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Nana Yaw Nkrumah aka Dr Ray
Nana Yaw Nkrumah aka Dr Ray

Young producers are hungry — Dr Ray

He has been producing beats for Ghanaian hitmakers for the past decade but sound engineer, Dr Ray says he has nothing to show for it.

And as a result, has even began habouring thoughts of relocating outside the country because of the financial gains he made when he worked for a short period when he travelled some time ago.

Dr Ray, real name, Nana Yaw Nkrumah, created beats for Adani Best’s Gyata; Yewokrom, Atom; Wash and Wear, Akoo Nana; Azay, Kofi Kinaata, Hwe Nea Okyere, Nana Acheampong, Onaapo Remix, Barima Sidney; Street Papping, Guru and Tinny’s. 

Pouring his heart out to Showbiz on Tuesday, Dr Ray said apart from a few who are making it financially, what most producers make is nothing to write home about.

“I can confidently say that apart from a few sound engineers such as Appietus, Kaywa, Killbeatz and Nacee who are making good money out of the trade, majority of us are suffering. We are hungry”, he said.

According to Dr Ray, he should be swimming in money by now considering the work he has done in the past but it is unfortunate that is not the case.

“See, there are many sound engineers churning out good beats but are still hungry because they are not paid well. Most of these musicians think they are even doing you a favour by coming to you so they refuse to pay the basic fee of GH¢1,500 I charge.

“ They want to pay as low as they can get or even nothing at all because they think they have already made the name. And because you(sound engineer) also need these famous artistes to attract more musicians to your studio, you have no choice but to play along. It is a very sad situation” he disclosed.

“And what hurts the most is to watch such musicians mount all the big stages to perform making loads of money when you know he didn’t pay you well for the beat of the music patrons of such shows are jamming to”, he said.

He went on to lamenty that, “it is not fair that musicians spend thousands of cedis to shoot  music videos  but refuse to pay sound engineers.

Asked what can be done to rectify the ‘sad situation’ he is talking about, Dr Ray said, “All I am saying is that, musicians should respect our input in their works and pay us what is due us”.

Touching on why he is thinking of relocating abroad, Dr Ray disclosed the situation is different outside the country.

“I had the opportunity to travel outside and worked in studios of my friends and the money I made within that short period of time was amazing. The artistes I created beats for valued my services and paid me well for it.

“ Infact, I have been thinking of relocating outside because I have  come to realise that musicians in Ghana do not respect the sound engineers who give them the hits”, he concluded..

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