Highlife musician and songwriter, Akwaboah Jnr, believes Ghanaians are unable to preserve Highlife because they don’t understand it.
He argued that his country folks don’t have insight regarding the genre and therefore are unable to cherish it.
He noted that there are different types of Highlife and most young artists don’t know about this.
“Some are doing Sekyi but they don’t even know that is what they’re doing”, he said and pointed Kelvynboy’s ‘My baby’ as an example of Sekyi highlife.
Akwaboah argued that because most music producers don’t understand the genre, they are unable to produce the right instrumentals.
“In Ghana, we have Kwame Yeboah, me, my dad, Victor. They are people that you can actually go to. Even with my songs, I don’t compose them alone. When I’m done with my structure, I call my guys; the guitarist, the bassist, the drummer and another keyboardist”
“We all share ideas so it’s not just one person producing the ideas. By the time we’re done, I’d have spent about 4000 to 5000 cedis; but most of the producers we have, they only play one or two keys on the keyboard and the rest is his mind’, he said.
Akwaboah Jnr. encouraged young artists to take the pain to learn about Highlife music so they can appreciate the genre better.
