Half of the award-winning Ghanaian music duo Ruff N Smooth, Ricky ‘Bullet’ Nana Agyemang, has told the ‘Ayekoo Ayekoo’ audience on Accra 100.5 FM that the music group experienced failure because of the disrespectful way in which they parted ways with their former manager, Nathan Kwabena Anokye ‘Bola Ray’ Adisi.  

Bullet holds that: “There’s a spirit that deals with [ungrateful] people” and this accounts for why artistes experience failure when they “bang the door” behind them and leave their managers.

He explained he found this out the hard way and bemoaned that: “People have not really understood how this life works.”

Noting that “It happened to us: Ruff N Smooth,” he reminisced on how, despite media executive Bola Ray’s abundant help, he and his group mate, abandoned him for another manager.

“I always say that the things Bola Ray has done for me, in my life, my father and no one else has done that for me but at a point in time, we had to move on from him [and] instead of sitting with him and respectfully informing him that it was time for us to move and ask for his blessing, we did not,” he narrated.

“We had met someone else and flippantly claiming we did not have a contract with Bola, we left,” Bullet revealed and noted the dark times that almost swiftly followed their unprofessional exit.

“From that time, any song we worked on was not successful. Bola did not seek black magic against us, let’s be clear. It was not necessary for him to even do that. Nature and [principles] God has placed on the earth” were responsible, the singer and music executive stressed.  

In view of this, he took a moment and admonished artistes not to be puffed up thinking they are self-made “stars,” and cautioned them to be mindful in their dealings with people who wholeheartedly help them even if it is not financially. 

He also stressed on the lengths to which managers go to help artistes and said it sometimes goes beyond the contract signed.

“I may be managing you and making no money out of it," Bullet illustrated. "You may even come to me for money to take care of your mother. That’s surely not part of the business. We do things beyond the business” so you cannot insinuate that I have done nothing for you and ask me sarcastically “that are you God?"

"Was it God who invested his money in you? He used a human being to do it and in that position, that human is your god and so when you fight that person, you are actually messing with God,” he postulated.

Mr Bullet Agyemang maintained there is no “record label boss or manager who will go somewhere and pray or chant for the downfall of an artiste when they fallout. It won’t happen because the label boss [already] knows karma is real.”  

And returning to Bola Ray, he spoke about making amends.

“I once had a dream that I had gone to Bola’s place to plead for forgiveness. And on the day I actually went to see him, the suit I saw him in in the dream was the same one he was wearing. When I went there, I held his leg and said, ‘Boss, I’ve messed up. Forgive me.’ I took my uncle along to say sorry.”

Bola, accepting the apology, said in response: “Etuo [Bullet’s former name], you’re my boy,” he revealed.

Ruff (Bullet) N Smooth (Akhan) came to prominence on the back of their 2010 album ‘Swagger’ which housed hits like its title track, ‘Azingele’, ‘Martha (Sex Machine)’ and ‘Naija Baby’.

The group is not as active as it used to be. In 2018, manager Theophilus Amoah Baah denied that the group has disbanded. According to him, Bullet and Ahkan are concentrating on individual projects.

It would appear, the last time the award-winning group released music was in 2017:‘Medicine’ featuring Baafour. Before this, they had the 2016 hit ‘Shabba’.