Legendary highlife musician and curator of Ghana’s cultural music, Gyedu Blay Ambolley, has questioned why the present and upcoming musicians show little to no interest in promoting highlife music on the global market.
In an interview, Gyedu Blay Ambolley expressed his disappointment in Ghanaian musicians propagating foreign genres. He noted that this path they have chosen to follow, would gradually erase the original Ghanaian identity in the music industry.
“I don’t think that we’ve been able to hold on to our heritage because highlife is our culture. It’s our identity, and it’s our heritage. The younger ones coming now are not enduring highlife. They are playing more dancehall and other kinds of things because they think that that’s what is happening”.
Gyedu Blay Ambolley
Gyedu Blay further speaking on the issue averred that “We have to be real to ourselves because we are a people of culture”. According to him, Ghanaian artists have an identification that they have to allow the world to see, in order to promote the Ghanaian culture. However, artists in Ghana seem to be doing the opposite, as they are rather vested in other genres of music from other countries.
“Our highlife music needs to be out there, because, culture is something that brings in income if it’s well placed and well done. But, it looks like we’ve overlooked that, thinking that it’s just only a form of entertainment. It doesn’t sit well because every country has its music, so what is ours?”
Gyedu Blay Ambolley
Lamenting on the issue, Gyedu Blay said: “The younger ones are doing dancehall. Is that what we are going to sit down and become our heritage? Aside from us, who are the older generational musicians that we know, we took this from our ancestors. So, highlife hasn’t been held on and I think it doesn’t speak well for our country”.
Aggrieved Gyedu Blay Ambolley then advocated for a conscious effort from all artists to ensure the successful passage of our Ghanaian music onto future generations.
Gyedu Blay Chides Shatta Wale
Gyedu Blay Ambolley has always been a propagator of Ghanaian highlife music. Recently, he took a swipe at Shatta Wale for calling himself the ‘dancehall king’. According to Gyedu Blay, Shatta Wale doesn’t deserve the title since he copied his craft from Jamaicans.
Gyedu Blay Ambulley posited that he finds it “very absurd” that Shatta Wale would refer to himself as the ‘dancehall king’ because “he’s a copycat”.
According to Gyedu Blay, all the artists who claim to be ‘kings’ of foreign genres should “bow their heads in shame because they do not merit such titles”.
After Gyedu Blay passed these comments, several social media users threw their weight behind Gyedu Blay Ambuelly. They were of the view that if Shatta Wale claims to be the original ‘dancehall king’, then, how would Jamaican artists such as Vybz Kartel, Mavado, Alkaline, among others address themselves.
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