Reggae dancehall recording artist, creative director and fine arts painter Epixode has advised that the Reggae and Dancehall genre should both be separated.
His reason being that, both genres are different and thus the artistes should be awarded separately based on their music genre.
Talking to Foster Romanus on e.TV Ghana’s Late Nite Celebrity Show he said, “I feel like there are some artistes who are solely reggae artistes and that person might be big on the reggae scene but it might also be that we are super vibrant when it comes to dancehall because dancehall is like super vibrant than reggae it’s not like in the east where reggae is more dominant than dancehall here, dancehall is dominant”.
Citing an example he said, “So the reggae artiste might have done very well and will be in the same category as the dancehall artiste but it’s only in Ghana that both are being merged although there is a very big difference between both genres”.
Talking about the differences between both he said, “For me I’ll say that, dancehall is more like a son or grandson of reggae. They both come from Jamaica and before reggae there was a genre called Ska then there was rock study, then they gave birth to reggae then it also gave birth to genres like lovers rock, one drop and dance”.
Epixode stated that, although both carry the same messages like positivity, suffering, elevation and more, dancehall adds some vibrance to it.
“So I think both are a bit different and it will only be fair to separate the two when giving awards so that every artiste in each sector can be seen and light will be thrown on those artistes” he mentioned.
By: Gyamfuah Owusu-Ackom