Legendary Ghanaian musician Kojo Antwi, popularly also known as The Maestro or Mr. Music Man, has asserted that the sound now widely referred to as Afrobeats has long existed in his music and the works of earlier African musicians.
According to him, although the global recognition Afrobeats is bringing to Africa is good, it is wrong to categorise the continent’s diverse musical sound under a single category or label.
Speaking about his multi-city 2025 Christmas tour on Joy Prime and monitored by NewsDesksGH on December 19, Kojo Antwi said his music has always blended multiple African and global influences.
“If you listen to what goes on now that people are calling this Afro beats, I started it.”
He explained that his sound goes beyond traditional highlife.
“I don’t call my music high-life because you’ll find reggae in there. You’ll find a lot of African beats in most of them.”
Kojo Antwi also referenced earlier musicians to support his point, citing the late K. Frimpong as an example.
“If you listen to ‘Hwehwe Mu Na Yi Wo Mpena’ he wasn’t playing high-life. He was playing this Afro beat that everybody is talking about.”
While welcoming the commercial success of the genre, the veteran musician cautioned against categorising all African music in this manner.
“It’s good that we’ve commercialised it now but we are calling the whole music of Africa, we’ve given it just one name, and that’s wrong.”
