After years of hard work in the music industry, Ghanaian rapper, E.L, in 2016 was crowned the Artiste of the Year at the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMA).
He won big at the night as he also swept away the Hip Hop Artiste of the Year. It was a moment to celebrate however, critics and naysayers marred this glorious time of his life with claims of him buying the title.
Others asserted that he did not deserve the ultimate title as Artiste of the Year.
The negative energy from a section of the public later caused the rapper to take a break and go mute at the peak of his career.
“When I won the title they said I didn’t deserve it. They said I paid for the award and that thing pained me. I was around East Legon, I parked my car and cried. I wondered what on earth will make people say that I bought the award,” he disclosed in an interview on 3 Music TV in April 2023.
He added: “Artiste of the Year was when a lot of shit was going on. A lot of tension, you known they threw a party for me and I didn’t go. I had to be forced to attend that party…there was just a lot of tension going on so I didn’t even enjoy Artiste of the Year, I didn’t. It was a very surreal feeling like what is going on.”
E.L also narrated how the production of music suddenly became work for him instead of passion. The investment he put in his craft seems not to be paying off.
“It came to a time I would drop songs and nothing would happen. It came to a time I didn’t even have the drive to push the music as hard anymore,” he said.
Watch the videos below:
@ELgh_ explains why he lost interest in pushing his music#BigConversation #3MusicTV pic.twitter.com/CrT4qdjgdM
— 3Music TV (@3musicnetworks) April 13, 2023