A highlife artiste, Ben Brako, says highlife musicians should be more creative and innovative with highlife music and infuse their songs with some elements that appeal to the youth.
He says if the youth is not encouraged to buy into highlife music, Ghana will lose “a precious gift”.
The renowned highlife artiste made these comments on the Focus weekend citi show on Focus FM while speaking to the host Kwame Poku (DJ Scientific).
According to the musician, Azonto is a brand of highlife.”It is a better brand of highlife that is more danceable, graceful and more youthful”.
Asked why highlife is not receiving the same patronage hiplife is getting, Ben Brako said “highlife has gone a bit stale because it got to a point where a lot of the highlife musicians went into exile and hence could not ply their trade in Ghana. The people who came up afterwards were forced to deal with more computerized stuff and that gave birth to hiplife and genres of its type in Ghana.”
He revealed that he is working on a “mini album” and urged fans to expect it soon.
The experienced musician also revealed that he is more excited about the current practice where musicians release singles instead of albums, explaining that with albums many of the songs do not get the attention they deserve.
Ben Brako, who featured rapper Asem in his single “Shame and Scandal”, says he did so because Hiplife is what the current generation understands and Asem being one of the best rappers in his opinion constituted an asset. Interestingly, he also featured Asem because the word “Asem” was mentioned in the chorus of the song.
He urged aspiring musicians to work hard at their passion and not wait for everything to be perfect before starting something.
-Bernard Buachi
Focus FM, KNUST, Kumasi.