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VGMA23: Appietus clash with Afriyie Wutah on radio for not crediting him for ‘Country Hot’

Celebrated sound engineer, Appietus, did not hide his discontent with Afriyie Wutah as the singer did not credit him for ‘Country Hot’ when the VGMA asked for the one who mixed and mastered the song.

Afriyie Wutah and Appietus

On March 27, 2022, a former understudy of Appietus, Wei Ye Oteng, revealed that Appietus mixed and mastered the song but he was not rightly recognized as the technical brain behind it when the VGMA’s announced the nominees for the Audio Engineer of the Year. The song has been nominated for an award in the upcoming VGMAs.

Afriyie Wutah was the one nominated for that award.

As a result of this disclosure, Andy Dosty, the host of DayBreak Hitz, interviewed the three people to bring clarity to what seemed like a murky situation.

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Wei Ye Oteng, who has bemoaned the seeming disregard of sound engineers in the country, pointed out that the moment he heard the song, he realized Appietus had somewhat worked on it, although he had no confirmation.

This led him to “reach out” to Appietus to find out if he indeed worked on the song.

According to him, his initial thoughts were “vindicated” by Appietus who “laughed” when he asked him about the song.

He indicated that Appietus said “Afriyie came to him with a production and he added some few chords, mixed and mastered the song.”

However, Afriyie who said nobody should be “surprised” by his nomination further pointed out that, he was “in charge of the entire project. I put together the musicians. We recorded the song in my house.”

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As he disagreed with the Wei Y3 Oteng and didn’t understand what he wanted to “achieve” by raising the issue, he said “we need to explain the responsibilities of a sound engineer, then we can get some things clear. Every instrument you hear on the song, apart from the keyboard and the base and lead guitar, I played them myself.”

However, Afriyie made it explicit that Appietus did the “final touches.”

Afriyie was emphatic when he said, “a sound engineer is not the one who mixes and masters a work, no.”

Listening in, Appiatues laughed and said “he doesn’t know what he is saying.”

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“I’m not going to fight for an award with you. I’ve done this for over 20 years. Maybe he wants it badly, I have won many awards. They should give it to him if that is what he wants. Because what you tell Charter House is what they will base their final decision on. So, if you don’t tell them the truth, they have no choice than to say so,” Appietus said.

He went on to say that the claims of Afriyie suggest he doesn’t do anything as a sound engineer.

“Because if 4X4 had told Charter House when they were submitting their song, ‘Y3se Y3se’ that I just did the final touches but we {4X4} did everything then that means I don’t do anything when artistes bring their songs.”

To clarify the definition of the category, Andy Dosty read it out per what the VGMA has put out.

“Audio engineer is the engineer or engineers directly responsible for the recording, mixing and technical production of the song adjudged as the record of the year.”

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Appietus said although he “did” the mixing his name was not submitted by Afriyie.

When asked if he added Appietus as part of the engineers, he said “if we do that then we are going to have the whole team in the production as part of the project.”

And reiterated that he credited Appietus on Facebook.

“Did you add my name?” Appietus asked

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“Next time I will add your name,” Afriyie answered.

“You should have done the right thing. I’m not going to argue with you over this. If you had told them I had mixed the song, they would have just have added me. They wouldn’t disqualified you obviously because according to their definition, if you say you are the one who recorded it and Appietus mixed it, then it’s done.

“I did two parts in it and you also did two parts in it. So, you shouldn’t have taken my name out. I mixed, I mastered, you produced the sound and then recorded it. It would have only been fair if you told Charter House this. They would have known what to do, because they are professionals. But if you don’t tell them and you tell them you did everything, they would take my name out and put you there. According to their definition, I was in there but you didn’t add me,” he said.

Afriyie retorted that when he sent the song to Appietus, it was “a complete song.”

Appietus in a near rage said “It’s your song but you brought it to me unsolicited. You see how some of these artistes behave? Why did you bring a complete song to me? To do what? To listen to what?”

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According to the PRO of the VGMA, Robert Klah, they reached out to Afriyie to find out if he mastered and mixed the song and he said he did.

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