Beats can either make or mar a song, that is, it can easily make a song an outright hit or a whack song.

Beat and lyrics make up a song and the two go hand in hand such that, a sublime beat can help mediocre lyrics to make the song a hit and good lyrics can also help the beat in rare cases.

Some call producers of beats, recording engineers and others simply brand them as the beat makers. Whatever you choose to call them, Ghana has produced some wonderful recording engineers whose creativeity, innovations and ingenuity can match acclaimed beat makers in the world such as Timothy Mosely [Timberland], Pharrel Williams, Dr.Dre and Kanye West.

It’s such a pity that, our beat makers, who’re the brainwork behind all these successful artistes, are relegated to the background with regards to fame and recognition.

Arguably, the most experienced and successful engineer till date is Zapp Mallet, who has engineered beats for almost all the heavyweights in the Ghanaian music industry.

He was instrumental during the reign of Slip Music recording artistes which included the likes of Lord Kenya, Daasebre Gyamena, Adane Best etc. He’s been on the quiet for a while, giving space to the young and budding engineers, I guess.

One of such guys is Hammer of the last two fame, who has been a force behind the success story of Obrafour, Deeba and lately, Tinny, whose rapid rise to fame can partly be attributed to Hammer.

From Kumasi comes another talented engineer called Morris Babyface, who can be held responsible for the production of chart-topping tracks for the likes of Kontihene, Okomfo Kwaadee, Sony Achiba etc.

After the breakup of Nananom, Sidney and Omanhene Pozo have experienced successful solo careers, much to the credit of one good engineer who prefers to remain latent most often.

He is Appiatus. How can we comment on recording engineers and not talk about the reigning engineer of the year, Jay Q.

Jay Q is all over the place, with his name being mentioned on every hit song. He has produced so many artistes, it’ll be tedious counting them, but notables include VIP, Buk Bak, King David etc.

Nowadays, every wannabe hip life star wants to rap on a Jay Q ‘kpanlogo beat’, which has become so common that, it’s a nuisance.

Lastly a new guy fast, establishing himself as one of the best engineers is RoRo, who is the brain behind most tracks on Tic Tac’s international album, as well as Seth Frimpong and the new release from Nana Yaw Asare.

It is therefore glaring that the success of these musicians clinges on the works of such recording engineers. Graphic Showbiz once did a profile on Appietus, and I thought it was a series to highlighton these engineers.

It wouldn’t be such a bad idea if a space is created in the paper to profile the beatmakers, because it’s about time they also enjoyed some fame and recognition.