Sound engineer and music producer, Appietus, has advised Ghanaian artists to shift their focus from competing with Nigerians in the Afrobeats genre and instead concentrate on promoting Highlife.
According to him, Afrobeats is mostly associated with Nigeria, and names like Burna Boy, Davido, Wizkid, Asake, and Temz are the top Afrobeats artistes in the world.
He said that it would be hard for a Ghanaian artiste to make it to the global list of Afrobeats artistes, and that copying or mixing Afrobeats with other genres, such as Amapiano, would not work either.
“Nigerians now own Afrobeats and there’s nothing we can do about it. We will just be copycats if we keep on doing that. It’s going to be difficult competing with Nigerians on Afrobeats. It is just like how you can’t take Dancehall and Reggae from Jamaica,” he said.
Appietus advised Ghanaian musicians to rather focus on Highlife, the music style that reflects their originality, rather than competing with Nigerians over Afrobeats, which they have dominated globally.
He added that Ghanaian musicians should modernise and promote Highlife, the music style that is rooted in Ghanaian culture and history, since it has been successful before.
“Let’s sell ourselves and culture and stop competing with others over their music genres. We have sold our music type before and Nigerians were nowhere close. So, we can do it again,” he added.
In conclusion, he advised Ghanaian musicians to focus on showcasing their unique culture through Highlife rather than competing with others in genres dominated by different nations.
