Music producer and sound engineer, Fred Kyei Mensah, has vehemently asserted that he played a pivotal role in discovering the Hiplife group 5Five.
5Five, a prominent group composed of Papi, Killy, and Juno, was known for their hits like “African Girls,” “Move Back,” “Bossu Kena,” and more.
Fred Kyei Mensah shared his perspective during an interview with sit-in host Prince Benjamin (PB) on Accra 100.5 FM. During the interview, he expressed his frustration with certain radio presenters who, fueled by their on-air influence, have exploited their positions over the years, leaving him at a disadvantage.
He also expressed his satisfaction with how technological advancements have shifted the power to determine hits and cultivate stars from traditional media personalities to ordinary people on social media.
“Prince, I really suffered in the year 2000 and something in the hands of radio personalities,” he said.
He narrated how “people would come to my studio and I’d do a very nice demo – demos in those days were like the original – because that’s what was used to determine if you’d get help or not. I did this hoping when the person finds an [executive] producer, they’d bring them to me.
“Eventually, when they found the producer, they’d go and ask a certain radio presenter – they were the gatekeepers at that time – who’d tell them if they don’t programme their music at this particular producer’s studio, they will not play the music.”
Fred Kyei Mensah urged his audience to delve into the music of the 2000s and observe how only a handful of music producers were responsible for a significant portion of the songs played on the radio during that era.
He recalled how, when he listened to the radio during that time, he was frequently surprised to hear songs that featured beats resembling his own work, indicating that his influence and production style had a far-reaching impact on the music scene of that era.
He cited 5Five as a typical example.
“I discovered them and programmed all their beats but before I realised, the beat was playing somewhere and it had some of my elements in it. Yes, the Adabraka boys – I discovered them [5Five],” Fred Kyei Mensah said, noting: “At the time Samini was in school at St. Mary’s and they all used to come to my studio.”
He asserted, contrary to public belief, it was not music executive Bullgod, formerly Bulldog, who discovered 5Five.
“No, listen to me. I discovered them and did all their stuff for them, and then Bulldog took them and recorded them, and managed them. I didn’t hand them over [to Bulldog]. Listen carefully.
“Their first studio experience and music that came out, I was the one who programmed it and it was in my studio. I was hoping they’d get an [executive] producer and bring them to me,” Fred explained.
He said when Papi, disgruntled, fought with music producer Appietus over music royalties recently, “he told me a lot of things but I don’t want to say it here”.
The first song Fred Kyei Mensah, alias Fredyma, did for 5Five, “which was their first single, I did it about 20 years ago,” he noted.
He said “were it not for the destructive floods,” he would have still had the archives of all the artistes who came to his studio from the very beginning, to show.
“I recorded everybody in a book, including the time they came to the studio,” he said.
“Were it not for my demo, who would have had an interest in them?” the Voice Factory Judge quizzed. “It was through what I did for them that the person realised their music is good.”
He said 5Five “was forced” to go record an official single at another place because of a radio presenter, and so they did not return to him as he had hoped.
He said since Obaapa Gladys’ Cobra went viral, he has received calls where people have confessed to “sinning against me”. According to him, the unnamed artistes said they were asked to go record at a different studio else their music would not be played on the radio. Meanwhile, they had initially wanted to come to Fredyma Studios, Pokuasi.
An entertainment pundit, Fred Kyei Mensah, strongly rebuked the “prevalent” ‘cobra behaviour’ where people “impede your progress and speak ill about others, claiming they don’t deserve certain things”.
During heavy rain and flooding on June 3, 2015, a state-owned fuel station, Goil, at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle exploded in Accra, while people had gone there to take refuge.
The disaster of fire and flood affected the iconic Fredyma Studios which was in the community.
On social media, CEO of Fredyma Studios, Fred Kyei Mensah, wrote: “I have lost all my studio equipment, and 15 dead bodies all lying on the street in front of my studio after yesterday’s flooding. I am indeed traumatised. Remember me in your prayers. The studio is about 50 meters from the Kwame Nkrumah Circle.”
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