Highlife musician, Terry Asare Boamah popularly known as Dada Hafco has encouraged Ghanaians to promote highlife music because it is the bedrock of Ghanaian music.
Speaking with Doreen Avio on Hitz Fm’s Daybreak Hitz, he said that Ghanaians who consider highlife musicians illiterates must stop because highlife is just like any other music genre.
“A lot of people hear me speaking English and they go like oh we thought he was an illiterate oo. Yes because in Ghana everything that comes with Vernacular makes people think you are a villager” he said.
“People’s knowledge is that when you speak English, you are from the elite. You know what I mean. And it’s never like that, we need to re-educate these people.” He added.
He further added that many current Ghanaian musicians are singing and making highlife music. However, they are not classifying it as highlife. He mentioned that musicians such as “R2bees, Kwame Eugene, and Camidoh” make highlife music.
“If we all decide to own it, we could birth a genre that could take over the world. I love what Stonebwoy did when he spoke to Rick Ross because he mentioned that Highlife music is the bedrock of our music.”
Emphasising that highlife music is the “biggest genre” in Ghana, he encouraged musicians to be proud to claim it.
“It is the biggest genre in Ghana. The thing is a lot of people make high-life music but they don’t claim it like I do. Like the majority of the people are not like claiming it, as in this is what I do.”
The “Our Story” hitmaker also added that awards schemes such as the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards can place priority on Highlife music to get people interested in it.
“If the VGMA can help and throw more light on highlife music maybe this year, the biggest award on the night is the one who takes home Highlife Song of the Year. You are going to have a lot of people gunning to do highlife music in the coming years.”
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