Many musicians and music fans will disagree with me, but I will declare it, that hiplife, as a form of music, is noise-making, and has no future, as it is only rap over highlife.
Many people have described the music of most hiplife local artistes as ?noise? which has no bearing on the national cultural and aspirations.
Even though most of the music is creative, it lacks the national touch needed most, to help shape the minds and attitudes of the people positively, as one of their major roles music has to play in a society.
?Hiplifers? do not take their time to seriously work on their music; some of them spend just two weeks to produce a full album.
As we are all aware there is no authentic hiplife rhythm, and I think hiplifers should abandon hiplife and do rap, but with more ?acoustic?, ?traditional? and ?live? fit to it.
If really the hiplife artistes in Ghana want to succeed on the international music market, they should take cue from African giants like Osibisa, Angelique Kidjoe, Papa Wemba, Orlando Julius, Kojo Antwi, Yinka Davis, Nana Kwame Ampadu, Salif Keita, among others who tried as much as possible to mix traditional rhythms with pop or world music.
It is rather surprising to note that certain songs produced by a section of the hiplife artistes are indecent, promoting immorality in society.
Just listen to some of their lyric, they are full of insults and insinuations, making one wonder whether that filth of music was meant for the decent Ghanaian culture.
With the use of filth or profane lyric in their music, the hiplife artistes are doing more harm than good to society.
I hope no one will subject me to criticism for campaigning against local creative work.
I felt disgusted, ashamed and disappointed when I heard children of school-going age, singing a profane song. Nothing was so heart-rendering than the accompanying movement of the various hands to the sensitive parts of the body, amidst ?Fa Shia Me Down, Down?
What benefit do these songs bring to Ghanaians?
The time has come for music lovers to stop patronising music which will not benefit society in any way. The more we ignore profane or indecent music, the more the artsites will sit up to come out with a good work for public consumption.
It is on record that Ghanaian music lovers have had enough of indecent songs, and sooner or later, the artistes who have adopted going profane, will fade out.
I will suggest that the Musicians Union of Ghana, National Commission on Culture (NCC) and Ministry of Tourism should come together to organise workshops and seminars to educate Ghanaian artistes on their choice of music and lyric, as well as the kind of music the artistes should come out with.
The National Media Commission (NMC) should also educate radio DJs or presenters to comply with the ethics of the profession, and also preview every song before being played on air.
If radio DJs or presenters stop airing profane or indecent music, it will discourage the artistes from coming out with such music. Sometimes, we have to blame radio presenters or DJs for they have also contributed immensely toward the promotion of indecent music in the country.
Let there be sanity in the music industry. Over to you MUSIGA, NCC and NMC.
