven’t faced many because most people have been receptive and a good product sells itself.

Museke: What is your take on piracy and payola?
OJ Blaq – To me, payola is not a good thing. If you do something good for me, I know I have to show some appreciation, but you don’t have to charge me. When the music is good, you play it so that you can help each other. With the Lynx boys, no one is a drop out or street boy, everyone is level headed, everyone is doing something proper aside the music.

Richie – I will like to talk about it (payola) from an angle most people don’t talk about it from. I would never fully blame the DJs for payola, I will partly blame the radio stations. Majority of the deejays working at the stations are not paid directly by the station and some of those who are, are paid very small amounts. You have to rise to a very high standard as a deejay before you earn an income. It makes the small deejays work very hard for little or no income. They tend to extort from musicians to take care of their day-in and day-out activities. It is a very wrong trend which is going on in Ghana, but it ain’t from the DJs who are looking out for themselves but it could be solved from the radio stations. Even though the DJs are not receiving money, they should realize it would be unfair for the musicians to pay money to every deejay they come across. Money paid to a deejay should be more of an appreciation than a duty.
Concerning piracy, it starts from the common man. Before I was a musician, I never bought a CD, yet I had thousands of songs on my PC. But from becoming a musician, I began to realize how much I was hurting the musicians. Even though they are entertaining us, they are working hard to deliver good music to us, piracy hurts their careers and the music on the whole. I believe the laws against piracy and the copyright laws must be strengthened. I am impressed with the fact that most of the top dogs are trying to revolutionize the system to implement these laws.

Museke: What is your take on miming as opposed to performing with live instruments or deejays?
Richie - They say that we should try performing with live instruments, whereas we are creating music using a variety of music instruments. Asem’s track (Gimme blow) uses an electric guitar plug-in/effect called WASP thinsaws which has a double flanger effect on it. So now if any show guy can guarantee that they can get this equipment then he can do live band music. But when you give him just a guitar, he can’t do it.
Even my songs, I use a lot of cellos and violins, some songs have xylophones, etc. where are we going to get xylophonists to run around with us?
Unless, they are willing to step up and provide the instruments, then we can do it. If they are okay with us just recording with a few instruments then we can do it. But if they expect high quality music, then we need the high quality instruments. These days people are using special stage effects to make it more interesting.

Asem - With the whole live band thing, I perform with a DJ. Worldwide, they just go with a deejay. P Diddy came on stage with on orchestra, not a band. R Kelly performed with sequencers. U can’t expect a band to perform hip hop.

Museke: Asem, When is your album coming out and what should we expect?
Richie speaks - Album (Better late than Never) would be launched in May. Give me blow video is in the works, people should expect it sober rather than later.

Museke: How are you able to balance schooling with doing music?
Asem - I have a timetable, I use time management. Fortunately for me, my course is a little bit flexible, and I have the love for it. Since I am in the media, I have a good idea of broadcasting and mass communications, from that background it’s flexible.

OJ Blaq – It’s going rough, all the schools I’ve done, it’s been afternoon classes. Sometimes we shoot Sun City in the morning, etc.

Richie - Just finished a diploma in computer software engineering at NIIT (National Institute of Information Technology), right now just doing music. I am a producer, engineer, and singer

Museke: What is in the future of your (Ghanaian) music?
Asem - After the album, I want to launch a campaign on sex education as a social responsibility. I think youth would correspond to me more, I would get resource persons to help. It’s a major reason for indiscipline among the youth because parents and teachers don’t teach them about it. They believe they are ‘colo’, they don’t see how the kids have changed. Kids trust their friends more than their parents.

OJ Blaq – The future is bright, I don’t think I will ever drop from showbiz. Very soon, we’ll see some movies and television programs by Lynx, everybody at lynx has something other than music, apart from just the music. I am doing the acting in between, it’s allowed. It’s the same family – show business.

Richie – I want to start a multimedia empire in Ghana, strong enough to compete internationally. I want to help as many musicians come out under the label to boost the general standard of music in Ghana.

Museke: How can Ghanaian music expand and sell outside?
Asem - We are not daring enough, we don’t have the code to break the impossible. Think it’s just about smooth talking and showing people how creative you are. It’s about how you talk to someone. Ghanaians are scared of big people. You know say you for tackle ronaldinho, etc. We are not daring, we don’t face fear. It’s not making the game grow, slowing the game a little bit. Everybody is scared. A manager for a big artiste, why is he not going to Naija? He will go but we are scared of Naija, you see how they are, etc.

Richie – I believe that music is universal, one of his favoritee slow songs right now is in Japanese. So I believe if Ghanaians are a little bit more serious with the music and do music of high enough standards to sell outside, we can make it. To be honest, I’m impressed with how the up and coming musicians are putting in the effort to do international music.

Museke: Do you have a website?
Websites, richiemusic.com

Museke: Give us your Parthian shot.
Asem - Music is growing in Africa and I know for a fact that there are Africans outside working in entertainment. They should come back and help. You could see names in XXL, Source magazine and you see people with African names doing stuff. They should help.

OJ Blaq – Ghanaians can do it. We have talent and good products, but for the Nigerians, they are daring and risk taking. They are putting a lot of money into their business, collaborating with international artistes. A lot of Ghanaians out there are scared to say they are Ghanaians. We are telling them that the music industry is growing, and Ghana needs to expand on the showbiz market. It’s a virgin market. We are urging them to watch out for what is going in Ghana. One big luv from the Biggie Boy Lover.

Richie – Thank everybody who’s helped me get here and, believed in me. No matter who you are, you can make whatever you want come true. Because from my experience, I began with nothing in music, and with the help from the people around me, I’ve been able to build what I have now. No one should ever give up.