One of the most successful Ghanaian Music Producers, Mark Okraku Mantey, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of Slip Music Ghana, has added to his voice to the current hullabaloo surrounding the Ghana Music Awards Festival 2007.

Known for his astute criticisms when it comes to music, Mark left no stone unturned, when he was asked to give his stake on the current rancour surrounding the nominees listing of the Ghana Music Awards 2007.

Mark wondered why all these past years, there has't been live-band performances of all the artistes who perform at the awards nights and yet musicians always come on stage and mime over their songs.

“How do you expect me to buy your cassette for 15k, listen to your songs, and when I meet you in a live show, you want to mime”?

Mark also called on the organizers to do their best to involve musicians and stake holders of the music industry who are based in the other regions to ensure fairness in the categorization and selection of musicians for the various awards.

He also touched on the accuracy on the selection of the various musicians. Mark said that he believes THERE WAS NO BIAS in the selection of musicians for the various categories.

But he was quick to add: “The major problem facing the music industry in Ghana at the moment is record keeping. We don’t have any mechanism to show the actual number or records each artiste sells. Unlike other foreign countries where records sales are logged in a central network, the opposite happens here and I believe that in the next few years to come, if that mechanism is put in place here in Ghana, it would help in the selection of nominees in subsequent awards.”

He also praised Charterhouse Ghana, the event organizers of the Ghana Music Awards, for the splendid performances it has been putting up over the past years.

Mark Okraku Mantey is responsible for the successes of people like Oheneba Kissi, Lord Kenya and Dasebre Gyamena. He’s also behind the budding career of Okuraseni Samuel, one of the talents unearthed in the first ‘Mentor’ series.