Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley is a Ghanaian highlife 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 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, the fusion of the 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 rap in the world released in 1973 . Ambolley, Sammy Lartey and Ebo Taylor are the few musicians who envisioned a future for high-life music in the late 60s and early 70s and helped transform the genre fusing high-life, funk and jazz music.
Achievements.
In June 2015 Ambolley received a citation in the USA 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.