On a Thursday afternoon, I met up with Jonny Stone at Pitstop, a sports-themed bar and restaurant in Labone, Accra, for an interview.
I ran a bit late, arriving eight minutes past our agreed time, thanks to Accra’s unpredictable traffic.
A week before our meetup, Jonny, 36, had just hosted one of the biggest events of his career. His venture, Rhythm and Brunch, a sing-along R&B-themed event, hosted the US artist Sisqo at a sold-out Polo Club in Accra.
With a stamina that most athletes would envy, Jonny entertained the awaiting fans for hours before the headliner hit the stage.
Started as a free event at the Jamestown Coffee cafe in Accra, Rhythm & Brunch has achieved remarkable success since its inception.
In recent years, Jonny and his team have taken their events beyond Ghana’s borders, hosting their shows in South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria.
They’ve even held a surprise event for Ja Rule (his first Ghana performance in two decades) and 2000s heartthrobs like Bobby Valentino.
For those who have witnessed his journey, Jonny Stone is not an overnight success. Since the early 2010s, he’s worked to become one of Accra’s best MCs and hypemen.
He’s hosted karaoke nights that packed rival sports bars, spun trivia evenings into social musts, and even logged years on the radio, interviewing big names, including Usher, to emerging South African stars.
At one point, he even hosted his own TV show.
But even with all the personal success, Jonny feels he hasn’t hit the level of notoriety and fame as some of his peers.
From sharing the stage with international stars and consistently hosting well-known social events in Accra, does Jonny Stone deserve more flowers?
The Eldest Son from Birmingham
Jonny’s journey didn’t start in the hustle and bustle of Accra but in Birmingham, UK.
Born in 1989 to parents barely out of their teens — his mother, 18, studying electrical engineering; his father, 20, dabbling in marketing and the son of a charismatic pastor.
The Stone household would soon be filled with more offspring. By the late ’90s, nine more children were added to the family tree.
In the end, the tally stands at 11: six boys first, then a flurry of girls, and then more boys.
The family homeschooled through the Accelerated Christian Education (ACA) curriculum, an American import of workbooks and online tests that kept the Stone kids “ahead of our peers,” as Jonny’s father pitched it.
At 10 years old, Jonny finally went to public school. Two years later, he would move to a different school in Wolverhampton, where sports and the arts became his outlets.
He took on numerous activities, including break dancing, drumming in school bands, and starring in drama productions.
“Teenage years were pretty cool. I made a lot of friends. It was a nice experience. I enjoyed that a lot more than primary school,” Jonny said.
He had a brief stint at University, which was upended when his father announced the family would be relocating to Ghana.
The elder Stone had taken a job in Ghana and fallen hard for its allure.
“I wasn’t actually supposed to move to Ghana,” Jonny said about the sudden announcement.
“I was actually going to move to Canada and go to college while living with my auntie. Then my dad changed his mind at the last minute.”
The Stone family packed their things and hopped on a seven-hour flight to begin their new life in Accra.
Culture Shock and Working From The Bottom
“Coming from the airport and seeing hawkers on the street was like a culture shock,” Jonny says, recalling his first experience in Ghana.
“I was wondering why people on the streets were pushing things into the window. Like ‘Is it free? Are we buying?’ It was just weird as a younger person. It was a lot.”
The Stone family lived very comfortably in the early going. They had a home in Trasacco, an opulent residential area in Accra. Their new locale had a staff of cooks, cleaners, and drivers.
“Having house helps clean your room as a teen was ‘weird’. They made breakfast, cut fruit. Everything was catered for.”
The homeschooling practice resumed in the family’s new home. Their garage was converted into a classroom with tutors poached from local schools.
But life for the Stone family would hit hard times when their father’s business ran into hurdles.
“He did some business which didn’t go well, and it ended up costing him a lot of money“.
The family would downgrade from their home to another location due to the high rent in the Trassaco area.
“My family went through a bit of a difficult period. Not like a short one or two years. There was like a stretch in the mid-2010s where we were struggling in Accra.”
Being the eldest son, Jonny stepped up to help out the family.
At 20, he hit the job market. With his CV in hand, he applied at different spots before landing a gig at Tops & Tails, a seedy Osu spot — part bar, part strip club — where he worked as a bartender.
