10 Things That Kill Ghanaian Musicians Fast

PERISHABLE SONGS

What are perishable songs? It means songs that don’t last and what causes that, usually production and lyrics. For instance when there is a new term or incident (like tweaa, boys abr3, tonga), most musicians jump on the term and release several songs to go with the time, but remember these terms don’t last and even if these songs become a hit song, once the said term fade or incident dies down, that is the end of the song. Ghanaian musicians should rather spend time on their songs and write songs which could last like songs made by Daddy Lumba, Ofori Amponsah, Kojo Antwi, Kofi B and more.

UNNECESSARY RELEASES (FREESTYLES AND MIXTAPES)

Freestyles are called mixtapes in Ghana (I don’t know where the name came from) but anyway, Ghanaian musicians, especially the rappers, release lots of freestyles and mixtapes which think are unnecessary. We personally think it’s a waste of lyrics and beats. Artistes like Sarkodie has over 500 songs to his name and very few are well-recorded and planned, Shatta Wale in his short time fame, has over 200 songs, he actually release songs daily all of them of low quality. These freestyles don’t last, they are only hyped for a few days and that is just about it. Musicians like Opanka, Yaa Pono are known for releasing freestyles on the regular, hence why their career seems to be standing still. Artistes like Fuse ODG has about 3 or 4 singles and all his songs are hit songs.

NON-BUSINESS MINDED

Music is a business and not supposed to be taken as a joke, hobby or fun. It’s like having a grocery store, you should know what your consumers buy the most and make sure it never run out of stock. Artistes like D-Black has always stayed relevant ever since his break through, inking bigger deals even though he’s heavily criticized for his rap skills. Like one smart man said, “It’s not about working hard always, it’s also about working smart”. You need to know the business side of it all. How to ink deals, brand yourself and be on if not every show, most shows.

ARROGANCE

Who do musicians do music for? Of course for their fans and music listeners but when it all work and there is a little bit of fame, Musicians act arrogant even to their own fans and people who wants to deal with them. We hear stories of how some musicians turn down interviews to not-so-big media houses simply because they won’t add any value to their brand. Musicians in Ghana don’t even interact with their die-hard fans. On social media, musicians prefer to chase girls instead of their real music listeners, following their fans back or “retweeting” them when they speak good about them becomes a problem but who does it help? It all work for the musicians gain. Made musicians don’t even take their songs to radio stations anymore, reasons being, the radio need them, they don’t need them. Musicians in Ghana feel they are doing you a favor if you want to discuss business or opportunity with them and later complain about how bad our industry is, it all start from you, the artiste

NON-SERIOUSNESS

There are only few ways that Ghanaian musicians get money, playing shows and endorsement deals. But if you care to know, some Ghanaian musicians are not even fit to be endorsed by bigger brands simply because they are not serious and don’t know how to represent the brand. Media mogul Diddy is a brand ambassador for the Ciroc and if you go through his social media pages and music videos he shoots, he represent the brand every way possible, there is always a Ciroc bottle in ever picture or video you see of Diddy, Don Jazzy from Nigeria is also an ambassador for Loya Milk, go to his instagram page and see for yourself, Loya is present in almost every pic, of course every brand would want to associate with these men, when you come to Ghana, it’s different, R2Bees have a deal with rLG and Star Beer but there is never a picture of them drinking Star Beer or using an rLG product not even in their music videos, why would any brand want to sign R2Bees again, it’s common sense, you need prove your are worth it. Promoters also complain bitterly of their experiences with Ghanaian artistes, booking them for a show sometimes come with regrets and pain, some musicians are proud enough to not show up, come for rehearsals or even interviews. Why would any promoter want to work with you anymore. Who does this go against?

