The discourse of gender parity is one conversation that has been had and adopted in all forms of human activity and function.
In recent years, the Ghanaian music industry has experienced some individuals and organisations championing the establishment of female categories in major award events, allocating specific airtime on radio and TV to songs produced by female artistes among others.
Rapper and songwriter, Eno Barony has openly criticized the sidelining and segregation in the Ghanaian music industry based on Gender. She is known to chastise some industry players and event houses including organisers of the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMA) for not including certain categories in their awards scheme to project and gear females to success.
Justifying her lamentation in the past, the ‘Rap Goddess’ explained in an interview on Y 102.5 FM during the ‘Ryse N Shyne’ show with NYDJ that she disliked the notion and classification of her as a ‘female rapper’, while the male rap artistes were not referred to as ‘male rappers’ but ‘rappers’.
“I am doing rap and people want to put me in a box and classify me as a Female rapper and do not do same to the males, but consider them as rappers without classifications.”
“If it was just being said I wouldn’t have had a problem but you hear people discuss rappers and forget about females in rap music. So I was fighting for that equality in the industry because both male and female rappers do the same thing and there wasn’t a need for classification,” she fumed.
Eno Barony further mentioned that she was not compelling people to support artistes because they were females, but females who were producing good songs and needed attention.
“I am not saying if you are female and you doing rap and it’s ‘wack’ you have to be supported because you are a female they should give you that attention. Once you are doing it and you are doing it well, you should get that recognition,” she added.
Ruth Eno Adjoa Amankwah Nyame, better known as Eno Barony, is a Ghanaian rapper and songwriter. Born in Tema, Accra, she released her debut single, “Wats Ma Name” and also “Tonga”, the remix of the track “Tonga” by Joey B ft Sarkodie in 2014 that lifted her into the limelight. It was claimed she was the first Ghanaian female rapper to hit a million views on YouTube.
By: Caleb Asante Annor
