The Founder of the Eat Drink Music (EDM) Festival, DJ Mensah, has added his voice to the need to promote more Ghanaian music.
His comment comes on the back of a recent call made by broadcaster and fashion icon Kofi Okyere Darko that a higher percentage of Ghanaian music be played especially during the Yuletide.
The two made these submissions.
Speaking to the issue, DJ Mensah who is also the official DJ for rapper Sarkodie, suggested that apart from the DJs making an effort to promote Ghanaian music, the transport industry also has a role to play.
He cited how cab drivers in other countries are dedicated to promoting their local music.
“If you travel to anywhere especially somewhere like New York, as soon as you sit in the Uber or any of your friends’ cars they are listening to hip hop or RnB depending on the radio station. When you come to Ghana, it used to be R&B and hip hop. Now, it’s either Nigerian music or something else. When the foreigners come, they want to hear something from Ghana. They want to hear something different from what they are used to,” he said.
While some have argued that the source of music for these commercial drivers is radio, a case has also been made for drivers who play music compilations of foreign songs in their cars.
The Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture has in the past few years been training commercial drivers on their role in promoting tourism. The expectation is that these drivers are encouraged to help promote Ghanaian music in the course of their duty.
The fight for more local content in the Ghana media space is one of the banes of the country’s entertainment sector.
In the meantime, the Broadcasting Law which has a provision for 70% local content for Ghanaian media is yet to be passed.
Graduating With Master’s
One of Ghana’s most gifted disc jockeys, Michael Ayenu Mensah, popularly known as DJ Mensah, is a holder of a highly prestigious master’s degree from the University of Professional Studies Accra (UPSA).
DJ Mensah, who plays at major shows in Ghana and around the world, earned a master’s degree in Brands and Communications from UPSA.
Award-winning rapper Sarkodie and executives of A-Town Entertainment, Akwaaba UK, turned up at the short but colorful graduation ceremony held at the forecourt of UPSA in Accra to show love to DJ Mensah.
The pursuit of higher education had DJ Mensah, a personal disc jockey for award-winning Ghanaian rapper Sarkodie, miss the Jamz Europe Tour as he had to write his final exams at the time.
The founder of the Eat Drink Music Festival had his undergraduate education at Accra Technical University (formerly Accra Polytechnic) and Central University.
He worked as a manager for Venus World Multimedia and also was the Welfare Manager and Production Assistant for Empire Entertainment; and worked with Xfm 95.1 as well. He is currently a Managing Partner at Akwaaba Group Company, a multinational company whose focus is on providing premium hospitality services through events promotions and media publications.
He founded his non-governmental organization, DJ Mensah Foundation, and officially launched it in January 2018 with a charity event that provided free health screening and motivational talks to the juvenile inmates at the Senior Correctional Centre (formerly known as Borstal Home).
Despite having a late start to education, he has been a great believer in education being the key to a brighter future.
Meanwhile, he has expressed gratitude to musicians Akwaboah, Edem, and comedian DKB for the support they showed him during the course of his education, especially for showing up during his orientation.
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