Our music industry is sick of cancer - C-Real

Day in and day out, many songs are released in Ghana but few are able to break boundaries into the international scene. Questions have been raised as to why some of the innumerable songs are only enjoyed by Ghanaians but do not gain international recognition.

In trying to answer this question, pundits and industry players have shifted majority of the blame on musicians and music producers. According to few who talked to Zionfelix.com, some Ghanaian musicians do not invest in their career hence, their inability to take their songs international.

Ghanaian hip-hop artiste C-Real has stated that our music industry is sick of cancer and we need to get a cure for it. In his explanation, he said most Ghanaian artistes are not focused on making good music but they want just one hit song which they can ride on to attain fame.

“The industry has a cancer. The cancer is not coming from hip-hop or dancehall. It is coming from the fact that we are not focused on making good music. Everybody wants a hit song. What’s the easiest way of making a hit? Talk about the girl’s buttocks, talk about the girl’s this and that and your song is a hit.

“Every hit song is about a woman aside Cwesi Oteng’s ‘God dey bless me and a few others’” he told Bra Chef on Radio Universe 105.7.

The rapper further continued that “ 99% of the playlist on radio are about sex, drugs, drinking, look at the money I have, look at what I have done and other immoral acts” and asked, “is that what Ghanaian music is all about?”.

The hip-hop artiste on the mid-morning show, Brunch2Lunch used Joey B’s hit song ‘Tonga’ as an example saying “everybody likes ‘Tonga’ but I don’t think our whole music industry should be based on that. There are bigger problems to be solved. Tonga does not help the industry in anyway because it’s an entertainment song – its catchy, funny and danceable song”.

Speaking about Appietus’ comments about hip-hop artistes, C-Real said the producer’s comment that “The only thing I don’t like about our music industry is those that try to do the Hip Hop; you can’t play or rhyme it in their accent better than producers and artistes in America. It’s their culture and they live in it” was unnecessary. He added that Ghanaian hip-hop artistes are not aiming to be better than Jay Z and Eminem who reside in America.

“If somebody is doing hip-hop in Accra, he does not wake up one day and think he is in competition with somebody at Washington DC, New York or Los Angeles. They might aspire to be like Jay Z which is not wrong but they do not think of doing better than them so Appietus should leave us alone.”