Internationally acclaimed Ghanaian musician Kwame Yeboah has declared that the Highlife genre is dead.
“Highlife music is dead in Ghana, right? Tell me, who is doing highlife in Ghana?” he asked.
In an interview with Kwame Dadzie on Hitz FM’s Daybreak Hitz, the producer and multi-instrumentalist claimed that the Ghanaian-born music has lost its appeal in his homeland.
Yeboah claims that the majority of younger musicians who identify as highlife rarely employ live highlife instruments, instead largely depending on electronic beats.
He pointed out that bands that have stuck to the genre, like Santrofi, hardly ever play locally and are frequently on worldwide tours, bringing highlife to listeners around the world.
Explaining why he believes Kuami Eugene does not fully represent highlife, Yeboah said: “Well, Kuami Eugene is not a big expo because the music he does is computer-based, so it’s different. If you play Santrofi’s songs and you play Kuami Eugene’s songs you can hear what I mean. One of them is played with live instruments, one of them is played with computers.”
NKONKONSA.com
