Stonebwoy 'Punches' Ambolley

Reigning ‘VGMA artiste of the year’ Stonebwoy and his management seem not to be enthused with comments made by veteran Highlife musician Gyedu Blay Ambolley about his BET Awards nomination.      

Ambolley last week questioned the criteria used to nominate Stonebwoy at this year’s BET awards. Speaking in an interview on Hitz FM the ‘Simgwa’ Singer expressed worry about why authentic Ghanaian music which according him is Highlife is not receiving nominations at international awards ceremonies like BET Awards, describing dancehall music as “alien” to Ghanaians.  

This comment from the highlife legend has not gone down well with management of the reggae /dancehall artiste who have duly reacted.  Stonebwoy’s manager posted on social media networks expressing his disappointment in Ambolley.

He wrote:

“I read this story and I was very amazed. I do not know if these were the exact words of our father the veteran musician Mr. Ambolley.

What I expected from the story was the encouragement of a hardworking and talented young man who is doing his part to put Ghana and Africa on the international entertainment map. Stonebwoy does a genre called Afro – Dancehall (African Dancehall) which is the infusion of African Lyrics, Culture and Jamaican Dancehall.

This can be verified by his lyrics, rhythms and style.

Since Afro Dancehall is the current most popular genre in our side of the world, I also expected from the story the call on Dancehall Artistes to do more featuring with the Artiste who are doing all possible to revive our own limping Highlife genre which has been taken over by our Nigerian brothers. With this we can grow together, but not to question the credibility of the BET nomination of the young talent.

The question of why highlife was not recognized was not supposed to be linked with the nomination of Stonebwoy in anyway.”

Source: Eugene Osafo-Nkansah/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana