Yemi Alade: Sarkodie was unprofessional

Fans of the ‘Johnny’ singer might be aware she recorded a song with Sarkodie on her last album Mama Africa. Titled ‘Ego’, the song, claims Yemi Alade, was supposed to be released as a single with an accompanying video. That failed to happen as the Ghanaian star was “unprofessional and unkind”.

“I can count three different countries and three different venues where my team and I had an agreement with the artiste [Sarkodie] in particular and he didn’t come through,” she said, speaking as guest on a chat show in Ghana.

“I’ve really tried my best to really not go into details but the long and short on why I don’t want to dwell on this is that is super unfair, unprofessional and unkind for international acts or even artistes to have a dealing with anybody and after agreeing to certain things, you don’t come through at all.”

Alade said Sarkodie, a frequent collaborator with Nigerian artists, has not apologised for his behaviour, and the rapper is yet to respond to Alade’s remarks. Sarkodie himself was the recipient of an apology only days ago, as organisers of the One Africa Festival apologised for mistreating him at an event in Dubai.

While speaking on the chat show, Alade alluded to the male and female power dynamic in the music industry, a concern Ghanaian artist Wiyaala has spoken about, saying the Ghanaian music industry is "by men, for men".

“I don’t want to bring in the feminine and masculine inequality we’re experiencing in the industry…I don’t want to link it to that,” said Alade. “I was pained as a person but I’ll say it is almost impossible to promote a project that is supposed to be for two people when the other party isn’t coming through at all, the music pretty much suffers."

She added that: "The good thing about the whole thing is that I already had my name so I’m not bothered. He never got back to apologize and I’m over it. He asked that we meet in UK, America, and South Africa and it never happened. And because we realized that we were in the same location at the same period and realized that our calendars were kind of linking up in these three countries, we tried to make it work. But the moment we tried to link up and make things work it didn’t work, it was gross unprofessionalism on his part."

Sarkodie, however, has collaborated with other female Nigerian artists including Tiwa Savage and Seyi Shay, appearing in the video for ‘Weekend Vibes’ with the latter.

Yemi Alade has announced a 15 December release date for her third album, Black Magic. Ahead of the album, she has released a video for the single 'Single & Searching' featuring Falz. Watch it below: