Kojo Antwi calls on Ghana to support and develop traditional African music

Kojo Antwi is still happy about his performance at the recent 10th annual Black Entertainment Television awards which nominated him in the Best International Act award category.

For the Ghanaian Maestro, this goes a long way to tell how Ghanaian music has traveled and in an interview with this reporter, the maestro said time was long overdue for the world of music to start recognizing and appreciating the contribution of African beats to contemporary.

Kojo, was nominated for the Best International Act award alongside P'Square of Nigeria, K'naan of Somali origin, Estelle, M.I. and Sade who has Nigerian roots. Other nominees in the category were Corrine Bailey Rae, Chipmunk and HHP; Hip Hop Pantsula.

The winner of the Best International Act award at the recently ended 2010 BET awards which was hosted by Queen Latifa was Dizzee Rascal. In Kojo Antwi's view, Dizzee Rascal's nomination and win makes Africans proud since it continues to put the continent out there in a positive way.

Dizzee Rascal’s maiden name is Dylan Kwabena Mills; he was born in October 1985 to a Nigerian father and a Ghanaian mother.

Kojo Antwi tells Ghana Music.com during an exclusive interview in a pre-performance rehearsal for a show in Maryland that he is very excited about his ongoing tour of the USA which began early July 2010, he promised to deliver quality performances that will endear him to his American fans along the east and west coast of the country.

This tour of the USA will be the fifth for Kojo Antwi, who is also affectionately called ‘The Music Man’ by his fans. For Kojo, music is like a crusade and he goes where God directs him and that’s why he usually ends up having great performances and great audiences wherever he goes.

The intention of the Kojo Antwi team is to tour seven states in the USA and so far he’s had successful shows in New York, Maryland and North Carolina. Special Kay Entertainment Inc, are collaborating with Freedom Family Entertainment on the Kojo Antwi US Tour.

The tour organizers believe the show has been long overdue as US fans of Kojo have been patiently waiting to see him perform once more in the USA.

There’s this strong believe in The Music man that music from Africa is a force to reckon with, which his why this tour has become necessary.

In an attempt to justify his saying that African music has strongly carved a niche for its self without the help of the BET Awards or any other International body, Kojo Antwi referred to Ghanaian artistes like Osibisa, Nana Acheampong, Amakye Dede and Daddy Lumba, all of whom managed to sell millions of records on their own efforts without the help of big marketing firms back in the days.

These artistes were making platinum hits and their music was traveling across the globe as well.

Young Ghanaian and African musicians today have been bombarded by a strong influence of the western culture by way of music, movies and fashion. It is difficult to escape the allure and influence, yet there is a strong sense of originality in African music which must not and can not be ignored says Kojo Antwi.

There’s the strong need for cultural exchange, in the Western world must be enticed to love African music and movies as is the case in Africa of the West.

Africans must not always wait on greats like Paul Simon to show case African talents like South African music group Lady Smith Black Mombassa, we must spearhead our own initiatives as there is a strong imposition of the Western culture.

Dependence on the latter stifles originality and growth which is why you go to China today and find the Chinese artistes doing rap music and still appealing to a respectable audience.

Kojo is full of applause for the strides the Ghanaian music industry has made so far, yet the music giant believes there is a lot more room for improvement and he foresees better times ahead.

However, the responsibility of meeting better times does not solely fall on the musicians; the entire nation of Ghana has a crucial role to play hence the need for government participation in this crusade.

‘Music helps a long way in building the nation’s psyche yet we as musicians do not get enough support from policy makers’ says the maestro who finds this rather unfortunate.

Music forms the center of The Music Man’s world and everything he does revolves around it, which his why he strives continually to improve the quality of music from Ghana and the African continent.

It is for this purpose that he’s tirelessly working on discovering and harnessing young talents in Ghana who have the passion for music. The Kojo Antwi Foundation (TKAF) is a body set up under the auspices of the maestro.

TKAF is putting up incubation centers for youths in Ghana, teaching them true Ghanaian and African music, in an attempt to ensure that the truth in the style of African music is told accurately so it doesn’t die.

The promoters of the Kojo Antwi tour are in high spirits and are of the strong faith that the musician’s tour of the US is going to be historic and successful too.

The road show was in Massachusetts for a gig on the last weekend of July and will come the 7th of August 2010, take Atlanta Georgia by storm before heading to Chicago Illinois a week afterwards for a performance with the Rainbow Tribe Band at the West Point Baptist Church.

The last of Kojo Antwi’s performance will be in Columbus Ohio where he brings the curtain down on his US tour on Saturday August 21, 2010.

Special Kay Entertainment Inc and Freedom Family Entertainment are making the US tour possible for Kojo Antwi, they have provided various supporting artiste from Ghana moving who are moving and performing with Kojo’s tour of the States.

Some of the Ghanaian musicians and hip-life artistes touring with Kojo are Koby Maxwell, Mad Fish and Paapa Shee.

The Ghanaian music maestro who recently released his 13th album in Ghana entitled ‘Mwaaah’ says the new album is doing pretty good back home. He looks forward to receiving an equally good patronage of the album here in the States.

This tour should hopefully ''make people aware of my continuous presence in the Ghana music scene'' he believes.