Dancehall artiste Stonebwoy has attributed the slow growth of Ghana's music industry on the international stage to persistent negativity and unhealthy competition among industry players.

Speaking in an interview with BBC Africa, the award-winning musician said while positive stories about Ghanaian music often struggle to gain traction, negative news spreads rapidly.

"We need to work a positive news ten times for it to fly. Negative news flies automatically. People create something anyway. That energy has darkened the Ghanaian scene for too long," he said.

Responding to a question on whether negativity is holding the industry back, Stonebwoy stated, “absolutely," arguing that Ghana's music space places too much emphasis on rivalry instead of celebrating achievements.

He cited Nigeria, where major accomplishments by artistes are widely celebrated.

"Comparatively, when a Nigerian wins an iHeartRadio Music Award, it will be compared to all those who have won the award, what the award is about, and how significant it is," he explained.

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Stonebwoy maintained that Ghana is blessed with immense musical talent and has played a historic role in shaping Africa's identity.

"The story is that Ghanaians are not moving hard enough; meanwhile, we have some beautiful talent. We are actually some of the fundamental inspirations to some of the things that have happened on the African continent. From our independence to Pan-Africanism," he noted.

Despite this, Stonebwoy stated that excessive focus on competition and industry feuds has overshadowed the country's achievements.

"We have always allowed too much of a focus on the competition aspect of the music business and over-focusing on the other stuff that is supposed to be a minority," he added.

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