File photo: L-R: Gasmilla, Sarkodie
File photo: L-R: Gasmilla, Sarkodie

Musician Gasmilla says rapper Sarkodie doesn’t have the right to say he is the originator of the popular Ghanaian music genre, ‘Azonto.’

According to the ‘Telemo’ hitmaker, he discovered it and he can proof beyond reasonable doubt that he birthed it in 2011.

‘Azonto’ has been a popular music genre which gained much prominence early 2011 to 2015. It was all over the mainstream in Ghana before taking the world by storm with its rhythmic dance.

Sarkodie, credited with many ‘Azonto’ hit songs, in an interview with BBC Africa’s Paul Bakibinga about ‘the birth of Azonto’ in 2013, said he was the creator of the genre.

Nonetheless, few days ago, the ‘Highest’ rapper laid bare his plans to revive the dead ‘Azonto’ genre, where he featured on colleague rapper E.L’s ‘Revival’ song.

But Gasmilla, reacting to this, said Sarkodie has disrespected him because as the real King of ‘Azonto’, he, Gasmilla, has been releasing ‘Azonto’ songs since 2011 till date, hence he cannot fathom Sarkodie’s move.

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“I first released ‘Aboodatoi‘ in January 5, 2011… I decided to use the element to shoot the video, which is the dance, so I visited James Town, which is my hometown and showed the kids how to do the dance.

“It was all about twisting your legs and hands then you finally put it in the air to show empowerment. I showed people how to do it by even posting a tutorial online. People know the truth,” he told Abeiku Santana.

Meanwhile, Gasmilla said, initially, he never wanted to take credit for the genre because “I wanted it to be a Ghanaian thing and I don’t want to own it.

“So no one should wake up and make people feel they are the owners. When I released ‘Aboodatoi’ I received no award until ‘Atom’ did a remix of the song but he was awarded. I said nothing because my blessing became his own too.

“Azonto has never been dead. Its just that mainstream media takes the attention to other genres. So the ‘Azonto’ sound was not being focused on.

“Just last year, I dropped so many songs, all ‘Azonto’ records, which were dropping charts. So you can’t say you are bringing it back. Some artistes focus on mainstream,” Gasmilla said.