DJ Mensah, the Founder of the EDM Festival has added his voice to the need to promote more Ghanaian music.
His comment comes on the back of a recent call made by broadcaster and fashion icon Kofi Okyere Darko that a higher percentage of Ghanaian music be played especially during the Yuletide.
The two made these submissions on Joy FM’s Twitter (X) Spaces show, Joy Entertainment Unpackedhosted by Kwame Dadzie.
Speaking to the issue, DJ Mensah who is also the official DJ for rapper Sarkodie, suggested that apart from the DJs making an effort to promote Ghanaian music, the transport industry also had a role to play.
He cited how cab drivers in other countries are dedicated to promoting their local music.
“If you travel to anywhere especially somewhere like New York, as soon as you sit in the Uber or any of your friends’ cars they are listening to hip hop or RnB depending on the radio station. When you come to Ghana it used to be RnB and hip hop. Now, it’s either Nigerian music or something else.
When the foreigners come, they want to hear something from Ghana. They want to hear something different from what they are used to,” he said.
While some have argued that the source of music for these commercial drivers is radio, a case has also been made for drivers who play music compilations of foreign songs in their cars.
The Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture has in the past few years been training commercial drivers on their role in promoting tourism. The expectation is that these drivers are encouraged to help promote Ghanaian music in the course of their duty.
The fight for more local content in the Ghana media space is one of the banes of the country’s entertainment sector.
In the meantime, the Broadcasting Law which has a provision for 70% local content for Ghanaian media is yet to be passed.