Audio engineer Kofi Boachie-Ansah popularly known as Beatmenace, has touched on the need for artistes to hire songwriters.

Speaking on Joy Entertainment’s Twitter Spaces conversation on Wednesday, February 15, 2023, the multi-disciplinary creative noted that songwriting is a special skill that is exclusive to particular people.

According to him, not every artiste has the skill to write their songs. 

“Traditionally, record labels will work with A&Rs whose entire lives were somewhat shaped by a certain standard or quality of music.  It is not necessarily so today because a lot of people are looking at numbers before artistic credibility. Because the entry point when it comes to making music or the barriers that traditionally were in place to make music no longer exists. 

Somebody can create amazing music even with a smart phone or a mobile device today. And so they wouldn’t necessarily have to go through the career-building, shaping process of artiste development,” he said. 

Kofi added that in Ghana most people have normalized the notion that once you have the talent to sing, you need to write your own songs.

“In fact, a lot of the A-list artistes we are very familiar with did not write their hit songs. They were written by songwriters. Songwriting as an art and there is also a science to it as well, and there are people who have literally built careers out of it,” he noted. 

Beatmenace made the submission while discussing a tweet by veteran music producer Zapp Mallet which mentions the rush by artistes to produce hit songs that pay attention to the art of songwriting.

Zapp Mallet had tweeted: “I guess many are those who have lost the art of songwriting because they are always chasing after a hit. Hit hit hit! Let’s hear songs.”

The tweet has stoked debates in the entertainment circles. 

Rapper and songwriter Okyeame Kwame who also spoke on Joy Entertainment’s Twitter Spaces convo noted that a good song is not limited to any particular duration.

According to the ‘Rap Dacta,’ all that matters is getting the inspiration and thoughts well pieced.

“Once the idea has come to you and whoever is producing the song also understands the direction you are going, and it is instant it mustn’t necessarily drug or take a long time,” he intimated.

“It can take one hour to write and produce a good song or sometimes it can even take a year,” he added.

The ‘Joy Entertainment Unpacked’ Twitter spaces conversations are meant to give insight and meaning to relevant issues in arts, tourism and culture.