A year later, he found himself at Champs Sports Bar, a well-known establishment, located inside the Paloma Hotel in Accra.
Initially starting at a low level, he worked his way to the top.
Some patrons at Champs found it unusual to see a young man from Birmingham working at a local establishment in Accra.
“Why’s a British kid slinging drinks in a sports bar?” they’d ask.
After networking and fraternizing with some of the customers, Jonny got offered employment at a logistics company. He jumped at the opportunity.
At his new job, he was earning about 900 GHC a month at the company (about ~3,723 GHC adjusted for inflation in 2025)
He commuted by train from the Nungua area to Airport Residential, occasionally dodging Spintex traffic by utilising trotros (Ghana’s alternate version of the bus system).
“If I missed the train or it didn’t run that day, I had to take a trotro through Spintex traffic or go through Nungua up through 37,” he said about his routine.
He acknowledged that people would struggle to imagine him in traffic in a trotro.
“When people see me, they feel like I’ve always been some dBee [slang for well-to-do or rich person]. I’ve seen the highs and the lows in this city.”
One of the lows was getting laid off from work.
After a couple of years, his disinterest in his work routine became apparent to his manager. Jonny admits that the work became “stale”.
“I just wasn’t interested. It was boring and it was monotonous.”
After a conversation with his manager about the lack of his energy, he was let go. Although this felt like a setback, being out of a job was the jumpstart he needed to venture into Accra’s nightlife.
“It was a blessing in disguise that they actually let me go”.
Hosting and Building Karaoke Kings
In 2012, while socialising at Champs, his old workplace, Jonny was asked if he could fill in for the usual host who had to deal with a family issue.
“They said, ‘Johnny, can you host? It’s short notice, but can you host tonight?” he recalls.
He decided to give it a go.
His first hosting duty proved positive with good feedback from the audience. Although he didn’t think his first time was the best, the Champs managers praised his great work.
“They saw the potential in me being good. So they made me the host of the karaoke night.”
Soon after, he was also given the host of the Trivia Night, which soon translated into a full-time job as their host of event nights.
News of Jonny’s events reached rival spots like Honeysuckle, another bar and restaurant establishment, which was becoming popular. They asked if he would host some of their event nights.
Initially, he didn’t consider Honeysuckle due to his loyalty to Champs. But after some internal friction with Champs’ ownership, he decided to test the waters.
“I went to Honeysuckle and started karaoke over there. It took a while, but it blew up as well.”
Jonny now had two of the most popular events in the city: Friday Karaoke nights at Champs and Saturday Karaoke at Honeysuckle.
A Thursday event was eventually added to his hosting duties.
“I was working three days straight. I worked with DJ Poutine at Honeysuckle, and I worked with DJ Loft at Champs. I was doing well.“
From 2016, Jonny’s run of successes continued: He formalized Karaoke Kings, his entertainment venture, which helped brands and companies with their entertainment needs.
He operated it as a family business, bringing along his siblings to become part of the organisation.
In 2017, he was employed at YFM, a local radio station. The opportunity materialised in part due to his connections and networking at Champs.
“Miss Na [A YFM radio host] came to Champs a couple of times. She probably heard about me through Vision DJ and DJ Loft as well, who was also with YFM at the time,” Jonny recalls.
“They gave me a graveyard shift show. They mentored me, especially Miss Na, on how to be on the radio.”
Jonny would work in radio for the next seven years. He hosted his own shows and interviewed notable personalities, including US singer Usher, who performed at a concert organised by Global Citizens United.
His networking and hard work continued to pay dividends. In 2020, he was offered a slot as a TV host for a show called Can You Karaoke? on e.TV Ghana. The show featured contestants and a live studio audience in a sing-along competition.
Incidentally, the show would lead to an addition to the Stone family.
“There was one young lady who works with me. She’s now my sister-in-law. We met on the ‘Can You Karaoke’ show. I loved her work ethic and became friends with her. My brother fell for her and they got married not long ago.”
The Karaoke Kings venture continued to gain traction in the late 2010s.
Currently, Jonny employs over 25 people and has organised and hosted karaoke and trivia events at different locations in Accra, cementing his spot in the city’s nightlife.
However, a direct message on social media would soon give Jonny’s personal brand a bigger spotlight.
