The fear of turning 40 plunged me into depression - Okyeame Kwame

Okyeame Kwame, has disclosed how the fear of turning 40 in 2016 plunged him into depression. Okyeame Kwame expressed his concerns about losing relevance in the music industry as he approached his milestone birthday.

In an interview with Bola Ray on Starr FM’s Starr Chat, he said, "I was 39 and turning 40 years. I had written an article on

Read full articlemy fear of the big four zero and almost everything that I feared…that I will lose my audience share, and then I’m going to be old, my ideas will be old, what are young people listening to, and observing that the average age of the Ghanaian is between 21 to 27 years. I’m thinking I’m going to lose it. I remember that when I was much younger I used to ask my Mom how old are you and she’ll say 40 years and I will respond you’re too old."

"It is not just the fear of approaching 40, but the manifestation of what I was afraid of. Going to organize an event, but people are not coming. At that time, you know that the work we are doing is based on a social validation system, how many Instagram likes you get, how many people shared, and business investors are interested in those figures and saying that your worth is based on that external validation. Stupid as I was, I made it get it to me," he added.

Okyeame Kwame also disclosed that a financial setback added to his distress, revealing a loss of $80,000 which he invested in his music business.

"I had invested a lot of money in my career that didn’t work. I put up billboards, I did rebranding and it didn’t work. I lost about $80,000. So that one, plus the shows not coming, plus my fear of the 40 years…the cock came home to roost. All the little things…so I felt inadequate, I am nothing, I am a nobody."