OJ Scares Okyeame Kwame

 Song writing is paramount in the music-making process. It takes two forms: first, writing of the text and secondly, putting the text to ‘music’; this is same as singing the lyrics to melody. While some can do both, others do either.

The Referentialist and Expressionist theories of music dwell much on the importance of the message carried by a particular song, which tells us that one way or the other, the lyrics of a song add colour to it.

The tact employed in writing texts for songs is a very difficult one. You need to have nurtured that art through whichever means to be able to write lyrics that are refreshing and practical to life. The words of the song should evince emotions that would make the listeners feel they are living.

In Ghana, there are a few song writers. We have Kojo Antwi, Okyeame Kwame, Michael Oware Sakyi (OJ), Akwaboah, Asem, Kwabena Kwabena and few others. This year’s Ghana Music Awards crowned Okyeame Kwame, for the second consecutive time as Songwriter of the Year.

On TV Africa’s Rundown last week Wednesday which was hosted by Nana Kwadwo Addo, Okyeame Kwame who was happy to have won the songwriter award twice quipped:

“Yea, I have won songwriter of the year award twice and just as I was preparing to win the third one, OJ brought a full album. Now, how I am going to win?”

If you have listened to Okyeame’s ‘Woara’ featuring Raquel, there is no grain of doubt it will be nominated again in next year’s Ghana Music Awards but I think I understand his fear. OJ’s ‘Maye se Mo Pen’ which is still enjoying massive rotation on radio and TV is a close contender.

OJ is one artiste who has written songs for a lot of gospel musicians in this country and anytime he releases an album he proves to the world he is a songwriter. Listening to the song called ‘Maye Se Mo Pen,’ anyone who is fortunate to have ability to appreciate good songwriting qualities would admit that he expertly wrote that song.

Well, we are almost half way through the calendar year of the VGMA and we wait to see if Okyeame Kwame’s fear is warranted.

Credit:Kwame Dadzie