Renowned disc jockey, DJ Nickie Cartel has explained what encouraged him to start his West African Amapiano Project( WAAP).
According to him, the idea came to him in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic when everyone was home and clubs were closed.
“People couldn’t go out because clubs, festivals, restaurants and other open places were closed, but people still wanted to listen to music and that was when I decided to do this,” he said.
In an interview with Kojo Manuel on Y 107.9 FM’s Dryve of Your Lyfe Show, he said, “Once Amapiano started, I saw something similar with African house. With the beat, we can take the same thing and some elements of Ghanaian music be it local, Highlife or whatever and put it into those beats to make it our own.”
He explained that, this was where his idea for WAAP came from. “That’s why I named it West African because with Ghana, Nigerian, Togo we’re very similar especially with our Highlife. So I started with that.”
“What I did was while I was producing these tracks, I’ll travel around Ghana showing all the beautiful tourists sites that we have and play live sets, film them and upload them and that’s how it became a tour,” he shared.
He went on to add that as a Ghanaian who was born and bred in London, he loves Ghana and before he came back here, “I didn’t see how beautiful this country was because, we don’t show it. I’m not cursing anybody or the ministry of tourism but I just feel that we have so much we can sell to the world.”
He added that, 99% of the people who come to Ghana leave with positive stories about us because they love it here and love the fact that it’s peaceful. “They love the people, the food is amazing, great weather and I believe we have everything the Caribbean has except for clean beaches,” he teased.
He furthered that in trying to kill two birds with one stone, he just decided to film around and bring that music into people’s homes and that was how the WAAP came about.
DJ Nickie stated that together with his team, he has been able to put together 5 of these productions but has put a hold on the project. “There were other people who said they also wanted to contribute and be a part of so we decided to hold back on it and start again in January 2022.”
Mentioning the 5 places they have visited and captured so far he said, “So far, we have done Akosombo, Aburi,Shai hills, black star square and Cape Coast”.
By: Gyamfuah Owusu-Ackom
