Our music industry is weak

For all its criticism, the Ghanaian music industry has experienced some vibrancy over the years but Afro Dancehall artiste Kiaani, does not see it like that, saying it is rather weak.

To Kiaani, the fact that few musicians are doing well does not mean all is well with our music industry. “The music industry is weak and I am not afraid to say it because I am in there and I know what is going on.

“Real talents are not getting recognised and the weaker ones are always trending. A great artiste such as Wiyaala struggles to get promotion while other musicians who are not talented rather get all the push,” he told Graphic recently.

According to Kiaani, many songs do not have great content and that’s why the country could not even secure any nominations at this year’s Grammy Awards.

“I wonder why we were surprised that we could not make it to the Grammys this year. Our content is not the best and we need to work at it.

“A musician wants to talk about life on a particular song and before you realise they are talking about a woman’s body and other irrelevant things on the same song. We can only make the noise in Ghana but trust me, we will not go anywhere with our music,” he stated.

Kiaani, real name Steven Kofi Annan Nartey, added that, most musicians prefer to copy popular tunes from others rather than doing their own original songs.

“We like copying from popular tunes without consulting the original owners which has now become so common in Ghana and because our system is weak, no one is suing anyone. If musicians were going to jail for copyright, this thing would have stopped long ago,” he said.

Kiaani, who is currently promoting his latest piece, ‘Give Me More’ recorded by Airthen, pleaded with A-list musicians to open their arms to the young ones when they come for collaborations.

Other songs in his repertoire are ‘Who’s The King’, ‘Distance Love’, ‘Smoke Dem’, ‘For Better For Worse’, ‘Missing You’, ‘Grace and Money’.