The Chief Executive Officer of RuffTown Records, Ricky Nana Agyeman, popularly known as Bullet, has disclosed that he recently paid $100,000 to the father of late Ghanaian musician Ebony Reigns as part of the artiste’s music royalties.
In an interview with Nana Romeo on Okay FM, Bullet said the amount represented 50 per cent of Ebony’s royalties, although the original agreement allegedly entitled the singer to only 20 per cent.
According to him, Ebony’s father pushed for an increase in the royalty share after the artiste’s death.
“I recently gave Ebony’s father $100,000, which is 50% of Ebony’s royalties. Ebony was entitled to 20% shares, but her father made me increase it to 50%.
After we did Ebony’s first party, he said I should give his daughter’s money to him. The money was meant to promote and campaign for Ebony’s work, but I went with him to the bank and withdrew it for him. He doesn’t talk about it anywhere,” he said.
He, however, said he decided not to talk about this even though Mr Kwarteng usually criticises him publicly.
Bullet and Ebony’s father have had a strained relationship since the singer’s death in 2018, with disagreements over royalties, management and the handling of the late artiste’s legacy occasionally playing out in the public space.
Ebony Reigns, born Priscilla Opoku-Kwarteng, died in a road accident on the Sunyani-Kumasi highway on February 8, 2018, at the age of 20.
She rose to fame with hit songs such as Sponsor, Kupe, Maame Hwɛ and Poison, and remains one of Ghana’s most celebrated female musicians.
In 2018, she won the Artiste of the Year at the Ghana Music Awards posthumously.
