Ghanaian musician and sound engineer Jeff Tennyson Quaye popularly known as Jay Q has stated that Ghana has lost highlife music to Nigeria.
According to Jay Q, Nigerians are ahead in terms of producing and promoting Highlife music while Ghana is only interested in promoting foreign music.
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He also added that Ghanaians see highlife music as old fashioned and do not take pride in the fact that Ghana is the originator of highlife music.
“We need to brace ourselves for the future when Nigerians will be credited for coming up with Highlife music, because for now, they are ahead of us in terms of production and promotion, while we continue to project foreign music.
Sincerely, it was worrying when Shatta Wale was teased for picking a Highlife award because people thought it was beneath him as an A-list artiste. I was really hurt that people thought Highlife was inferior to other genres such as Hip Hop and Dancehall.
It was interesting to read some of the comments which suggested Shatta Wale’s brand had been tarnished because of the Highlife award. I was not surprised because, as a people, we appreciate foreign things more than our own.
 Here in Ghana, our artists working so hard to sound like Jay Z or Vybez Cartel. Can you do better Hip Hop than Americans or better Dancehall than Jamaicans? It never works like that and that is what the Nigerians have noticed and are projecting their own, including Highlife. It is very unfortunate for Ghana”, he stated.
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The producer who is currently based in the United States of America suggested that it’s high time Ghanaians took highlife music serious.
He also advised Ghanaian highlife musicians to step up their game because the highlife genre is dying in Ghana.
“Let’s make Highlife equally attractive and relevant like the other genres, if not bigger because that is what has glued together the different types of music from our various ethnic groups from time immemorial”, he noted.
