Is Northern Music A Joke? " What makes good Music "

My name is Abdul Raafi Mohammed, I am a TV Host| Environmentalist| Film Maker |#WASH Advocate|Human Rights Activist| Messenger of Peace. And in the field of Entertainment, I am. Production Assistant for Trailer Tv showing on Ghone, I am a news Editor for Wats up Tv, showing on Viasat 1 and Ghone. I am the Production Manager for Klass Tv. In recent times there have been questions and arguments on and about northern music. Well I am not a musician nor a music producer nor Dj. I grew up listening to Michael Jackson and respecting his style artistic and choreography in his music and videos. The likes of Rihanna, Drake, Chris Brown, Lil Wayne, Big Sean, Kanye West, Beyoncé, Janet Jackson, 2pac and many many more.

In northern Ghana I have much respect for the likes of Reggae Sharif, Abu Sadic, Mama Rams, Mr Razak, Memunatu Ladi. I also had much respect for lil k, Chogu boys and fancy, but now am losing that respect in their music and even videos. For the new and upcoming artist, they are funny to me, if they really want to earn money and fame from music then they have to work triple harder than they are doing. One person don't just make an album, we got music writers, composers, song arrangers and more.

What makes good music, Lyrics and beats/ sound : you can't just woke up the next morning and the first chorus that comes to your mind is a full track ready for recording. As a musician your lyrics has to be matured, entertaining and above all sends a message to your listening. Your beats must not swallow your voice when recording, your beat and voice show be on the same line, your voice should carry the beat. Nowadays they young northern musician’s songs are over flooded with beats and unnecessary lyrics, battling and insulting one another, if you feel like insulting each other than is better you meet each other and do so and stop tarnishing the image of northern music.

What makes good music Listeners (Age group ): the age group that listen to your music determines how good your music is, all I see nowadays in northern region is the fans group appreciate the musicians. Let's date back to Mama Rams songs, like Sambang Nyitaa, Saa Nyasiya, Di ku yuu by Abu Sadick and Prince Dee Nanima. Every age group love and respected these songs, you would hear 8 year old singing them, you would see old men listening to these songs because its message was loud and clear, mind blowing and heart touching. But all I see on Facebook is these new musicians and their fans praising each other. Like Leo Khan of Chogu boys said " yalim bi pagri omana shie on ku lula gei duu ni " meaning " salt does not praise itself until it's put in soup "

What makes good music Target Audience: I have realised northern musicians only sing to entertain tamale people, their highest stage is Tv3 music music or TVs Africa. That's a pity, very sad. As a musician you have to target a large number of audiences from all over the world. We all love Davido, Flavour, Alkaline, Don Jazzy, and even Mafikizolo and Khona, we don't even know what it means still we dance to the song. That’s the power of lyrics, beats, sound and artistic style of filming a music video. Even our very own Sharifatu Gunu and my bae Wiyaala. Sarkodie, Stonebwoy, shatta wale, Dcryme.

What makes good music Studio Session and Sound engineer, you don't just go to the studio and sing and the sound engineer just put any sound or beats together and within less than 24 hours you have recorded your master track. Production of beats and identifying how and why the music should go about the song is very important, the producer or beat mixer should also understand the kind of song, genie and more. Studio sessions takes more than a day, every single beat, tone has a reason and the sound engineer and musician should know why they put these beats together in a particular song.

What makes good music Why and where they play the songs, I have realized and noticed that apart from radio stations in the northern, there is NO occasion you will visit and they will play songs of our northern musicians. Why because their message is not clear, the beat is out of hand, and the people don't even see the linkage of the song to their occasion. They rather play, Sarkodie, Msvee, Bisa Kdei, Becca, Stonebwoy Shatta wale, Jupita and more, because these musicians have targeted large audience from all over the world and not their neighborhood.

What makes good music Language and Style, this is key to successful music, we all love reggae but we are not Jamaicans, Hip pop, Soul, Country, Jazz etc. They all have their origins and language, so don't tell me the world will not understand your dagbani songs because they don't speak dagbani. Wiyaala sings in Sisali, Dagaare, Sharifatu sings in Hausa and Dagbani, Edem sings in His native from Volta region, VVIP, Sarkodie, and the rest sing in Twi and Asante but they get recognition from other African countries and the world at large.

What makes good music Appearance and Origin, take Manifest or King Ayisoba, Wiyaala or Sharifatu Gunu, Rocky Dawuni these artists use their place of origin and appearance in their music and it takes them far and far. So I think northern musicians should rethink their way of doing music and how they are doing it. Later I will take about their music videos and more, because it's terrible and heart bleeding. Northern Musicians have been in the system for so long that they have gained absolutely nothing, when did King Ayisoba come, when did Wiyaala, etc