One of Ghana’s finest rappers Okyeame Kwame who doubles as the C.E.O. of one of the youngest label in Ghana, One Mic Entertainment has denied ever saying that Azonto has killed his music.
The Rap Doctor as he is warmly called expressed shock at news that he said “Azonto has killed my music”. The rapper was quoted as saying that the recent dance turned music genre ‘azonto’ has killed his ‘Faithful’ and ‘Sika’ tunes.
The report further stated that whiles other artistes smiled to the bank during the festive season, the rapper was left to mourn because of his inability to break the ‘azonto’ craze with his songs which are on slow pace. He was also quoted as saying that his song ‘Sika’, he released before Christmas was thrown into the bin by Ghanaians because of the proliferation of ‘azonto’.
Kwame has denied the above, saying it was totally imaginary of the writer and misrepresentation of what he said. According to him, this is the conversation he had with a presenter in December.
“In December a presenter called me and asked me series of questions in connection with MUSIGA and the festivities. He asked me how my album is doing and I told him One Mic [Entertainment] made a mistake of releasing ‘Sika’ one week before Christmas because people are in festive mood, people do not want to go and listen to pensive and melancholic songs like ‘Sika’, they want to party, so common sense suggests that they listen to ‘azonto’ so they can do the current dance.”
He continued with laughter: “But in January when they run out of money, they will come and listen to my song ‘Sika’. That’s what I said and I don’t know why he [the writer] became so creative to say what I have not said but its good because I’m now getting an interview from you [GhanaCelebrities.Com].
Responding to the claims, the MTN brand icon said, “It’s so not true. I don’t know which journalist came up with that idea but I’m happy that I have the opportunity to say that, it’s not true”.
“It is not true at two levels. One, ‘azonto has not killed my music and two, I didn’t say that”. He told GhanaCelebrities.Com in an exclusive interview.
When asked if he shares the opinion that ‘azonto’ has killed Ghana music, he answered in negative. He said God created music to take away boredom, so when one type of music stays on too long then that purpose of music taking away boredom is going away.
“Music is to eradicate boredom, so if one music becomes boring and doesn’t change itself then God’s purpose has been defeated, so music will change, it will keep changing plus ‘azonto’ is not a musical genre. It’s a type of dance that you can do on Dance Hall, you can on High Life, you can do on Jama, you can do on anything. So the ‘azonto’ dance doesn’t kill a genre of music”, he said reiterating the fact that ‘azonto’ is not a type of music, rather a type of dance. A dance which originates from Ga dance [Kpanlogo]. “How can a type of dance kill a genre of music”? He asked.
As a creative artiste, most people expected him to have shown his creativity with an ‘azonto’ song. He said though he doesn’t necessarily feel the ‘azonto’ craze, people who thinks he can’t do ‘azonto’ song should wait till they get to feel all the songs on his album.
He said there are three songs on his album ‘Clinic’ that he believes people would love to dance ‘azonto’ with. He mentioned tracks like ‘Holla’, ‘One In A Million’ and ‘Fly Away’.
He said when music lovers listens to those songs which are predominately African Hip Hop house music, they can confidently do the ‘azonto’ dance to, so if they ask why Okyeame Kwame is not doing ‘azonto’, it’s because they have not listened to all the songs on his album.
Adding his voice to the outbreak of ‘azonto’ dance which surprisingly is referred to as a genre of music by a section of the public, the Rap Doctor said the ‘azonto’ rhythm has given opportunities to upcoming artistes to be heard.
“I think it’s beautiful, I like it. I like the fact that it has given opportunity to most upcoming artistes to be heard because since it’s their time. It has helped them to be heard and get attention.”
“However, what I think is that, the producers of the music must put in more music, the musicality of that type of rhythm is too low; it’s just drum and bass and very basic chord. I think what they can do to help Ghana music right now in connection with the ‘azonto’ style is that, the producers must put in more effort to make the music beautiful.” He advised.
When challenged by GhanaCelebrities.Com that, it is not only upcoming artistes who have enjoyed and still enjoying the ‘azonto’ but mainstream artistes have churned out hits ‘azonto’ songs too. He defended himself by saying that though Sarkodie has done ‘azonto’, the ‘azonto’ has also given a new act like Stay Jay the opportunity to be heard.
“What I said is not in totality, somebody like Sarkodie [You Go Kill Me featuring EL] has done ‘azonto’ but I think ‘azonto’ has also given somebody like [new act] Stay Jay [Sha Shee Wowo] the opportunity to be heard.”
“Sarkodie is a mainstream Hip Life/Hip Hop artiste. He is actually one of the artistes who made ‘azonto’ very popular but it doesn’t clean off the fact that people like Stay Jay and …. [the rest], have had attention because of azonto. What I’m saying is that, the sound engineers [Kaywa, Appietus and the rest], they must put in more music; they know what I’m talking about.”
He advised sound engineers to keep the music involving because he believes the ‘azonto’ dance is a very beautiful syncopated dance which can go with any fast paced music. He said the music, the chords, the melodies, the harmonies must be felt in ‘azonto’ tunes.
Though Kwame feels ‘azonto’ is beautiful, he thinks it’s one of the easiest types of songs that will go international but blames the producers for failing to make the ‘azonto’ music rich.
Okyeame Kwame is the current spokesperson for the Musicians Union of Ghana [MUSIGA].
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