Theophilus Nii Arday Otoo, often known as Epixode, a reggae dancehall recording artist and creative director, has offered one potential approach to promoting Ghanaian music internationally.
He asserts that Ghana’s music would advance if the rhythm and tone of the songs written by both veteran and new-generation artists are accurately captured.
The rapper blamed his remarks on certain foreign artists recently sampling Ghanaian music.
Epixode believes that these foreign artists get away with it since Ghana hasn’t had a quality song catalog since the beginning of time.
In an interview with Roselyn Feli on Joy Prime’s Prime Morning, he made this statement.
“They sample our songs every time. Like recently I heard a chronics on a Rock Stone’s rhythm, and I was like, Really?” But we don’t have a room to keep these catalogues to also help the next generation know that this is what makes our sound… well, we’re getting there if we document it well,” he said.
Epixode is a reggae dancehall musician, however he recently ventured into highlife, Ghana’s indigenous music genre, by performing a rendition of his song “Atia” with artists from other genres.
The highlife performance, nevertheless, outperformed the others and earned him a nomination for highlife song of the year at the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards.
This gives him reason to think that highlife music will serve the nation’s creative sector best in the future.
“I look at the longevity of my craft and who I want to be, and I’ve come to the realisation that it will get to a time when highlife will rule. It’s the sound of the future.
“So if some melodies can’t go into reggae or dancehall, even if you watched the international market in Jamaica, they’re not doing straight dancehall; they’re even now tapping into the afro sound. We that we have it here, why don’t we do it more?” he quizzed.
“Stubborn Souljah” by Epixode, a new song for fans of dancehall music, is now available.
By the end of 2023, he made a suggestion that a highlife-only album will be available.