Ghanaian rapper Kwame Ametepe Tsikata, known in showbiz as M.anifest has asked Ghanaian DJs to make a conscious effort to promote Ghanaian music.
Responding to claims that Ghanaian music consumers now get influenced by foreign songs they come across on the internet, he said there is still a role for the DJs to play in making the local songs appealing to the audience.
According to M.anifest, the DJs should not give up and conclude that all hope is lost in helping push the Ghana agenda.
“The DJs are tastemakers, they have to recognize their position as such and not just be dictated to by the people. You decide that. You are part of making those decisions because you have the position of power,” he said on Citi TV’s ‘Upside Down’ show.
“You have to make a conscious effort like amapiano DJs. They know what they are doing. They are privileging something South African. So we can’t just always be swayed by TikTok and whatever. You are determining next week, the month after so as a tastemaker there is too much of throwing our hands in the sky and saying this is the status quo,” M.anifest added.
He said this in a response to statements made by Citi FM presenter DJ Mingle that most Ghanaian event patrons love to listen to Nigerian music than Ghanaian songs.
DJ Mingle who was also on the show earlier made a similar claim on ‘The Chat’ on Citi TV that most Ghanaian patrons of events do not like only Ghanaian songs.
According to him, even though he makes a conscious effort to play Ghanaian music while performing at events as a DJ, he usually sees the patrons moving away when he plays too much local music.
He said usually, some patrons would come to him, and suggest he plays particular foreign songs.
This issue of Ghanaians gravitating towards too much Nigerian music was borne of out D-Black’s tweet which sought to express worry over why Nigerian music dominated Ghana’s Apple Music Chart.
Why Nigerian music dominates Ghana’s digital space
Also speaking on ‘The Chat’ on Citi TV earlier, Appier-Sign, the Chief Technology Officer at the digital company, Qisimah gave three main reasons for this situation.
Firstly, Appier-Sign roped in the numbers factor. Apart from the fact that Nigerians are more than Ghanaians, he mentioned that a lot of Ghanaians who have access to the internet do not have credit cards or would not even bother to buy music online.
He also noted that the digital music systems usually suggest songs for people, depending on the algorithm of which other people within a locality are listening to those particular songs.
He intimated that most of the people that stream Nigerian songs in Ghana are mostly Nigerians living in Ghana and not mainly Ghanaians.
According to the Qisimah boss, the digital platforms also do crawling on the internet to see what is relevant and tailor their songs in that fashion.
Another reason he gave to why more Nigerian songs would pop up on the digital platforms is that songs that have keys, melodies, and tempos in common are highly connected and recommended to users.
He said that is why Nigerian musicians would want to produce some of their songs with Ghanaian producers so that their songs get linked to hit songs produced by these Ghanaians beatmakers on the digital platforms.
Appier-Sign is of the opinion that until the aforementioned factors change, it will be difficult for Ghanaian musicians to oust their Nigerian counterparts on the digital music charts.
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By: Kwame Dadzie | Ghana Weekend
