Jay Q Appreciates Ghanaians For Supporting Music Career

Jay Q 

 

Legendary US-based Ghanaian music producer, Jeff Tennyson Quaye, popularly known as Jay Q, has recounted the support some individuals gave him when he started his music career.

While discussing ways to project Ga creatives on Joy FM‘s Showbiz A-Z on March 22, Jeff Quaye, who  is widely considered as one of the pioneers of hiplife because he gave the hiplife genre a new identity through experimental local Ga rhythms, said he was lucky to have people like Randy Abbey lend him a helping hand.

Jay Q disclosed that Randy went ahead to pledge his readiness to provide him with anything he needed to help his music business.

He acknowledged that although a lot of Ga creatives struggle to get support, there are some Ga people who are also doing well in that regard and should be commended.

He also appreciated the help of music producer David Affotey Laryea (Apor), who he said, was supportive to not only Gas, but a lot of people in the creative industry.

The discussion, hosted by Kwame Dadzie, was in celebration of the Ga people and their contributions to the creative economy, as part of the Joy FM‘s Ghana Month celebration.

Jay Q also opened up about why his presence has not been felt in Ghanaian music productions for some time now.

According to him, he has not retired from music production and audio engineering but he hardly does beats for Ghanaian artistes in recent times.

The award-winning producer said his reason for staying away from a lot of Ghanaian works is that a lot of the people that want to work with him do not meet his booking specifications.

“I still do music but not within the Ghanaian space like it used to be. The reason is that even though because of technology and the internet most of the artistes reach out to you wanting to collaborate with you in terms of producing something for them,” he stated, adding that he is not ready to charge Ghanaian artistes less, because “how you sell yourself is how people will buy you.”

He also noted that most of the people that have expressed interest in doing music with him, usually want to do things that are in vogue, but he would always prefer to stay true to his craft.

He further explained that when artistes reach out, they say they want amapiano and other genres, but he is more concerned about defining the space as he did with ‘jama’ hiplife.

In the late 90s, he worked with a lot of artistes such as Paapa Yaw Johnson, Alhaji K. Frimpong, George Jahraa, Obuoba J.A. Adofo, Sibo Brothers, Kakaaku, Pat Thomas, Suzzy and Matt, Jane and Dan, Osuani Afrifa, Andy Frimpong, Collins and Ophelia Nyantakyi, Wulomei, Bukbak, VIP, Ex-Doe, Oman Hene Pozo, among others.

All these productions of Jay Q in the 90s were done with analogue equipment at Combined House of Music (CHM), Accra.

Later, he did productions for Mzbel, Obrafour, Daddy Lumba, Ofori Amponsah, Akosua Agyapong, and Castro, among others.

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