After asking whether veteran musician Kojo Antwi is a highlife or reggae musician, the horse has come out to clear the air; “I am neither a reggae musician nor highlife musician. I am an Afro-pop musician,” said Kojo Antwi.
In your authoritative flex newspaper last week, I published an article which sought to ask whether veteran musician Kojo Antwi is a reggae musician or a highlife musician. Though I could not contact him as at the time of going to press for him to clear himself on the topic, the ever respected radio producer at Channel R 92.7 fm, Christian Agyei Frimpong, got in touch with the said musician; only for him to reveal to all and sundry that, he is neither a reggae musician nor a highlife musician but an Afro-pop musician.
Per my school of thought, I don't agree with Kojo Antwi claiming or tagging himself as an Afro-pop musician. First, Afro-pop is not a genre of music. The word 'Afro-pop' is used to describe music. It is just like saying 'gospel music.'The word 'gospel' only describes the music, mostly, as music with religious tones. The simple explanation for 'Afro-pop song,' is a popular African music or song engineered with authentic African rhythms and beats or instrumentation in general.
Per simple music gumption derived from the explanation of what an Afro-pop music is, every highlife music which becomes popular (in many African countries), not only in Ghana; can be described as an Afro-pop music. Again, reggae is a music genre from Jamaica. Since Jamaicans are descendants from Africa, we can equally say that all popular reggae songs are Afro-pop music. Kojo Antwi is from Ghana. He can therefore be tagged or called one of two 'genre-known' forms of musicians, thus; highlife musician or reggae musician.
If Kojo Antwi says he is a highlife musician but always composes reggae songs on every album he produces, that is understandable. Or if he says he is a reggae musician but produces highlife songs on every album he produces, that is also equally understandable; but to say he is an Afro-pop musician is an 'intellectual-music-treasonable-umbrage.'In your authoritative flex newspaper last week, I published an article which sought to ask whether veteran musician Kojo Antwi is a reggae musician or a highlife musician. Though I could not contact him as at the time of going to press for him to clear himself on the topic, the ever respected radio producer at Channel R 92.7 fm, Christian Agyei Frimpong, got in touch with the said musician; only for him to reveal to all and sundry that, he is neither a reggae musician nor a highlife musician but an Afro-pop musician.
Per my school of thought, I don't agree with Kojo Antwi claiming or tagging himself as an Afro-pop musician. First, Afro-pop is not a genre of music. The word 'Afro-pop' is used to describe music. It is just like saying 'gospel music.'The word 'gospel' only describes the music, mostly, as music with religious tones. The simple explanation for 'Afro-pop song,' is a popular African music or song engineered with authentic African rhythms and beats or instrumentation in general.
Per simple music gumption derived from the explanation of what an Afro-pop music is, every highlife music which becomes popular (in many African countries), not only in Ghana; can be described as an Afro-pop music. Again, reggae is a music genre from Jamaica. Since Jamaicans are descendants from Africa, we can equally say that all popular reggae songs are Afro-pop music. Kojo Antwi is from Ghana. He can therefore be tagged or called one of two 'genre-known' forms of musicians, thus; highlife musician or reggae musician.
The psychology in some of our musicians such as Kojo Antwi, Efya, Becca, etc conferring on themselves Afro-pop musicians is that, they think by saying so, they transcend Ghana and for that matter are extraordinary or doing something splendid beyond most Ghanaian musicians. The question is, have those so called Afro-pop musicians transcended Ghana with their music or statuses as musicians? To me, they are all local champions! They are funny and just deluding themselves!
I contacted my correspondents in Tanzania, Malawi, Benin and Cameroon and asked them if they have heard of Kojo Antwi or knows of his songs and their responses were simple; “who is he?”“I don't know any song of his,” “for how long has he been singing.”This means, if you are an African musician and you produce a song engineered with authentic African beats and rhythms but you or your music is not popular in Africa and beyond, you are still a local champion and needs to work harder.
Is it not the same Kojo Antwi who last year said on live TV that he is not a 'music star' in Africa? So how did he become an Afro-pop musician? Kojo Antwi should come again and stop behaving like a music simpleton. Until then…..MOTWUM!!
by Osarfo Anthony
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