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The Rise & Fall of Ghanaian Sound Engineers : Our Sound Engineers Fade Away With Specific Music Trend

azonto

 

Within the past two decades, various music trends have emerged and somehow faded. Although with different rhythms and beat structures, these trends were still classified under the mother genre – Hiplife.

There is something which I find quite interesting about this. The various music trends seem to come along with their own sound engineers. These sound engineers rise and become very popular, but as soon as that particular music trend fades away, that engineer associated mostly with it also seems to fade away.

Any music enthusiast would remember that in the mid 90s, we all danced very well to the “gyama” Hiplife with great tunes which came from the camps of Castro, Buk Bak, FBS, VIP, Mzbel, and a whole lot of artists.

Without doubt, you would bear with me that Jay Q was the reigning sound engineer at that period. I remember some people even nicknamed him the “King of Gyama.” You wouldn’t listen to a song of that trend without been greeted with his captivating signature tune.

For once, I thought bottles in Ghana were going to get finished, as you would hear a bottle break, followed by the word Jay Q which was uttered by a man with a very deep voice. What has happened to that “Gyama” music? Ever since that trend faded away, we do not hear much from Jay Q as we used to.

As dynamic as our music industry has been, another type of music emerged which was referred to as “Crunk.” Majority of our Ghanaian musicians diverted their attention to that. With great tunes from Tinny (Ringtone), Bradez (Flashe), OJ Blaq (Chale Wote) Obour (Killing The Game), Okyeame Kwame (Woso), Kwaw Kesse (Mene Wo Nni Asem), and many more, the “Crunk” also become very popular, especially among youth.

We are familiar with the phrase, “It’s a hit meeeeeehn.” That is the signature tune for our very own sound engineer, Richie Mensah of Lynx Entertainment. Do you remember how that phrase and himself became famous during the “Crunk” era? Today, there is no more “Crunk”. Funny enough, Richie is somehow lost in the game as we do not hear much from him again.

“I don’t know what I go talk o. Ka se Kaywa.” This catchy phrase might still be fresh in people’s mind. This tune used to ring in our ears a lot just some few years back. How would anyone in Ghana forget about the rise of Azonto dance and its fast-tempo music?

Most of the Azonto songs that surfaced were engineered by Kaywa, C.E.O. of Groove Zone Studio. He picked the sound engineer award back to back for two consecutive years (2012 & 2013). He really contributed a lot to the azonto craze.

The Azonto that I thought would never vanish seems to be gradually disappearing through thin air, as it is now being replaced by a new craze of dance and music referred to as “Akayida.” Just as Azonto is gradually fading away, same way the popularity of Kaywa is fading..

As a matter of fact, if you are a sound engineer and you associate yourself too much with a rising music trend; do not forget that as soon as that trend begins to wane, so would you. It is therefore advisable to be versatile.

So in this Akayida era, which sound engineer are we l



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1 thought on “The Rise & Fall of Ghanaian Sound Engineers : Our Sound Engineers Fade Away With Specific Music Trend”

  1. lol you forgot to add Appietus- in the mix! Became so popular in the early to mid 2000s when artistes like ofori amponsah and kk fosu were making hits. Appietus is still around of course but he;s not being featured in all those songs as he was back then

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