Gyedu-Blay Ambolley is a Ghanaian

highlife Highlife is a music genre that started in present-day Ghana in the 19th century, during its Gold Coast (British colony), history as a colony of the British Empire and through its trade routes in coastal areas. It describes multiple local fusions ...

musician, songwriter, producer, and composer. The first musician from Ghana and the world to formally incorporate rap forms into local highlife rhythms, Ambolley created the musical genre Simigwa.

Career

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley was rather unknown outside of West Africa until

Soundway Records Soundway Records is a British, London-based independent record label, founded and run by English DJ and music producer Miles Cleret. Since its initial release of a collection of Ghanaian music in 2002, it has released compilation albums of African ...

included his seminal Simigwa-Do, which Ambolley released in 1973, on their first anthology, Ghana Soundz. Ambolley's sound has led many to label him the godfather of

hiplife Hiplife is a Ghanaian musical style that fuses Ghanaian culture and hip hop. Recorded predominantly in the Ghanaian Akan language, hiplife is rapidly gaining popularity in the 2010s throughout West Africa and abroad, especially in the United K ...

, the fusion of hip hop and highlife idioms. Ambolley stood aside AL Threats at the Playboy Jazz Festival in Los Angeles.His song Simigua-do is considered the first Ghanaian version of previously introduced American rap in the world released in 1973 . Ambolley, Sammy Lartey and

Ebo Taylor Ebo Taylor (born 1936) is a Ghanaian guitarist, composer, bandleader, record producer and arranger focusing on highlife and afrobeat music. Career Ebo Taylor has been a pivotal figure on the Ghanaian music scene for over six decades. In the la ...

are the few musicians who envisioned a future for

high-life Highlife is a music genre that started in present-day Ghana in the 19th century, during its history as a colony of the British Empire and through its trade routes in coastal areas. It describes multiple local fusions of African metre and weste ...

music in the late 60s and early 70s and helped transform the genre fusing

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

music.

Achievements

In June 2015 Ambolley received a citation in the US from the City Council of Philadelphia, read by Council woman; Honorable Jannie Blackwell and Hon. Stanley ,J. Staughter in recognition of the musician's contributions to Ghanaian music in the USA.

Awards

* Most Consistent Artist — Ghana (1980) * Album and Song of the Year — Ghana (1990) * Trend Music Awards — Ivory Coast (1997) * Africa-American History Award — MWEPC, Los Angeles, CA (2001) * Afrikan Music Award — Los Angeles, CA (2002) * Malcolm X Music Festival Award — Los Angeles, CA (2002) * Lifetime Achievement Award — The Jazz at Drew from Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, Los Angeles, CA (2003) * Congressional, Gubernatorial Certificate of Special Recognition — Congresswoman Juanita Millinder McDonald (2003) * Best World Beat Recombinant Artist 2003 & Best World Beat Recombinant Artist 2003 L.A. Weekly nominated Ambolley for Best World Beat Recombinant Artist in 2003 and 2004

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ambolley, Gyedu-Blay Living people Ghanaian highlife musicians 21st-century Ghanaian male singers 21st-century Ghanaian singers 1947 births 20th-century Ghanaian male singers