Appietus: It's going to be difficult competing with Nigerians over Afrobeats

Renowned sound engineer/music producer, Appietus is entreating Ghanaian musicians to abandon the idea of competing with Nigerians over Afrobeats since they have earned huge and global recognition for the music style.

Names such as Burna Boy, Davido, Wizkid, Asake, Temz, all of whom are Nigerian artistes will easily come to mind when Afrobeats artistes are mentioned all around the world.

Certainly, it will be difficult for a Ghanaian artiste to make it to the top global list of favourite Afrobeats artistes considering that Nigerian artistes have taken the spots.

It is for this reason that Appietus, who has been a strong advocate for highlife, is encouraging Ghanaian artistes to stick to the music style that reflect their originality.

Speaking as a panelist on the Graphic Showbiz X Dialogue  recently, Appietus, who has worked with the crème de la crème of Ghanaian musicians said the latter should refrain from copying Afrobeats, a genre he said was predominantly associated with Nigeria.

He also cautioned against merging foreign genres like Amapiano with Afrobeats, as it could undermine Ghanaian artistes' originality and authenticity. (Read Editor's Lens: Empowering women in the creative industry)

“Nigerians now own Afrobeats and there's nothing we can do about it. We will just be copycats if we keep on doing that. It's going to be difficult competing with Nigerians on Afrobeats. It is just like how you can't take Dancehall and Reggae from Jamaica.

“And lately, I see people trying to blend Amapiano and Afrobeats to make it Ghanaian, that won’t work too. We will just be copycats if we keep on coming up with that mixture. Let us modernise Highlife the way we want and present it to the world and see what will happen.

 “Let’s sell ourselves and culture and stop competing with others over their music genres. We have sold our music type before and Nigerians were nowhere close. So, we can do it again,” Appietus stated.

The last edition of Graphic Showbiz X Dialogue series also had media consultant, Francis Doku as a panelist. 

Speaking on the theme, “#PlayGhana Initiative, Is it a worthy cause? The former General Manager of 3 Group, also urged proponents of #PlayGhana initiative and key partners to refrain from enforcing it as a regulated policy on Ghanaians.

Instead, he advocates the use of moral persuasion to get a buy-in from Ghanaians.