Ghanaian artiste, Jupitar has expressed his displeasure about a seeming low visibility of songs done in minority languages on radio stations in Ghana.
Speaking on D-Black’s Uncut show, the reggae and dancehall artiste said most radio stations and the media space in general have limited the promotion of music to Twi or Pidgin.
According to him, there are brilliant rappers in other parts of Ghana who do not get airplay in the southern part of the country because their songs are done in their native languages.
“Most of our radio stations in our media space have chosen one particular language that they will promote. There is a very good rapper in the north who actually raps in Dagati or Sissala. But he can’t fluently speak Twi or pidgin…if you take that music to Accra. It won’t get up to two airplays,” he said.
Mentioning Fancy Gadam’s ‘Total Cheat’, he noted that the song was successful on radio stations in because a larger part of the piece was in pidgin English.
On the contrary, Jupitar explained that South African artiste Focalistic and Nigerian artistes Phyno and Asake do their songs in their native languages yet their songs are appreciated by people in Nigeria who from other tribes.
“Take Nigeria for example, look at artistes like Focalistic. Phyno, Asake. They all make songs in their native language. But yet they play these songs and they jam to it. So our creative space shouldn’t limit songs to one language,” he said.
The singer, has in the past been slammed for making statements that invoke tribal sentiments. Last year, he bemoaned lack of support for some musicians who hail from a certain tribe in Ghana.
According to him, celebrities, especially musicians who come from the Ga tribe, hardly get the needed support by industry players.
Taking to Twitter, he wrote “this whole industry is a set up and if you be ‘Ga’ like myself, @shattawalegh, @iamkingpromise or @dkbghana etc certain kinda support you go suffer or you no go get kraa no matter the effort.”
Jupitar is known for songs such as ‘Enemies’, ‘Badness’, ‘Moni Konika’ among others.
