My Contribution to the Best Sound Engineer in Ghana debate.

I must admit that it hasn't been easy trying to pronounce one top notch sound engineer as the best among all. I'm sure if you guys take away your personal biases, you'll probably feel the same way i feel. My all time best will probably be Jay Q because i happen to like several tracks he has produced as my all time favourites. In other words, you guys probably share the same sentiments about the sound engineer you chose as your all time best probably because there are several tracks they have produced that fancy you most but not necessarily the best among all.

What i have observed among all the sound engineers after studying all their tunes for a while is, they are all very well vested with variety of tunes, but all fall victims to the easy temptation of recycling same rhythm. Bare with me for minute and you'll prabably grasp my gist here.

We all know Jay Q got carried away a little bit with the Jama beats but that doesnt take away the enoumous variety of songs he's made us moved to. Ahuoka womu by VIP for instance is a classic track that everybody get jiggy with no matter where they from in the continent. One can also take into account the numerous earlier classic tracks he did for BukBak like "kome ke kena," "Akwesi Broni," "Chingilingy" etc. That hausa track on the "Ahuoka wo mu" album by VIP sounds nothing like any other. Don't forget "Obaa nu" and "Yeko mbaa pe" by Kwadee. There are lots more examples to site but i'm gonna leave it up to ya'all to research. The point is, our sound engineers can really do any sound our there, being it hiphop, reggae, soukous, or r&b but they either become lazy sometimes or just go with what their clients request for most.

Apietus i have to give lots of credits to. Dude has been holding it down for a long time with some wicked danceable hits even during the reigns Jay Q. He's been a victim of redundancy lately but i still have to give it up to him for some top tracks his produced over the years. George Jarrah's "Ashekele" was an instant classic. He also remixed George Jarrah's late 80's hit song "aka duna oshi, oye" to a perfect tone. "Rakia" and many other tracks he produced speaks for itself so i'm not going to waste your time here. Abi u get the gist...

Hammer of last two normally catch me off guard too with some of his hits songs every now and then. Even though i consider his songs to be more hiphopish, he never made me feel like i was listening to a foreign song. Meaning he is able to blend his songs perfectly with the local intruments and samples. We all agree that Obrafuor's "Pae mu ka" album is the undisputed best classic hiplife of all time, therefore, there's no way we can talk about top sound engineers in Ghana without mentioning, Hammer. Tinny's "Dzormor" track is wicked and exclusive, Obrafuor's "Ntete Pa" track speaks for itselft, and even Scizo's jama song, "ke shika le ni egbo" tells you Hammer can be different when wants to.

I can tell you similar stories and refer you to different sounds of tracks produced by others like

Sugar Tone, Roro, Morris Baby Face, Punji Anoff, Zapp Mallet, Agyingo, Ubeatz, Quick Action, King Cyrus, Code Eye

Sugar Tone produced all Daasebre Gyaminah's albums except for his very first one. He also produced most of Reggie Zippy and Bandana's tracks.

Roro and his brother, Morris Babyface of course we all know have produced tones of big hits including kokontiba by Obour and scores of gospel hits.

Punji Anoff is behind most of Reggie Rockstones tracks. His most notable work includes, "toto mechanics" by Kwaku T. He is also credited with King Ayisoba's hit song, "i want to see you my father".

Zapp Mallet we all know is the pioneer of hiplife sound engineering. Matter of fact Jay Q learned one or two from him before he was made resident engineer at Hush Hush studios.

Agyingo is a protege of Jay Q. You don't normally hear much of him but his produced some notable songs including baktye ft batman's track "yen tem", Na wa oh by Castro ft K.K Fosu and many. His version of Jama beat is one to recond with. http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=145561351

Ubeatz is a really good sound engineer but likes to stay back and not be at the forefront. He only master tracks these days. He produced Tblaze's "wosisi ye wu ya" and "secretary" and several other tracks back in the day. http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=152314468

Quick Action produced most of Tictacs songs including "Kangaroo" and "fefe ne eye fe". He also produced Batman's best love song titled "odo". "condom" by Bright is also produced by him.

King cyrus is normally not given any media attention at all but did you know that he was behind all Terry Bonchaka's hit songs? He is also a residence sound engineer at Hush Hush studio like Jay Q and Hammer. His hit list includes, "i'm aware" by Terry and somebody else.

Code eye is studio is actually owned by a guy ghanaian guy who resides in Sweden but has a studio in Dansoman. His married to a white lady called Chana. Batman featured Chana in the song "sexy lady" on his last album which was produced by Code Eye. Sound quality from that studio is like no other.

below is a link to that debate site.

http://discussions.ghanaweb.com/viewtopic.php?t=66322&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15

Besides the fact that most of the hiplife artist request for similar hit beats sound engineers produced, Jay Q in particular in efforts to put Ghana on the map tries to emulate what's being done else where in the continent as well as Jamaica or other parts of the Islands. D'cale Coupe from Ivory Coast is the same beat with different artist and lyrics, Soukous and Makousa from Cameroon, Congo, Zaire etc sounds the same to me and are very recognized with the countries that makes them. Even Reggae producers offlate or for a long time just make one beat for the summer that everybody put their songs on and package it as a compilation CD. How come we can't have Jama beats synanymous with Ghana name and identity so we can also go global? I think the answer to my own question is, Ghanaians are different and we get bored with the same beats or similar beats all the time. Frankly, there's been times where i thought some of the hiplife songs are just redundant- and this affects the works of all the sound engineers including, Apeatus, Hammer, Jay Q, RoRo, Morris Babyface, etc. But the key fact i want you guys to understand is, most of the talked about sound engineers in ghana are more talented than the common Ghanaian artist can produce. Simply, they can produce world class beats when given the chance.