KASAPAHENE: Kwaw Kesse And VIP Clash At “Nite With The Stars": The Untold Story! +Videos

Kwaw Kesse at Nite with the stars

Obviously Joy FM, organizers of the annual “Night with the Stars” event did not expect a violent ending when they decided to tag two very popular suburbs Accra and Tema against each other on stage to entertain their fans. Over the years, the event has always been a straight forward musical concert without any competition whatsoever. Even when there was, it was only through SMS from their fans. So one would wonder why the organizers decided to promote such a competition among rappers when violence and confrontations have always been part of the history of the rap game all over the world, and it has always been between two areas. For instance, West Coast and East Coast in American hip hop history.

Why would the organizers, in an election year and more especially a few days to elections when tensions are high and the political atmosphere has reached its peak, put up such a competition at a time when everybody is preaching peace.

In the promo ahead of the event, organizers tagged VIP (A group of three) representing Accra against solo artiste Kwaw Kesse from Tema, Sarkodie (Tema) against Samini from Accra, Tiffany (Tema) against Eazzy from Accra, Buk Bak from Accra against R2Bees from Tema, EL (Tema) against D-Black (Accra) and Keche (Tema) against Double (Accra).

Whiles some of the artistes saw this as just a musical battle which may be limited to the stage others also saw it as a strong competition and decided to show their supremacy on stage through their stage craft, whiles others showed their supremacy physically.

The show was started by winner of the MTN Hit Maker contest, the talented Naterial as the first act, Keche took over the stage with their sensational dancers working out great dance moves, to their popular hits "Aluguntugui", “Pressure” and "Sorkode".

One of the hottest Hip Life duos, Double and Dr. Slim followed up and showed the crowd why they own the song of the moment “Seke” with some fantastic dance moves. D-Black, the Ghana Buoy who has been criticized for poor stage performance, tried very hard to impress and indeed the "Vera" man didn't disappoint. EL of “Kaalu” fame also did his bit as well as Tiffany and Eazzy who brought sexiness on stage.

Everything was going on smoothly until it was the turn of ‘MadMan’ Kwaw Kesse, aka Abodam, to mount the stage. Known for his stunning stagecraft a total of seven hot models in black bikini came on stage one after the other. The first model came on stage holding a banner with the inscription “Parental Guidance (PG)” written boldly on it, before the remaining six models came on stage.

Each bikini had a letter, and when the women stood in a line, the models formed the word MADTIME. The last model also brought a red and white banner bearing the inscription “VIP,” boldly written on it, and with back facing the crowd spread it on the floor and the “Nonsense” rapper who appeared on stage with an original IBF title around his waist and stepped on the VIP banner on the floor, and performed his hits after hits from “Odeim”, “Poppin”, “Nonsense” to “Let Me Do My Thing”. An act he (Kwaw) describes as “creative expression in the spirit of creative competition”. The same act which turned the beautiful show into violence backstage.

This did not go down well with VIP because they described Kwaw Kesse’s act as insulting and a sign of disrespect to the brand VIP. According Peacefmonline.com about four well-built men believed to be followers of Nima based VIP, went into Kwaw Kesse’s dressing room backstage after his performance to express their anger, and demanded that he goes back on stage to apologize to VIP in the presence of R2Bees and Sarkodie.

The group VIP came on stage immediately after Kwaw Kese, and they couldn’t have performed without registering their displeasure on stage. “Let me tell you what you don’t know, backstage Kwaw Kesse knelt down begging us but we know he is from the ghetto and he knows what it takes to be a man. If you are not ready to go for war don’t try” VIP threw a jab at Kwaw Kesse.

Obviously not too happy about the ‘unnecessary’ competition created among the musicians they had this to tell the organizers “We are doing this for Ghana we don’t care about any Accra and Tema competetion. We are aiming high to raise the flag of Ghana high and don’t have time for any Accra- Tema. So Joy FM the next time you organize this show, make sure the upcoming artistes respect us”, they said.

The group obviously agitated by Kwaw Kesse’s actions they couldn’t control their temper as they used the ‘F’ word on Kwaw at some point during their performance. One of them said “F**k Kwaw Kesse” on stage to the surprise everybody present.

Nonetheless, the talented trio, with the support of dancers costumed in military uniforms, wowed the crowd as they danced to their various hits back to back. The crowed danced and sang along “Besin”, “I think I like am”, “Away”, “Ahomka” among others.

After the performance, the verbal exchange turned into physical violence when Promzy, a member of VIP, realized that both headlights of his car had been smashed and Kwaw and his entourage had already left the premises of the Accra International Conference Centre Dome.

Samini and Buk Bak both from Accra who were the remaining artistes for the night and performed for their fans in spite of the violence going on backstage. Buk Bak was first to appear on stage played their hits from the 90’s and the 2000’s, and finally dropped “Kolom”.

Samini who was undoubtedly the best performer on the night, took over the stage and made it his. The “Sweet Mistake” singer performed to the audience who even forgot there was any violence going on backstage. He started with “Tempo”, “Sweet mistake,” “Odo,” and “Where my baby dey,” and even performed a ‘Peace’ song he did for the elections and for Peace.

After Samini’s performance DJ Black announced officially that Sarkodie and R2Bees have refused to perform, due to the incident backstage and had to end prematurely.

In this atmosphere of intimidation and violent Sarkodie and R2Bees who were on stand-by to performed tried to act as peacemakers but they suffered unnecessary threats of violence and they both decided to pull out of the show. They refused to perform in solidarity to Kwaw Kesse.

However, the confrontation between teams of Kwaw Kesse and VIP had gotten physical which became a huge concern for members of R2Bess and Sarkodie’s team fearing what could happen when they mounts the stage.

Fearing the escalation of the situation as there weren’t enough security personnel to bring the situation under control and according to them, they notified members of the Joy FM team of their concerns, hoping it would be resolved for the safety of Sarkodie, R2bees and their management members but the organizers were not forthcoming with any solution and security was becoming worse by the minute so they had boycott the show for their lives.

Managements of Kwaw Kesse, Sarkodie and VIP have all issued different press statements on the issue but organizers Joy FM who are the power behind all these have still not issued any official statement.

Watch Kwaw Kesse's performance in the video below: