A RABBIT SHOULD NOT BE FEEDING AN ELEPHANT

There are many Ghanaians who can sing along and party all night to songs from the 90s alone, mix the genre and get an exciting audience who can light up an event.

A Gospel Concert with only 90s and early 2000s hits will have a huge audience, a Proper Carnival with only Hiplife and Highlife will certainly be a hit. If you add Joyce Blessing, Joe Mettle, Sarkodie, Shatta Wale, and co, you have taken care of the majority of the people in terms of meeting their musical taste.

Unless our DJs and presenters are paid something special to play more Nigerian songs, if not, it makes no sense.

The fact that this is even being debated is funny.

About a year ago, I had to meet someone somewhere around East Legon; I was there first, he delayed for nearly an hour, so for the most part, I was engaged solely by the music being played. Trying to recall the location, it’s on the Adjiringano to School Junction Rd, a very popular joint.

After about 30 minutes, it dawned on me that there was something wrong; the trend didn’t make sense. I never heard a Ghanaian song; it was all Naija Music.

I decided to pay attention and be sure, and for 30 minutes, for the over 30 songs mixed, I could count only 3 Ghanaian Songs and even that, it was KiDi, King Promise, and Kelvyn Boy, people who we could argue sound Nigerian sometimes.

I walked to the DJ and politely said, big man, I have been here for an hour, you have played almost 40 songs, and only 3 or so are from Ghanaians, why?

His answer was simple: because people prefer the Nigerian songs. That to me didn’t make sense, but I told him to consider those of us who only like Ghanaian songs too.

For the next hour I was there, there was an improved balance, 50/50 wasn’t enough but it was an improvement.

We are our own enemies as a people, we are the problem to ourselves.

The Ghanaian deems appearing foreign in choice makes them refined, as for me, I didn’t like Ghanaian Music oo, as for me, I don’t like Ghanaian Movies oo. People say this and they think it makes them trendy.

It has affected every facet of our nation and keeps eating us up. We cannot say 100%, but at least, 70% domestication makes sense for a small industry like ours.

Look, we have seen times like this; we have seen Ras Kimono, Yvonne Igholi, Styl-Plus, 2 Face, and several other Nigerian musicians make it big in Ghana.

I will give you an outlook about the musical scene in the 90s and early 2000s later so that you’d realize that we probably were more exposed to foreign hits than this generation. But there was a balance; there was a good balance that the Lord Kenya’s and Obrafour’s didn’t feel threatened by Sisqo, Shaggy, Ja Rule, or Nelly.

This time though, the threat is real, we are using Ghana to feed Nigeria. Rabbit should not be feeding an elephant.

Kofi Kyei