The self-acclaimed originator of Hip-Life, Gyedu-Blay Ambolley is one of the sages who can’t be overlooked in writing the history of Ghanaian music. Although, there has been series of controversies emanating from the camp of the ace musician ranging from his claim as originator of Ghana’s Hip-Life as well as his quest to become the president of Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA).
Well, Gyedu-Blay Ambolley in an interview with Berla Mundi of GHOne TV fame in July 5, 2017 as monitored by Ghbase.com made a lot of surprising and contoversial arguments throughout the show dubbed Rhythmz. According to him, Ghanaians favorite artistes basically travel outside the country to perform before Ghanaian expatriates because their music lack the essential tenets of our cultural heritage. As a result, their songs can’t ‘move’ the Europeans to give them listening ears. Simply put, there’s no originality in what our contemporary artistes talk about in their songs which makes them ‘synthetic’ musicians!
“Being authentic or better still to represent Ghana fully through music in the outside world goes beyond rapping in Ghanaian Language (Twi) citing Sarkodie as a case study. Originality mostly emanates from the rhythm not just the language an artist will use to compose a song”. He told Berla Mundi.
Because our artistes do not fully portray our Ghanaian cultural heritage through rhythm as embedded in music, they’re only received or welcomed in Europe by Ghanaian expatriates whenever they go on music tour.
Surprisingly, Gyedu-Blay Ambolley opined that, Obrafour lack originality in terms of representing Ghana fully because he normally infiltrate more foreign rhythm. He added that, there’s no dancehall king in Ghana because dancehall as a genre belongs to Jamaica. How can you claim ownership of something that doesn’t belongs to you? He rhetorically opined.
It was in 1998 when Gyedu- Blay Ambolley infected every singing lip in Ghana and around the world with his infectious ‘Ragamzo’ rap. Even today, the song is still refreshing and with new instrumentation, the tune is still extremely danceable! With its message still very relevant after all these years.
