Entertainment of Thursday, 5 April 2018
Source: Myjoyonline.com
2018-04-05
Music producer Mark Okraku Mantey
Music producer Mark Okraku Mantey has stated that good music does not necessarily depend on its lyrical content.
Mr Okraku was responding to musician Mzbel, who said in a recent interview with Andy Dosty on Daybreak Hitz that a majority of the current crop of hit songs have unintelligible lyrics.
According to the ‘Sweet 16’ hitmaker, the quality of music seems to decline generation by generation as she cited music before her era as being much better than today’s.
“Back then, music used to have like a storyline, it’s well-done…you can’t compare music of today to music then,” she said.
She added that “you hear a lot of hit songs, people are happy about it, but the content has nothing in it. In a lot of the songs the musician just says one thing, and keep repeating it over and over.”
However, CEO of Slip Entertainment, Mark Okraku Mantey says rhythm and beat come together to make music and can thrive with or without its lyrics.
“If you say music, music is the instrumentation, the rhythm is the music, and then the lyrics are lyrics,” he clarified.
He made reference to the likes of American Grammy Award-winning Jazzist Bob James who do instrumentations that are still referred to as music.
Mr Okraku Mantey also cited other examples of songs that had transcended geographical boundaries, despite their lyrics.
According to him, the likes of gospel act, Ohemaa Mercy’s ‘Eye W’adwen’, and Lucky Mensah’s ‘Come Back to Me’ had been aired heavily at nightclubs in Sierra Leone some years ago.
He said these are indications that “when the song crosses over, the lyrics do not matter.”