Musicians At War With Beat Producers

“Is A Hit Man”, “You Know The name Right!”, “Nacy Fetio Nwonm”, “Appietus In The Mix!”, “Body RORO”, “If Its Heavy Then Bones Did It”, “Quick Action”, “Brasssh! Jay Q”, 'Kaywa, Yes You Know”, “The Last 2”, these are signatures of beat producers in the country and they are causing more harm than good to the musicians, who have decided to match them boot for boot because they are cheating them.

“It is not only marketing their studios to upcoming musicians, it also making them think they can sing and do what we do best”, a musician told us. I mean, now, Quick action is singing, Morris DeVoice the same, Richie, Nacy, RoRo and the list goes on, the musician added.

These guys after getting their fame from us, they also want to challenge us on our profession too, this is really bad and has to be stopped, he Cried out loud. “Let me tell you, if you send your promo CD to a DJ to play, he will ask you which engineer worked on it, if it is not a popular one, trust me He will take the CD not to embarrass you but he will not play it.

We are not giving the upcoming beat producers a chance and it is sad!, he continued passionately. In the past Ghanaian musicians did not have signatures of beat producers on their songs, making them comfortable and getting all the praise for a good work?

Over then, credits were given to beat producers on the CD/cassette cases of the musicians as well as others who helped in making the album a success. In the early 2000’s when hip life was hip life, beat producers such as Jay Q and Hammer, were playing their signatures on songs produced by artiste from their camp.

Hammer of the Last 2 had the signature of a voice from an MC and Jay Q was breaking bottles, these two was not easily accepted from the beginning but with time it grew stronger and gradually became a competition and an industry beef between artistes from the two camps.

Was there an effect then? What has change over the years that some of the musicians in the country are now crying that signatures of beat makers should be removed from their songs or they (beat producers) have to pay/reduce cost of production since it is advertisement for them?

In a chat with one of Ghana’s renounced beat producers UBEAT, he disclose that, he has being producing beat all these years and has never dropped a signature on any song, he has recorded.

“I have worked with majority of the musicians in Ghana and every time they record somewhere, I do the mix and mastering, why? If they know your work they know it, he added.

Also we spoke to another renounced producer, whose work is heard day in day out but with no signature introduction or a mention from the artiste. He was very clear and simple, ‘beat producers should not put their signatures on songs of musicians’; if your work is good people will come looking for you.

In response to that an interview with the musicians showed that, majority of them did not really find the connection as to why they have to pay so much to record a song and after awards beat producers advertise freely their signatures on it, while the minority had a different opinion.

This issue once came up, we remember on EBIZ which was shown then on Net 2 Television, the presenter once brought the issue up for discussion and the issue was hardly solved, but now the musicians have come to realization that producers are cheating them, by putting their signatures on their song.

They (musicians) showed a lot of remorse when we spoke to them, saying, ‘we have being deceived in the past and now we will not allow them”. Our young and upcoming artistes are wondering were to record because the so called popular beat makers are charging so much they can’t afford.

The DJs/presenters are also not helping, some of them are now singing, the music profession is too opened, and a musician told us. What can we do, our association is not working too well to protect us and they are aware, we are being cheated but choose to watch and do nothing, the musician lamented. Seriously a second look at this issue is so important, as to who is losing and who is gaining.

Are the musicians gaining, the better the signature on the song the more air play and listenership the musician gets and the more signature is played the popular the beat producers get and the more they increase their charges.

The intentions of musicians are now clear, all signatures of beat producers should be removed with immediate effect, if it is kept, then it means, either, the charges for recording are reduced or the signatures are paid for.

All efforts to reach some of the DJs/Presenters and beat producers mentioned here proved fruit less but in due course if we get their response to the story as to whether they are doing the musicians more damage than good, readers will be informed.