“90 Degree Tribe,” an event organising company located in Tema Metropolis is set to revive the indigenous highlife music in the country.
The group, therefore, seeks to create special events platform to celebrate legendry highlife artist across the globe, this they believe would help preserve the Ghanaian highlife music culture and heritage.
Mr. Kwabena Bhonerg, the Chief Executive Officer of the “90 Degrees Tribe,” speaking to the Ghana News Agency in Tema said that they had started producing some video documentaries on legends of highlife music.
Some of these legends were: A. B. Crentsil, Pat Thomas, the first female vocalist of the Ghana Police Band who passed on two months ago and these people are natives of Tema and the pioneers of highlife music in Ghana.
Mr. Bhonerg said that Ghana did not have any BET nominations this year and the reason was that most artists in the country had lost focus on the music industry.
He stressed the fact that when a new trend of music genre comes up, most well-doing highlife artists want to follow it, though it’s very difficult for them to survive within that new genre because there is a saying that, “can’t do it better than those who created that type of genre.” So, artists from Ghana should stick to highlife music.
Mr. Bhonerg alleged that the artists in Ghana who follow every foreign genre are those trying to kill highlife music but it can never be possible that anyone would be able to kill highlife music.
“Even with the artistes like Akwabua and the rest who are working so hard to stick to the highlife are seen as outmoded, outcast, actually the non-highlife artistes tried to separate them from those who do the indigenous Ghanaian life music, but every artiste in Ghana should know that they can’t be more foreign than those who created the foreign genres,” Mr. Bhonerg stated.
He said, “After highlife there came rap music then called KASA HARRY, so in a way, it is not bad but the problem is when artists want to overshadow the highlife, the idea of some artists trying to overshadow highlife music.
“Some of the artistes were doing other genres because of the revenue they think they might generate from digital platforms; they can still generate money from highlife music on digital platforms and also from events.
“Corporate institutions are waiting to finance highlife music if Ghanaian artists will stick to it,” he said.
GNA