Ghanaian musicians should instead concentrate on developing Highlife rather than competing with Nigerians in the Afrobeats genre, according to sound engineer and music producer Appietus.
He claims that the majority of Afrobeats artists worldwide are from Nigeria, and artists like Burna Boy, Davido, Wizkid, Asake, and Temz are among the genre’s most well-known figures.
According to him, it would be difficult for a Ghanaian musician to become well-known worldwide, and attempting to mimic or blend Afrobeats with other genres—like Amapiano—would also not be successful.
“There is nothing we can do about the fact that Afrobeats is now owned by Nigerians. If we continue in that manner, we will just become imitations. It will be challenging to compete on Afrobeats with Nigerians. It’s similar to how dancehall and reggae are indigenous to Jamaica,” he said.
He went on to say that since Highlife is a historically and culturally based music genre, Ghanaian musicians have to modernize and promote it.
“Let’s quit battling with one another over our preferred musical genres and instead sell our culture and selves. Nigerians were nothing near what we had sold previously for our genre of music. Thus, we are able to repeat it,” he said.
