Legendary Ghanaian musician, Gyedu Blay Ambolley, who has on many occasions described himself as the originator of rap music in Ghana is now contesting the Guinness Book of records that the Sugarhill Gang are the originators of the genre worldwide.
The ‘Radum zo’ hitmaker who said his style of rap was taken from a Liberian mad man called Arakayan told Morning Starr host Kafui Dey on Friday that he was the first person to have made the type of music popular and commercialized it.
“I am [the originator of rap] in the whole world not only Ghana. Yeah because if you go into the Guinness book of records they said that the Sugarhill Gang originated rap, and if you check the date, their date was around 78, 79. Mine came out in 73 commercially so I’m challenging the Guinness book of records on that.
“We are corresponding though. Because I think that somebody isn’t doing his or her homework well...anything coming from Africa, many a time they look down on it but this time we're gonna stand up and claim it…”
When asked by the Morning Starr host “So you are not the grandpapa [of rap] you are the Godfather of rap worldwide?”, Ambolley said “I’m telling you! Because if you wanna check the record and everything, Boom! It’s right there”.
