DESCRIBING KOFI KINAATA AS LYRCIST DOES NOT MEAN HE IS NOT A SONG WRITER
Rex Omar has clarified the recent brouhaha that became a topic for discussion in the media landscape as a result of an opinion he shared about Kofi Kinaata on the subject of Kofi Kinaata being more lyricist than a songwriter.
Speaking about the topic “Writing of Music”on the Sekondi Takoradi based Spice Fm 91.9 on Efya ne Fie with Kwame Offei, Rex Omar explained some factors to consider when writing a song.
‘Writing a song is not basically putting a pen on a paper but it is much deeper than how we perceive it, music is made up of two major components that is lyrics and melody, the melody is the is soul of the song. The one who creates the melody is the composer and the writer of the song is the one who put together content on the melody. Some people can choose to use the composer’s melody but resort to the use of different content. These categories of stakeholders are called the lyricists.
Rex Omar also touched on the important role writers and composers play in making of a song, through his writer composer argument.
‘There can be a melody which can be picked by any musician for a remix, even if the melody created is in an instrumentals format, anybody who puts a content on the melody in any form does not change the composer of the song, in this case the composer of the melody is still been considered as the one who composed the song. Therefore writer and the composer make up the song.
There is the point where you also consider going to the studio to record, to consider the singing arrangement, the choice of genre, modulation, transposition and all this can be done to spice up the original song an expected format.
In summary when we say song writing it’s the composition of the melody and the writing of the lyrics which together make song’
After the education and analysis on lyrics, melody and song writing, Rex Omar was asked about where he will want to place Kofi Kinaata in terms of either a song Writer or lyricist. He explained.
“Someone asked me about a similar question sometime ago before Kofi Kinaata released his things fall apart song though I had not even heard of the song, the person asked me about what I think of kofi kinaata and I said I have listened to Kofi Kinaata and he is a very good lyricists and that is not to say Kofi Kinaata is not a song writer but in the end that is what people went out to write, so it is like asking me of what I think of Ayew Pele and I respond by saying when you look at how Ayew Pele plays his football he is a good dribbler, does it mean he not a footballer?( Rex questioned).”I am only telling you about Ayew’s strength as in he is a good dribbler but it doesn’t mean he is not a footballer. In most cases people want sensationalism and so they twist your opinion. Kofi kinnata is a junior brother, he has talent and if I have a deal I will give it to him so why will I do anything to denigrate him.
Kofi kinaata has won the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards’ song writer of the year for 2016 and 2017 with Susuka and Confession respectively.
The Vetran Musician Rex Omar also touched on why Ghanaian music is struggling to go global
“It is very important to take education very serious, the reason why our songs are not going global is that if you sing in your local dialect the foreigner can only enjoy your music base on your arrangement but if it make sense melodically the song can be appreciated by non Ghanaian, you need to make your song such that the Chinese can appreciate the song , some artist might not understand your song but can pick your melody and do a jazz version
He added that because of globalization you can write songs for it to be appreciated beyond Ghana to make good money even after an artiste demise
“You own your copy write after 70years so do your song such that the generation unborn can survive on your works”
He finally advised gifted Ghanaian musicians to expand their music education though the current education does not offer such opportunity to enable them to last in the system
“Song writing is a gift and it comes in a raw format so it is up to the artist to decide as to whether he wants to expand his scope because if you decide not to learn your will not grow because talent alone is not enough. Most Ghanaians buy songs base on lyrical content of song but not musical content. So for many songs which are produced in Ghana If you take out the lyrics the instrumentals comes with no value but we shouldn’t forget that there are instrumental music which is also been appreciated by discerning music audience”
Story by kwame offei/Beachfmonline.com
