He was one of the artistes who ruled the music scene in the early 2000s with his ‘Hip Dia’ (a fusion of Hiplife and Indian music rhythms) tracks like Nipa Boniaye but burnt out early and Sony Achiba is blaming Ghanaian DJs for that.
In an interview with Showbiz, Achiba said he had no wish to die out after enjoying only three years of fame but he was pushed out by the DJs.
“Ghanaian DJs kill talents. That is what most of them do. They don’t appreciate the efforts of artistes. They will even retire you before your time because they don’t know what we go through to get our music out there,” he said.
“Every mainstream artiste can appreciate the energy we put in to make our songs successful. Unfortunately, our DJs, who are supposed to help the growth of the industry would rather charge high ‘unofficial’ fees to play the song.
“As if that isn’t enough, they will be quick to retire you early from active music because they determine who should reign or not. As soon as a new artiste pops up, the older ones are left out of the competition because they think your time has passed,” he lamented.
That is not the only problem the Gyamena Wo Yare hitmaker has with Ghanaian DJs saying they do not do enough to promote Ghanaian music.
According to him, it was interesting how DJs insist on payment from local artistes before playing their music, yet would proudly play more foreign music.
“It’s quite interesting when you hear people say that Nigerians are more talented than Ghanaian artistes. I can never accept that fallacy. The truth is that, they have a bigger market and appreciate the arts so they invest in it but in our case, it’s not so.
“Mostly, the artiste has to hustle to make a meaningful career and after all that, has to compete with foreign artistes for listenership in our own country. This has been the unfortunate situation because Ghanaian DJs kill talents,” he stated.
Though he hasn’t been active on the music scene for the last 13 years, Sony Achiba, real name, Emmanuel John Dankwa, told Showbiz he has been following the industry and is impressed with how the current crop of artistes are lifting the flag of Ghana high on international stages.
“Today, Ghana can boast of BET awards winners and it is only right that we encourage the young ones to work harder. However, the trend of pitching successful artistes against each other should stop. It breeds rivalry which doesn’t help the growth of the industry.
I believe the market is big enough to accommodate the diversity of talents and that must be encouraged,” he stated.
He also disclosed that his fans would soon have the opportunity to enjoy ‘Hip-Dia’ again with a new single titled Fufuo which would herald his return to active music.
A product of Kumasi Technical Institute (KTI), Sony Achiba, who is currently schooling in London has three albums to his credit; Indian Ocean 1 in 2001, Indian Ocean Two and Indian Ocean Three.
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Source: Samcilla/BjrliveFM.com/01818/Graphic
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