#BringBackAzonto: Time for everyone to cash out

So the craze of Azonto all of a sudden has caught fire once again in Ghana and there is an agenda to reintroduce it after Sarkodie dropped ‘Fa Hooki Me’, a track borne out of a trending ‘term’ in the West African country.

The real question is, who is cashing out those dollars to be made from the return of this trend? How is Ghana going to its past glory when this sub-genre of music and its associated dance moves hit the global stage again? These concerns must be central to the seeming attempt to reintroduce this aspect of the culture.

Back in 2012, certain artistes such as Gasmilla, Fuse ODG, Sarkodie, Tiffany, EL, and others made wonderful exploits and it was all thanks to the Azonto music and the kind of dance that accompanied it.

To mention but few, Fuse ODG became a global superstar after his song ‘Azonto’ went worldwide, Gasmilla got features on both BBC and CNN as one of the core people behind the movement, Sarkodie came back from a year hibernation and shot straight back into prominence and has remained at the top since after the release of ‘You Go Kill Me’.

Itz Tiffany, then Tiffany, was among the key people to benefit from this not forgetting how EL with songs such ‘Shelele’ also made it. Remember, musicians were not the only ones cashing out of this craze. Producers such as Nshona Muzik, Ball J, Killbeatz just to mention few were among the major beneficiaries of this craze.

Now a new agenda has been raised to bring back the old days. The days when both the young and the old would sit behind the TV sets just to watch and learn the azonto dance from various music videos, the period where all eyes were on Ghana, the period where YouTube was dominated by a Made In Ghana material.

Dear artistes (both mainstream & underground), producers, promoters, dancers, engineers, DJs, etc, this is not the time to battle out for who is the crooner nonsense. Some artists have been starved for long and here comes the golden opportunity and make proper ends meet.

Being a rapper does not mean you’re restricted to only hip hop, being a highlife artiste does not restrict you to only the highlife tempo, be smart, and take this opportunity.

“A Word To The Wise …….”