The final funeral rites of the late Willi Roi, Repertoire and Artiste manager at Zylofon Media, who died in the early hours of 10th February, 2019 at his residence at the Royal Reichester Hotel, East Legon was held yesterday 30th March, 2019.
As expected, many people turned up at the Valco Employees Recreational Arena (VERA) at community 4, the venue for the funeral, to pay their last respects to the legendary producer and artiste manager.
However, conspicuously missing was dancehall king Shatta Wale. It was unclear what had caused the absence of the dancehall king from the funeral of his friend and number one fan Willi Roi, but the dancehall king has defended himself in an interview, explaining why he was absent.
According to Shatta Wale, Willi Roi would understand that the work had to go on, because he had to prepare for the 3Music Awards. He explained that at the time of the interview he had gone for rehearsals towards his performance at the event, and Willi Roi being a good man would want him to be where he is supposed to be in his career.
Asked how people would take his absence, Shatta Wale said God knows his heart that he really respected Willi Roi even until his last day and went ahead to make reference to Terry Bonchaka, that he was also one person that supported his career very much but he was not able to make it to his funeral, however he makes time every year to visit his grave side to pay his respects.
Shatta Wale said people may say what they feel but at the right time he will visit Willi Roi’s grave side and pay his respects to him.
“Willi Roi calls me King, he knows how a king moves, and if today he is no more, he understands that if I was free I would have been there but since this awards is an award for me to take for him and surely I’m going to dedicate the topmost award to him by God’s grace if I get it and make sure that his soul rests in peace, so people can talk but I know Willi Roi is still in my heart”
Shatta Wale concluded that the passing of Willi Roi is a big blow to the music industry because he was someone who cared about artiste’s welfare and always told the truth even though people didn’t like his honesty.
source ghanaweb.com
