There are no dancehall artists in Ghana – Sariki

Dancehall after its introduction to the Ghanaian music industry has received massive attention both by the young and old, this has even been recognized as major music awards scheme in the country.

It is with no doubts that, majority of the youth have bought into dancehall than any other genre in Ghana. Our dancehall artists, through their hard work have gained international recognition to the extent of winning international awards. This should only tell the vibrancy of dancehall in our Ghanaian music industry.

It was, however, shocking to hear hip-hop musician, SARIKI, on rainbow radio say he sees no musician in Ghana doing dance hall music.

In an interview with Agyemang Prempeh on Rainbow Radio’s GH Entertainment, the On Dem singer said “I see no dancehall artistes in Ghana. Why should they even be honoured by VGMA for promoting other dialects instead of our very own? Jamaican patois shouldn’t be encouraged in Ghana because, no matter how hard Ghanaians try, they can never be matched with Jamaicans. We should rather concentrate on promoting our dialect rather than promoting a borrowed language”.

He continued by saying he sees Shatta Wale doing very well in hip-hop and wonders why he calls himself a dance hall artists. Meanwhile, On Dem, the song he happens to be promoting has a dancehall tune with patois in some of his songs. Eye brows are being raised as to why he now condemns the use of patois in our dancehall. Was he serious when he said this or he said that just to win the attention of Ghanaians?

Fingers crossed, our hard working team is still in conversation with some of the dance hall artists.