Highlifes future is once again on the chopping block, and this time, music producer Kwame Yeboah has stated that the genre is dead in Ghana.
Speaking on Hitz FMs Showbiz Review on August 9, 2025, Kwame Yeboah said the live production of Highlife has been replaced by computer-produced sound, with many of todays Highlife artistes relying on programmed beats instead of the live instruments that once gave the genre its magic.
According to him, the switch has stripped away the unique sound that made Ghana stand tall on the global music scene.
Highlife music is dead in Ghana. Santrofi, not in Ghana. Do you understand what I mean by its dead in Ghana? Kuami Eugene is not a big export because the music he is doing is computer-based. If you play Santrofis song and you play Kuami Eugenes song, you can hear what I mean. One of them is played with live instruments, and one of them is played with computers, Kwame Yeboah said.
When host Kwame Dadzie questioned whether Highlife cannot be programmed on a computer, Yeboah explained that while its possible, it does not give the international audience anything fresh.
Well, you can, but then again, is that AI music or what is that? What are we again? What do we have to show the world? We as Ghanaians, what do we have to show the world? Computer? What do we have that the world will value as something different? Computers are everywhere in the world. Isnt it our instruments that we have here? So if we dont play those instruments, how are they going to hear something different? he questioned.
The producer noted that just as Ghanaians enjoy the unique sound of Western music, foreigners are equally fascinated by authentic Ghanaian live-instrument performances.
We hear the music they do from there, and it sounds nicer because its different. And then, when they hear Wulomei and they hear other things, they think its amazing because they dont hear that sound anywhere, he added.