Why Kwadjo Aquai left seven albums unreleased

The culture of radio presenters playing the same genre of music over and over again on their shows has been blamed for being part of the reasons why the late Kwadjo Aquai kept seven albums on his hard drive unreleased.

“If you look at the market trend now, the genre of music that radio presenters keep hammering on gives the impression that this is the kind of music or trend that everybody has to take and it’s killing creativity.

The media is responsible for that,” says Charles Amoah, Kwadjo Aquai’s close pal.

Charles also pointed a finger at events organizers who put on their bill artists from a particular genre of Ghanaian music giving the impression to the world that that’s all there is to Ghanaian music.

He said Kwadjo Aquai or himself shall not release an album when they know very well that a radio presenter is going to determine its fate as classical music or other genres of music are not played in the Ghanaian media.

Copyright and piracy challenges were also cited as some of the issues that hindered the release of the legendary musician’s albums.

Charles Amoah, who is also considered a living legend, stressed that records or albums are meant to stand the test of time and, if an artist is to put about an album it must have gone through a painstaking creative process to ensure it doesn’t fade away after a short period of time.

“I’m not saying that’s what killed Kwadjo but if you look at the trend or culture of radio presentation, you’ll always be beckoned by something not to put a record out there,” Charles added. He also disclosed that his close friend and brother died of hypertension, an ailment associated with abnormal high blood pressure.