RUSHING TO GO INTERNATIONAL

The Ghanaian definition of international is by featuring Nigerian artistes, it’s all good and fair we all dream big that one day we will cross the borders and make what we can do best known to the world, it won’t hurt to see Shatta Wale on BET stage but there’s no way Shatta Wale will perform there if he don’t do songs which will take him there. Rushing for international stage makes you loose focus to what your own people like or how you came about, let’s use D’Banj as an example D’Banj was quick to sign with Kanye West ignoring his team members who he made it with. It all sounded good but look at D’Banj today, he shoots world class music videos but struggling to make a hit song even in his own country where he dominated a few years ago. Attendance of his legendary annual concerts dubbed “KOKO Concert” which was always a sold-out has dropped. Our very own Sarkodie seems to be following suite, his recent releases seems to be targeted to Nigerians, featuring lots of Nigerians in his songs, trying to please them more than he pleases his home country, releasing hardcore rap songs and shooting expensive foreign style videos to his songs that Ghanaians don’t even like. Sarkodie best learn from D’banj.

OVERCHARGING

Ghanaians are highly noted for copying western cultures, it’s not bad but sometimes we overdo it which makes it unbearable. Sarkodie has been given several platforms to express his opinion about the industry and all we get is, always a clear comparison between Ghana and Nigeria but why can’t we all be different, why should we look at what someone is doing before we do ours? This comparison and over-copying leads to a lot. We know that to book Sarkodie now, you will need nothing less than GHC30,000 but this same GHC30,000 can have about 4 known artistes in Ghana on one stage hence why promoters and even organizers don’t call for artistes who overcharge anymore, at the end you don’t get paid. R2Bees pulled out of a concert because they were paid less than P-Square, does that even make sense? This is common sense and it’s all due to the fact that we compare ourselves to what others are charging elsewhere, Nigeria, US, Europe but we should bear in mind that these countries are 10times bigger than our country. We just can’t be equal.

LACK OF VERSATILITY

Versatility means a lot in everything we do in this world, having the same attitude or material gets boring, switching styles and trying new things works the most. Ghanaian musicians are mostly not versatile. They sound one-way all the time. This is because musicians don’t like to try new things, producers or team. Kanye West is a music producer but don’t produce for himself always, he work with other producers. In Ghana, musicians like Kaakie has been fingered for sounding the same all the time all boils down to the fact that she works with the same producer all the time. Many also say that lack of versatility killed Ghanaian music group and family Lynx Entertainment. It won’t hurt to buy songs from people who can write so to give us new materials or work with more artistes from different camps, even if you don’t like them. It’s business, it shouldn’t be personal.

CHEAP

Besdies EL, Sarkodie, R2Bees and D-Black almost all the remaining Ghanaian musicians are cheap, investing in your music is always the way forward but nobody does it best. Everybody applauds Nigerian musicians for their excellent music videos and of course it doesn’t come cheap. We’ve heard that Nigerians spend as much as $100,000 per video, hence why they get what they get, in Ghana music videos cost between $2500 to $5000. Being cheap only makes you loose out.

SCARED TO INVEST

Besides shooting good music videos, if we really want to go international wouldn’t we have to work with the international artistes? The farther a Ghanaian artiste has gone is to work with Jamaican stars. How about Sarkodie working with Twista and Busta Rhymes so we see who is really fast, how about Efya and Rihanna. I know it won’t be cheap but it will shoot the artiste to the very top, hence why it’s called investment. It seems we are ok with our little fame in our little world.

LACK OF PROPER RECORD LABELS

In other parts of the world signing a record deal means that’s the start of your career. Down here, there are not more than5 record labels. Things are done improperly. Musicians ditch their labels after getting famous. Nigerian rappers like M.I., Ice Prince, Wande Coal, Wizkid are all signed to record labels. The best labels in Ghana are BBnZ, Black Avenue Muzik and probably Lynx Entertainment (back then).

TIME WASTING

Ghanaian musicians waste awful time chasing girls, posing for photos for instagram and letting their fame get into their head instead of working hard. Davido’s “Skelewu” didn’t die down but he went on and released “Aye” and shot a video to it. Once you are on top you have to work hard. We play too much which is not good for us. Some musicians too waste time on social media beefing with their fans and those who don’t agree with them or like them. Ghanaian musicians need to know that not everybody is going to like you.


Source: omgghana