Ghanaian producer Zapp Mallet, critiques musicians for prioritizing Grammy Awards over satisfying the needs of their fans and listeners.
The veteran sound engineer expressed his opinion in an interview with Graphic Showbiz, where he revealed that some musicians frequently visit his studios mainly for him to refine their sounds to match Grammy standards. According to him, artists should rather focus on building a core following here in Ghana before seeking an international audience and awards.
“My advice to every artiste, especially the young ones, is that your first point of call should be your audience, not the Grammys,” he said. “The Grammy is a body with its own criteria, definitions and interests. It’s not bad to win one, but your real worth should not depend on it,” he added.
Zapp Mallet questioned the criteria for nominating African artists, noting that African artists are often confined to one category and excluded from the major categories, unlike their American counterparts.
“Nothing has changed with how African artistes are treated. Which African artiste has ever been nominated for the major categories?” he asked. “They always box Africans into collaborations or the Global Music categories. The only change over the years has been renaming ‘World Music Album’ to ‘Global Music Album.’ And that’s what African artistes keep celebrating,” he stressed.
He also expressed concern about Africa’s inability to sustain its own continental awards scheme which was once in existence.
“We once had the biggest music awards scheme, the KORA Awards. Where is it now? What happened to it? What is wrong with us as a continent? Why do we always abandon what is ours? What is wrong with us Black people?” he lamented.
Zapp Mallet unapologetically disclosed that if musicians approached him to work on Grammy-worthy songs, he would not oblige.
“If you come to me to record a supposed Grammy-winning song, I’ll tell you that Grammy didn’t put me in business,” he stated. “Besides, if we had built ours well, people would also come from the US to fight for it because they want to enter our market,” he added.
Zapp Mallets conversation stems from the recent Grammy nominations announced on November 7, 2025, with no Ghanaian artists featured. This has sparked debate about why Ghanaian artists are consistently overlooked, while Nigerian artists have received multiple nominations and awards.