The Vim Views & Versions - Blogs of a MIghTy African

Given that I have met many African musicians in my lifetime, it's interesting that I have never really met Sarkodie before. The first time I did hear about him, I was listening to Dr. Duncan's Kasahare level on Adom FM. This radio show featured rap battles with serious punchlines thrown. Sarkodie wasn't the only one making a name in the underground rap scene. Yaa Pono, Kofi Korea and Burbon Fly also featured. And then Sarkodie struck commercial gold with Babe featuring Mugeez. The rest has been achievement after achievement. On 10.11.12, which is tomorrow, Sarkodie and his fans will be celebrating how far we have come together in  a #Youknowwhattimeitis concert at Pentagon on the Legon campus in Accra. I'll be there! Sarkodie released freestyle after mixtape after freestyle in 2009. His Politics track, circa the elections of 2008, was an underground hit. His debut album, dubbed Makye, seemed to say his "success" was a long time coming. We heard news of...

The very first  Ghana National Youth Achievers Awards (NYAA)  were held under the auspices of President John Dramani Mahama on October 25 this year. Congratulations to all the winners, some of which I am proud to know personally. I already reacted to the whole NYAA, but let's dig into the winners proper. Because just giving you the list is boring. If you wanna learn some more, say #morevim! Sarkodie and Becca won for Music. BET Award wins, Channel O nominations, Museke Awards wins, they deserved it. Jackie Appiah won for Performing Arts, she's not the fairest Ghanaian, so she must be doing very well as an actress because of her acting skills :-p. She's still cute too, those IPMC billboards do her some good justice. Jackie's best ever casting was in The Perfect Picture , arguably one of Ghana's best ever movies. The director of that movie, Shirley Frimpong-Manso won for film.  The Fashion winner is surprising as it is refreshing, Fred Deegbe's Heel the...

The manner in which I first heard about the Ghana National Youth Achievers Awards (NYAA) were  some interesting circumstances. First, they was the notion that some of the organizers behind it should not have been behind it or should have been supporting something else that I support. And then my mother also called me about it saying my aunt was encouraging me to apply. The Awards were held recently and many deserving people that I know of won but I never ended up applying. But the latter part is not the point, the former - celebrating Ghanaian youth achievement is the point of this blog post. But I still have to tell you why I didn't apply. First, I wasn't excited by the involvement of CharterHouse (which organizes entertainment type awards shows, what would that mean for these awards?) and RLG (who as a tech company is not exactly supporting innovation in Ghana like it should, yeah I said it). And then you have the government angle, endorsed by the sitting president, Joh...