“I’ve achieved quite a bit. But tomorrow I might wake up and feel like it’s enough. I don’t feel that I’ve reached my maximum capacity.”
Rhythm and Brunching
Social media was where it all started for Rhythm and Brunch. In 2023, a video on Twitter (Now known as X) made the rounds and ended up on Jonny’s feed. It was a video of a US warehouse R&B brunch, with crowds singing along to R&B songs.
“I can do this in Accra with my eyes closed,” Jonny retweeted to his 1,000+ followers. Soon, he got a response from Yonfo, a Ghana International School alum and marketing whiz.
“Let’s talk,” he responded to Jonny’s tweet.
After some back-and-forth direct messages and in-person meetings, they would co-create a Sunday ritual — brunch bites, bottomless drinks, and a DJ-curated setlist of millennial R&B classics.
The name “Rhythm and Brunch” would come from Yonfo’s sister, who coined the name based on a pun on “R&B”.
On August 4, 2023, they debuted their first event at the Jamestown Coffee Cafe in Osu, which was free for eventgoers.
It was a massive hit.
Soon after, everyone wanted details for the second edition.
“We had no plans for a second one. We didn’t plan that far,” Jonny said in all honesty.
The team would later draw up plans for another edition, but this time would include an entry fee.
“So the second one, we did it a few months later, and we decided to charge so we could make extra money. We added props and were more specific with the decor.”
The second edition was a bigger hit. Soon after, subsequent editions followed suit with the same success.
Soon after, out-of-town folks were requesting Rhythm and Brunch events in their cities.
“The idea for an international event came literally because we did our Christmas event at Bloom Bar. We had some people there from East Africa, and they said ‘yo this event is amazing. You have to bring this to East Africa‘.”
After more meetings and planning, the Rhythm and Brunch team hosted their first international event in South Africa.
Soon after, they hosted shows in Kenya, Rwanda, and Nigeria.
Their latest achievement was booking Sisqo for their 2nd anniversary at the Polo Club in Accra.
How did the team get most of these big-name artists to come to Ghana to perform? Jonny said the artists are the ones reaching out to Rhythm and Brunch.
“We have a lot of managers of R&B artists in our DM saying they want to come over,” he explained.
However, the team is careful not to get overzealous and greedy with the artists they want playing at their shows.
“We have a little list of which of these artists we can realistically afford.
For artists like Sisqo, the team had to budget the costs of flights, fees, and accommodation, and other miscellaneous items.
“You’re looking at paying thousands of US dollars to bring them over.”
The team is careful when planning how much to charge and sell at their events to avoid going over budget.
But so far, all their events have made a profit.
Jonny and I have been friends since the mid-2010s. It’s been interesting to witness his evolution from hosting weekly events to performing on stage with big names in music.
One thing I’ve known about Jonny over the years is his silent “Imposter Syndrome”.
“I can wake up tomorrow and feel like I’ve not done enough, and it’s pretty sad,” he said, which might surprise most people due to how he carries himself in public.
While Jonny doesn’t lack confidence, he still feels he’s yet to reach his potential.
“I’ve achieved quite a bit. But tomorrow I might wake up and feel like it’s not enough. I don’t feel that I’ve reached my maximum capacity.”
As he gets older, the allure of going home and being with his person doesn’t escape him, especially after being present at his brother’s marriage ceremony a few weeks before our interview.
When I ask him if there’s anything he’d change in his past if he had the ability, he’s not sure there’s anything he would do differently.
“I just wish I believed in myself a lot earlier“, he admits. But he also acknowledges holding back on how confident he appears in order not to come off as intimidating.
“I downplay myself a lot so that I don’t put people off. You don’t want to come off as arrogant. Confidence can be intimidating, and I’m mindful of people around me.“
As the interview wraps—just shy of an hour—Jonny readies himself to host a trivia night at Pitstop, a new event in his increasingly crowded calendar.
“I like to be busy. I’ve noticed that the more busy I am, the more in demand I become.”
In December, Rhythm and Brunch will host another big-name artist, whom they haven’t announced yet.
I ask when he might pull back and let someone take over the reins while he becomes more of a manager at his Karaoke Kings. Jonny says he’s getting there.
“One of my biggest weaknesses is knowing when to rest. I work myself to the bone sometimes. There’s always something happening.“
