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In the first of a two-part exclusive interview, Producer Edward Osei Hammer (Hammer) of the Last Two Music Group, talks to enewsgh.com�s Abdullai Isshak on errant musicians, career, and state of the music industry in Ghana. �I survived Zapp Mallet, Jay Q, Appiah (Appiatus), Richie, Morris, and many others because I dared to be different,� he says. �I believe when you produce a song too quickly, you lose that organic growth you would have otherwise achieved if you had given it time and space to grow. You have to respect the audience� that�s my secret to producing songs that survive the test of time. �I think the audience deserve the best so I try to fine tune and make sure the song achieves its aim of either making you weep, sad, rejoice, think or dance or represent a situation in your life. The song needs to affect you and until we get to that point we are not releasing the song. �This policy has caused problems with �the last two� and many labels in the past because they have a timelines to follow and release dates push them to rush me and I have never liked that. That�s why I eventually stopped commercial production in 2007. I didn't want people to pay me for works anymore because I couldn't handle my schedule.� Your thoughts on the current state of music in Ghana? The music industry has really grown if you ask me and I am really privileged to have witnessed the growth of the industry from its inception till now . It�s amazing where it�s reached and I have hope for the future. The revolution that happened in Ghana music is kind of the same thing that happened in the Bronx US. When cliques formed and became small units of rap groups coming out. In Ghana we had the Lifeline Family which brought us Mensa, Jay D and Yoggi Doggi etc.. Then We had the Shaolin Munk Funk which brought the streets to its knees for the real Hip Hop. We had the Kasa Records which had Reggie Rockstone, Rab Bakari and co. there was also Nana Kings Ashanti international which produced the Saminis and the Ex Does. We also had Jay Q�s and his boys like Buk Bak, 4X4, Castro and others. There was also The LAST Two music group which was the boys in my world. The Skillions are the most recent people to come take over the industry. We now see EL, Ball J, Jayso himself, Jay Town, and the others and there was also djs like dj black, wood man, bushke, mr gi, bolaray and duncan did their part in marketing whatever creations we possessed. And its because of them hiplife was able to go mainstream. I think the fruit is ripe now and it�s harvesting time for us. The hard work from Reggie to Obrafuor who sacrificed for this generation to enjoy endorsement deals etc. It�s a dance era but Hip Hop is still holding its own as artistes like M.anifest and Blitz De Ambassador classified as the conscious and Pan Africanists in the industry are actually portraying the African culture to the world. It has all the dimensions to qualify for what we can call a sustainable genre. Our local Hip Hop which is called Hip Life has survived the test of time to the point of enjoying more air play than Hi Life. And nobody taught Hip Life could kick Hi Life off urban radio. Hi Life has toned down and made way for Hip Life because of mass appeal. Life back then; how was it like, coming up against equally good producers? Like I said I dared to be different; I even felt there could have been Hi Life, Hip Life, reggae and then The Last Two in terms of genres. I never saw myself as part of what was happening and I think it paid off it seperated me from the producer reign race which saw producers take turns in reigning. It was a baton race where one producer finishes their lap and hands over the baton to the next person and I standing alone in the next lane observing and welcoming each one to their turn lol. I survived Zapp Mallet, Jay Q, Appiah (Appiatus), Richie, Morris, and many others because I dared to be different. The trending made them ran shift and handing the baton to the next hot engineer and the next. People I respect so much now is Red Eye from 2Toff duo, Jayso, magnom, genius, Ball J, EL, Nshorna and King Of Accra. These guys are crazy producers and they will steer our music and our industry into the the next era.