Current Ghanaian music lack deep lyrics – Barima Sidney

Hiplife artiste Barima Sidney is not enthusiastic about the current trend of music ‘flooding’ the airwaves in Ghana.

He stated that most of the songs lack deep lyrical content and mature storylines. Even though he likes the works of some musicians, he thinks that the general music trend is a worrying one.

Speaking with NEWS-ONE last Friday, he explained that musicians in their bid to produce danceable music have shifted their attention from good lyrics and meaningful storylines, resulting in the unfortunate trend.

“Back in the day, we used to do more rap and less singing and the beat didn’t really matter. But nowadays you can see that people want to dance, so the engineers are giving us good beats but then we are putting less content on the beat. That’s what is happening now,” he revealed.

“Musicians have realised that if they go to the studio and do all the rap they can, people just want to dance. So just give them a good beat and put a small hook that will let them dance. So that’s what we are doing. Now you won’t hear any storyline or any deep lyrical song. It is all about the dancing. Give them a beat they can dance to and that is it,” he hinted.

Barima Sidney has been off the music since his last release in 2016. Throughout 2017, he was in Liberia where he was campaigning for the then presidential candidate, George Weah, ahead of Liberia’s election. He was instrumental in George Weah’s campaign.

Now that the elections are over, he is back home to continue his music career.

Two weeks ago, he announced his comeback with three singles – ‘Kpeee’, ‘Mmpena Twe Ye De’ and ‘Guaragura’.

“I know I have starved my fans for a long time. That’s why I have given them three songs and I call all the three songs over doze. After the three singles, they should watch out for another three songs. Then finally I will release an album,” he revealed.

Barima Sidney, born Sidney Ofori, started out with hip-hop group, Native Funk Lords, in the early 90s but left to form the Nananom group, which included Omanhene Pozoh and Jyoti Chandler.

He later left to pursue a solo career which commenced in 2001. He has since recorded and released chart- topping songs as ‘Tinana’, ‘Akofna’, ‘Scent No’, ‘Obia Nye Obia’, ‘Barima Bii Ba’, among others.

He believes Ghana’s music industry needs to start paying attention to lyrical content.