Half of the award-winning Ghanaian music duo Ruff N Smooth, Ricky ‘Bullet’ Nana Agyemang, has revealed that the group’s failure is a result of ingratitude towards their former manager, Nathan Kwabena Anokye Adisi, also known as Bola Ray.
In an interview on ‘Ayekoo Ayekoo’ on Accra FM, the Rufftown Records owner shared that the music group experienced failure because of the disrespectful way they parted ways with their former manager.
He said, “There’s a spirit that deals with [ungrateful] people and this accounts for why artists experience failure when they “bang the door” behind them and leave their managers.”
He explained that he found this out the hard way and bemoaned that: “People do not really understand how this life works.”
The record owner noted that “I always say that the things Bola Ray has done for me, in my life, my father and no one else has done that for me, but at a point in time, we had to move on from him [and] instead of sitting with him and respectfully informing him that it was time for us to move and asking for his blessing, we did not,” he narrated.
“We had met someone else and, flippantly claiming we did not have a contract with Bola, we left,” Bullet revealed and noted the dark times that almost swiftly followed their unprofessional exit.
“From that time, any song we worked on was not successful. Bola did not seek black magic against us, let’s be clear. It was not necessary for him to even do that. “Nature and [principles] God has placed on the earth” were responsible, the singer and music executive stressed.
He cautioned artists to be mindful in their dealings with people who wholeheartedly help them even if it is not financially.
He also added that sometimes artiste managers go beyond the contract signed to help artists.
“I may be managing you and making no money out of it,” Bullet illustrated. “You may even come to me for money to take care of your mother. That’s surely not part of the business. We do things beyond the business” so you cannot insinuate that I have done nothing for you and ask me sarcastically “are you God?”
“Was it God who invested his money in you? He used a human being to do it and in that position, that human is your god and so when you fight that person, you are actually messing with God,” he postulated.
Mr Bullet Agyemang maintained there is no “record label boss or manager who will go somewhere and pray or chant for the downfall of an artiste when they fall out. It won’t happen because the label boss [already] knows karma is real.”
Ruff (Bullet) N Smooth (Akhan) came to prominence on the back of their 2010 album ‘Swagger’ which housed hits like its title track, ‘Azingele’, ‘Martha (Sex Machine)’ and ‘Naija Baby’.
The group is not as active as it used to be. In 2018, manager Theophilus Amoah Baah denied that the group has disbanded. According to him, Bullet and Ahkan are concentrating on individual projects.
It would appear, the last time the award-winning group released music was in 2017: ‘Medicine’ featuring Baafour. Before this, they had the 2016 hit ‘Shabba’
