Music producers not helping the industry – Genius Selection

Sound engineer and music producer, Gideon Amoafo, known in showbiz circles as Genius Selection has observed that most music producers have not been helpful to artistes.

Genius addressing concerns about the fallen standards of music in Ghana remarked that artistes should not be entirely blamed for the said mishap, adding that the act of producers programming beats and giving it out to artistes to work on it is a contributing factor.

“I feel most of the producers lately are not helping the industry at all because as a musician, you have to prepare yourself from home. If I program the beat and ask you to come work on it, that means I should own a certain percentage of it which they’re not doing. So at the end of the day, you don’t help the artiste…. I think we are targeting the artiste’s too much and it’s time we threw light on the producers as well,” the instrumentalist said on Happy FM’s Showbiz Xtra, Saturday.

Genius Selection who has worked with a number of artistes including Wiyaala, Trigmatic and Jupita and subsequently produced hit songs however would not agree with some stakeholders describing the current crop of music as “garbage”.

According to him, artistes are rather being creative.

“In a way, I wouldn’t say what contemporary musicians are doing is garbage. Being a musician and sound engineer, I feel it is creativity. Creativity comes with surprise which might sound nonsense to you but that is what brings the money. I normally don’t criticize certain kinds of music because I think it’s about lifestyle,” he noted.

On what artistes should do to uplift their image, Genius advised that they work on their brand.

“One thing every musician should know is the branding aspect of music. It’s very important. The ‘garbage’ is selling because of branding. If the way I carry myself as an artiste is top notch, people will buy my music,” he stated.

Here’s Trigmatic’s ‘Gye Nyame’ produced by Genius Selection.