I saved the dying hiphop from Azonto – Dee Moneey

Ghanaian hiphoper Desmond Kwame Amoah aka Dee Moneey says he did not fall for the Azonto craze which set into the music industry year ago because had focus.

The rapper in an interview with yfmghana.com said it got to a time a musician was not regraded when he had no Azonto song but he stood on his feet and continued with hiphop.

According to him, the hiphop genre came back to life after he released his finish line remix which acts like Ice Prince, M.anifest, Jay Town, Reminisce, PaeDae and Sarkodie.

"Trends come and go but regardless of what happens there will always be Hip Hop heads, but I guess the music trends changed a little bit and when Azonto came in and rode for about a year and half everybody thought it was what it was, and you had all these other rappers swaying and more.

People thought Kpokpo Obody was Azonto but that record was huge way before Azonto came. We took that sound from house music, that was not an Azonto song but that’s cool. There were Hip Hop acts doing great records but lost focus but I think everybody was focusing on making it back on radio.

At a point, it looked like there was no future for any artist or rapper if you were not making dance music.

So a lot of Hip Hop acts joined the Azonto trend and there is one thing I thank God for and that is ‘I never made an Azonto song’. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing but I can as an artist but you have to stick to your zone.

I love Afrobeats music but I would rather feature an Afro beats artist and allow them do their thing so I rap but we had Hip Hop acts swaying into the Azonto trend and that’s when the problem started.

So I always wondered, all these acts getting their waves off the Azonto. What happens when it fades? Because it was a phase that came with a dance. How can you be an artist and represent a dance?

It’s like picking Harlem Shake dance from America and introduce yourself to people as a Harlem Shake artist. That’s what you stand for? We had Azonto kings and all. That’s crazy! Who’s an Azonto King?

So if the dance passes then is your career’s end? I told myself I was not going to do it and I didn’t.

I told people I was sticking to my rap and so did Money Talks and Marylyn Monroe with Fuse ODG, they still didn’t take it serious. Then I dropped Finish Line and the video.

Rights after that I saw the change myself. I had rappers dropping mixtapes. People going back to their dusty Hip-Hop books to find their rhymes back.

All I wanted was to change people’s perspective about Hip-hop and I achieved that with the Finish Line remix with Ice Prince, M.anifest, Jay Town, Reminisce, PaeDae and Sarkodie.

I don’t want to hit my chest and say I saved Hip Hop in Ghana but that is what I was getting to and aiming at. And also to prove you can do a hip-hop song and get spins on radio".