Interviewer (2:23)

Why people struggle to give you their credit.

Aquaba (2:25)

It's life. Sometime you have to tell your own story. It's up to you to tell your own story.

Interviewer (2:30)

Because when we speak about even Afrobeat in the uk, yeah, yeah. Your name doesn't come in the picture.

Aquaba (2:34)

Yeah, you miss with your DJ Benji's name, but not my name. But if I'd not done that demo tape to go on to choice of him, you know, finding the right music to put on choice of fam. Because another challenge we had with Afrobeat music, what people don't to understand is there was a time that 80 of the lyrics in the music has to be English before we could put on mainstream radio. So I had to do my research, you know, listen up to music that could be able to. I think I. I use. One of the music I use at the time I think is Water Sweet Dreams. Okay. If you listen to Water Sweet Dreams, majority of the lyrics in there is mainly English. You know, let's not forget we had a francophone music at the time. We had it well before. We are the magic system. We are the awilo, we are the Apawemba Yusuf Ndo. No, the list goes on. But the francophone music was just, you know, was not being played on mainstream radio at the time. So if I think of all of this in the challenges and has not been accepted. You can't play African music in nightclubs, you know. And I'm like, no.

Interviewer (3:36)

Well, I mean, it's one thing you personally and your group not getting the credit, but it's another thing when the entire Ghana, it doesn't get a credit for its contribution to Afrobeat.

Aquaba (3:47)

Ghana needs to get a credit. Ghana needs to get a credit. Whatever Afrobeat has come. I'm not sitting here saying Afrobeat. No. Wherever Afrobeat has come from, some is being good for. For Africa, whether it's from Nigeria, which we all believe to be. They've played a major part. The Nigerian artists have played a major part. Look, I will sit down and say that song from the Banch Oliver Twist. Okay, Oliver Twist.

Interviewer (4:11)

But even before you talk about Oliver Twist, right?

Aquaba (4:14)

Yeah.

Interviewer (4:14)

Take it back to Ben TV time when we had Tongolo. Yeah, we had Styles.

Aquaba (4:21)

Class. Yes.

Interviewer (4:22)

Olufumi. We had.

Aquaba (4:24)

We had Tony Tetula.

Interviewer (4:26)

There you go.

Aquaba (4:26)

Yeah. Two Face. Yeah, Two Face. That combination. We are Two Face. Another. You're my African queen again. If you listen to the lyrics, there's a lot of English in there. So I think that time African. African was ready. African was ready. And Nigerian artists played a major role. I'm not gonna sit down here.

Interviewer (4:45)

So recently there was. Before we talk about some of the artists you've worked with and, you know, we'll talk about some of the challenges, the money aspects. There was a Nigerian promoter, okay, who. Who was in Ghana was. Had an interview and said that majority of Ghanaian promoters in the UK are practically. He used the word lazy.

Aquaba (5:02)

That's very cheap of him. Very, very cheap of him. Let me start off by giving some credit to some of the Nigerian promoters I've worked alongside Solomon Savage, one of the greatest Nigerian promoters. Not many people talk about it. Solomon at that time was putting on good R and B shows. All the big artists from Mary J. Blige to Jody C, Keith Sweat favor. MC Solomon as a Nigerian promoter was doing that. Then we had the likes of Abbas, DJ Abbas, DJ Abbas. Then we had the likes of Casey and let me even go further and give Nigerian Corner at a carnival, something which I've wished. If in Ghana we had Nigerian corner, IO and his team, Black Knight, JGC 419. I mean, there's a lot of Nigerian promoters that have worked and they, They've been good. How can I even forget Cocoa? Cocoa played a major part in Factory 78. Fact.

Interviewer (5:49)

There you go, lan, DJ lan.

Aquaba (5:53)

Here we go. You know, you see the roles in which Kokobar is played. I. I don't even hear. I don't hear a lot of credit being given to Cocoa as well. But these are household Nigerian promoters that were also doing great, great stuff. You know, they took it to the next level. You know, they took it to the next level. So to hear a fellow promoter who has not even been through the struggle, he wasn't there. When we're being told, you're Africans, you're not allowed to come to the nightclub African Booboo. Where was he? Did he know the struggle that we had to do to make it fashionable even in the. In the industries, going to some of the record labels? Does he know what it took as 90% as a group to be going to nightclubs, getting turned away to be going to venues, getting turned away to where we are today. So if he's got a platform, instead of giving us credit, which I'm, I'm giving credit to all the Nigerian promoters out there, why come and why come and call a cheap shot and say Ghanaian promoters are lazy?

Interviewer (6:44)

He seems to always be punching you all the time.

Aquaba (6:47)

Every time he gets a chance to give an interview, he has a date. I'm sorry, brother, you didn't go through what we went through. You just came along, pick up the pieces and you've done a good job. All your connections, what you're doing, you've done a good job. But please stop punching Ghanaian promoters because most Ghanaian promoters, I know myself, Alodia west coast and the new ones that are coming through, majority of our investment is our own private. Is our own private money. So whereby you've been gifted with the numbers you've got, with the brilliant artists you've got and you're doing well, encourage the next people rather than saying Ghanaian promoters are lazy. That's a cheap talk. That's for him, just trying to get, get some clout. And he's always been that way, trying to make himself look cool, like he's the one who's giving birth to all this Afrobeats that's going on. He was not there. Was he there when we got turned away from the radio station? Was he there? No. He didn't even know how come Afrobeat music. Did he know the struggle? DJ Brent here had to go and make sure he's playing from playing 4am, 2am 12 and sticking through. Come on, let's give people the credit where it's due. That was just a cheap, cheap comment by him. Very cheap. And I'm, I'm disappointed in him.

Interviewer (7:54)

This promoter works with some of the Ghanaian artists as well.

Aquaba (7:58)

Yeah.

Interviewer (7:58)

And when Ghanaian artists work with him, yeah, they tend to break some boundaries compared to when they work with some of the Ghanaian. You agree?

Aquaba (8:10)

I agree. And that's good. That's very good. Again, it's good for the culture. You are taking it to the next level. But don't dismiss what's been done before. You get me? Do not dismiss what has been done before. Take it to the next level. Take it to the highest level. I'm happy for that. But when you start to dismiss what is being done, that's a problem. Connected Minds podcast.