Veteran high life musician, JA Adofo has acknowledged that he copied Nana Ampadu’s style and music beat as a budding artiste.
“I listened to Nana Ampadu’s songs and used his beats to compose my first track dubbed ‘Odo nndidi ntwen me’. Before I completed school, I had written my first song already”, he admitted to Angel FM’s Ohemaa Woyeje in an exclusive interview.
He however said that Nana Ampadu was never aware he was ‘copying’ his beat in his [Adofo’s] songs. This, he attributed to Nana Ampadu’s departure from their village, Oboo, to Accra to further his music career.
Narrating his early stages as a young talent, he said his career commenced in the 1970’s at the age of 22.
The high life legend stated that, he chose to focus on singing love songs in order to stand out from his forbearers who had mustered their arts on some life issues.
“Nana Ampadu was singing songs to advise people about life issues while Nana Konadu was an expert in singing songs surrounding death. After careful consideration, I chose to build my brand on the subject of love so as to be exceptional from those two”, he announced.
JA Adofo, nicknamed ‘Black Chinese’ in the music industry, said that one Mr. E.K. Nyame took him in with the intention of training him and making him a star in the industry after realizing his potential.
“It was through him that I met a producer called Nana Osafo who told me that I sounded very much like Nana Ampadu”, he recounted.
According to Adofo, Nana Osafo promised to work with him as a replacement to Nana Ampadu, who previously worked with him.
The legend has 150 albums to his name and has received several awards in Ghana and beyond for his exceptional abilities as a high life musician.
The Black Chinese confessed that he was very much in love with Catholics due to the ‘cross’ they use and that explains why till date he still wears one.
