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Reggie Rockstone,the grandpapa of Hiplife has said that, he wanted
Sarkodie and Stonebwoy, both nominees of the just ended BET Awards to
boycott the ceremony.
"My whole idea before they (Sarkodie and Stonebwoy) left was to
boycott the ceremony. I said it over and over again, Stephen Appiah is
my witness. When we were on the plane to Kumasi for the Charity game.
I wanted to tell Stone but people said I should stop."
According to Reggie, "when the nominees boycott the ceremony, they
would get bigger publicity than how they are treated now.
A lot of African-Americans are not aware what is going on because a
lot of the African-Americans are Pan-African. If they get to know this
is how the Africans are treated, youwill see the kind of support we
will get. Nigerians will definitely support as too, because they don't
need award for anything, they are already rich."
"If we had done that (boycotting theceremony), it would have empowered
us and it would have had more publicity. What I'm trying to say is,
BET over the years have not shown respect in every single way. Do you
know what BET stands for? It stands for Black Entertainment. Do you
know the origin of Black people? We are a whole continent. If not for
slave trade, they wouldn't have been there, these are our direct
siblings, I always say that, Hip-Hop is from us" Reggie shared his
frustration.
"How can Justin Bieber, a pure white and other whites who use the'niga
niga' words be awarded on stage and the Africans are awarded
backstage? We are kings and queens. I'm so happy somebody stood up to
speak up. If you live on your knees, you will never get anything to
stand for. So this is the case, and look, I'm Pan-African to the bone,
and I've always said, if weboycott them, they will change" Reggie
Rockstone added.
Not only the loudly speculated 'backstage' presentation of the award
to the Artistes, Reggie said that, as nominees, the African Artistes
foot their own bills to the event in Los Angeles, USA.
"You pay everything yourself to the Awards, it is very expensive. Can
you imagine when you are going with your crew and the amount involved?
It is always the Nigerians who are able to afford it, the Ghanaians
suffer 'ruff.' If we had boycotted, we would have had the support of
the Nigerians; immediately Fuse ODG said it, Wizkid threw his support
behind him and Yemi Alade as well. We would have had the biggest
publicity if we had boycotted it.Even when they perform, those who sit
at the main event don't witness it, although it is big award, it is
fulfilling that we have won but we have to think for the future kids
and the ones who are coming. You can't continuously disrespect our
Acts."
Source:233times.com
