Award-winning music producer and performing artiste Alfred Hanson, popularly known in showbiz as Ball J has described the current state of the Azonto craze in Ghana as ‘dead’.

The renowned producer clarified that azonto is a dance and not a genre of music, which he claims was killed by the inception of the subsequent Alkayida trend.

Speaking on The BigX Show on Radio Univers 105.7Fm, the ‘Poolside Jam’ hitmaker however encouraged Ghanaian artistes to be innovative through the inculcation of African rhythms and originality into music production to promote the craft in the country.

“Azonto is dead. What do we have as Ghanaians, it is highlife. We need to do it, that’s the reality, that is what we have unless we have something new, and that new thing we had was Azonto. Fuse did it, E.L does it and then everybody just backs off because they said Alkayida is in the system […] We threw an Alkayida bomb to Azonto, ‘boom’ and its gone”, he said.

The Nu Afrika Records CEO was of a different view with regards to the need for certification as qualification to be a sound engineer. Richie Mensah of Lynx Entertainment on Tuesday, lamented the indiscriminate use of the ‘sound engineer title’ by some producers in Ghana without the mandatory qualification. Ball J however begged to differ.

“It’s just a rule to be called a sound engineer by getting a certificate, but if you know exactly what that person knows in United States of America, you’re a sound engineer just that you are not certified. You can be a sound engineer only if you learn exactly what the sound engineer learnt and you can practice it and get the exactly the same quality of music”, he added.

He also hinted of collaboration with Mugees of R2Bees and Obuor on a peace song in the coming weeks.

Ball J released an album on the 6thof June this year, dubbed ‘Big Six’, which encapsulates a total of six songs, an allusion to the founding fathers of Ghana.