“ASAKAA” : The New Ghanaian Sound The Industry Ought To Pay Attention To .

I’d like to start this blog by stating that , whether we like it or not afrobeats isn’t an African genre , it is a Nigerian genre . If you doubt this , let me give you a brief enlightenment .

Afrobeats is taking over the world at the moment . Name 10 afrobeat artistes off-head and I bet all 10 of them will be Nigerians . Extend the list to 20 and you’ll still have Nigerians dominating .

Nigerians don’t acknowledge it as an African sound either . It’s strictly a Nigerian pushed sound .

Some may argue that , it’s still an African sound when you break the instrumentation down . Yeah I get it . It has a bit of everything in there including High-life which is Ghanaian . Regardless of the sound influences from several African cultures , Nigerians have found a way to blend everything into one piece and have transformed it into their sound . Ask a white person about afrobeat and the first thing they think about is Nigeria , “the country” and not Africa , “the continent” .

The Ghanaian music scene has enjoyed its fair share of world-wide glory in the past as well . We had a thriving music industry since the 60’s through to the 2010’s .

In the 2010’s Ghana struck gold with the world-wide phenomenon known as “Azonto” . Even British royals were doing it in Edinburgh . That’s how big it was . Azonto was everywhere . It was that huge and everyone who existed during that period who was Ghanaian was proud as hell . Ghanaians were known for “Azonto” worldwide .

In a typical Ghanaian fashion , we couldn’t hold on to it . We just let Azonto die .

Till date we are still talking about finding our authentic Ghanaian sound . High-life has always been the Ghanaian sound but after KK-Fosu and Ofori Amponsah , High-life hasn’t really aged well just like other genres such as Hip-life, Gh-rap , Twi pop etc . Afro-dancehall is being championed by Stonebwoy and Shatta wale with other acts like Epixode and Jupitar thriving in it . Guess what ? Even with afro-dance hall in Africa , westerners attribute it to Nigerians as well . Meaning we’re being deprived of acknowledging that as our sound as well . That brings me to the sound I think we can own and call own this time .

Drill made its way into Ghana through Pop-Smoke’s Dior song . Months after his tragic death , a crop of young talents emerged from Kumasi and introduced as to a new sound called Asakaa . The first Asakaa song took social media by storm . “Sore” by Yaw Tog featuring now populary known as the “Asakaa Boys” , traveled like wild fire with reactions from popular YouTubers reacting to the sound .

It was only normal for westerners to relate to the sound because it was already a western sound which was “Drill” .

However , the aftermath of “Sore” has been promising for the sound in Ghana . What we now call the “Asakaa” sound . This is a typical drill sound fused with typical Ghanaian genres , High-life and Hip-life . This sound has been making its mark courtesy the “Asakaa boys” group from Kumasi . This unique tune is making waves across the UK and US . The Asakaa Boys are gathering some serious momentum outside the shores of Ghana which nobody is willing to talk about .

This sound hits different and you can feel how authentically Ghanaian it is .
The likes of Black Sheriff is putting Ghana on the map with this same Asakaa sound . If you doubt Black Sheriff is doing Asakaa , check out what the Asakaa boys are doing and listen to Black Sheriff’s sound . It has the same instrumental elements . If you still doubt check out “Kweku the traveler , First and second sermon”. These are Asakaa inspired tunes .

Have you witnessed Asakaa sounds playing at the club ? Or at any event ? . It’s a whole experience . When an Asakaa song drops , it’s a bop and everyone vibes along .

This can easily be our new Azonto . Another worldwide phenomenon Ghanaians can be identified with . Since we’re still struggling to find our original sound as Ghanaians , we can make this an actual genre and sell to the world as either High-life or Hip-life or even as “Asakaa” .

This is an agenda I believe the entire music industry must push . Afrobeat wasn’t and isn’t a one person movement . It took an entire industry to push it as a national agenda and it’s working to perfection .

Asakaa is an agenda the industry must help push . We need not to let this sink like we’ve done in the past with other genres .

Take it or leave it , Asakaa is a dope sound and I believe we have certainly struck gold again with this one .