The originator of the Ghana DJ Awards and radio host, Merqury Quaye has hit back at the Musicians Union of Ghana’s (MUSIGA) trivolous press statement which aims at ridiculing the ongoing social media campaign - #PAYTHEDJ.

According to MUSIGA’s statement, the campaign #PAYTHEDJ is a call to institutionalize payment through the back door which is popularly referred to as, ‘Payola.’

But according to Merqury Quaye (Host of Hitz FM’s Cruise Control), such statement from MUSIGA is just frivolous and impervious to any logical reasoning:

“It has come to my attention that the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) has described the ongoing campaign #PAYTHEDJ as a call to glorify payola. This is an unfortunate development since my intention is not to call for payola but rather for musicians and those who employ the services of the DJ to compensate the DJ adequately.”

Merqury further explained that the movement #PAYTHEDJ is a call to professionalism and definitely cannot be unethical as the MUSIGA seeks to proclaim.

“Our movement is about fair pay for work done. My argument stems from the fact that musicians sometimes adopt crude and unrefined methods of promoting their works and I am calling for a more professional approach.”

“I am of the opinion that when musicians or their managers engage DJs to promote their music for them as consultants, that would give them more mileage since the DJs can leverage their network of DJs to achieve a more effective promotion which would give the musicians more bang for their bucks,” Merqury Quaye noted.

The commander of the #TurnUpArmy (Merqury Quaye) exposed the chameleon-like attitude of some musicians.

“Another issue I raised has to do with the ingratitude of certain musicians who virtually beg DJs to promote their music and their brand and when they attain stardom, they forget these same DJs who supported their ascent,” he said.

According to Merqury Quaye there should always be a win, win situation between musicians and DJ’s whilst respecting each other.

“It is essential that there is mutual respect between DJ and musician since we are like Siamese twins, each needing the other for survival,”

“Once again, the #PAYTHEDJ well campaign is not a call for payola,” he added.

modernghana