I can’t explain feeling on Ameno Amapiano ‘blow’—Nektunez
WHEN 2021 started, it was just another year for music producer and mastering engineer, Nektunez to as usual make a living out of his craft like any other professional.
However, in the last quarter of the year, the story changed for the Ghanaian-Atlanta/Georgia based music producer with the remix of his produced Ameno Amapiano song featuring Nigeria’s Goya Menor. The song went viral in Africa, UK, USA and Canada.
The tune was, arguably, the biggest on the airwaves in Ghana during the Yuletide. However, its popularity in Ghana is probably the minutest part of the success of Ameno Amapiano, which is presently topping charts on various digital platforms such as Boomplay and Spotify.
From the most prominent night life destinations in Accra to the biggest clubs in Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya and across the world, Ameno Amapiano produced by Nektunez, has become the order of the day.
Speaking with the Graphic Showbiz, Nektunez said he couldn’t explain the feeling of having a hit song in Africa and beyond.
“I don’t and can’t explain the feeling right now because it all seems like a dream to me. But what it tells me is that one should never shun hard work but be consistent with what he is passionate about.
“I produced this Amapiano beat early last year before featuring Goya Menor for the remix and the results is the global attention I’m enjoying.
"I’m very confident this is just the start of great things to happen to my flourishing career,” he stated.
Nektunez, who grew up in Kumasi, said he was exposed to Ghanaian Afrobeats and Highlife sounds by listening to them on radio. That influenced his decision to go into music production back at the University of Ghana, Legon.
“It’s my dream to become one of the greatest producers to ever come out of Africa so during my university days, I asked someone to teach me the basics of sound production and used my free hours to practise.
“In a matter of months, I had honed my sound production skill and begun producing beats for underground artistes from my makeshift studio in my apartment.
"After school, I decided to do music full-time and worked as a recording artist, music producer, mix & mastering/sound engineer,” he said.
Since then, Nektunez has produced beats for a number of Ghanaian artistes including Eugy, Dance God, Evans Scott, Kobby Wills, Camidoh, Kelvyn Boy, Shatta Wale, Tripcy and Worlasi.
Last year, he produced R2Bee’s Loving on their Back to Basic album and Stonebwoy’s We Move.
It has, however, not be all rosy though. Nektunez have had to deal with copyright right issues with Apple Music and Spotify when the song was taken down for copyright infringement.
Talking about the development, Nektunez said it was just a misunderstanding about ownership of Ameno Amapiano which had been rectified.
He said the success of Ameno Amapiano should boost the confidence of Ghanaian music producers who were already producing good tunes adding,
“Ghanaian producers are great and it’s about time we let the world hear what we have”.