The Vim Views & Versions - Blogs of a MIghTy African

I first noticed Obrafour 's music and abilities when he featured on Tic Tac's Philomena track, a banger released in 1999. As Ghanaian youth, and Ghanaians in general, we were getting enamored with hiplife, after Reggie Rockstone and co had birthed it. Yes, I have to mention Gyedu Blay Ambulley here. Happy now? Anyway, back to the Rap Priest. Lyricist, word play, wisdom, development, consciousness, longevitiy, legendary, you name it.  I was in Presec (Presbyterian Boys' Secondary School - Legon) in 1999. I was starting to get into poetry, and rhyming. Enter Obrafour and my days of rapping along seriously to songs started. I remember rapping to Pae Mu Ka , etc in my dorm in Presec's Clerk House, all the way to the times I spent on exeat at my aunts' in Adenta and Teshie-Nungua Estates, all through to my home in Kumasi. It's been a couple of decades since Obrafour's first album , but many hiplife heads and Ghanaian music historians (like me) would say Pae Mu ...

I have been a lazy blogger for many years. Especially after posting 233 blog posts in 2013. After my mum transitioned on on June 6, 2022, I told myself I needed to write a book. I'd get back to the book bit later. I promised to write lots of blog posts in 2023 too. It has not gone too well until now.  I (feel I) have a special relationship with music . It is what led me to Museke . As 2023 ends and I hit 40 years of age, I would like to share some of my all-time favorite music. I was going to do one blog post about some all-time favorite songs and how they impact me. I realised the number of songs were increasing as I thought about them. I also realized some of the same musicians were making these songs, and their songs have special places in my heart, head and body , etc for different reasons.  So I present to you the starting eleven of artistes who make music I dey feel waa.  In order of when they started making impact on me.  The years might not be 100% correc...

Asamoah Gyan aka Baby Jet was the first Ghanaian to score in a World Cup and he's scored another first, by becoming the first footballer to venture into hiplife music. He features with popular hiplife star, Castro the Destroyer , in a classic video, African Girls. Asamoah Gyan is also very popular for his goal celebration dances, some of which he performs in the music video. The song and music video has been greeted positively by music fans as it is becoming very popular. The song is produced by Castro's Wondzie Entertainment. The Takoradi native has been struggling to enjoy the same success he had during the times of hit songs like Sradenam and Toffee, and this Asamoah Gyan collaboration might just do the trick. The idea of singing about African women is not as fashionable as of 2005 but it is the focus of the song. Castro and Asamoah Gyan sing about Ghanaian and African women. The song mentions "African girls dey be, dance to the groove and feel the heat". "Afr...

Yes, I'm back. Like they'll say in Ghana, wɔabɔga bio. Well, I've been back to Yankee for more than two weeks but this is my first post of the new decade. Had too much fun chillaxing and chilluping in Ghana to blog, so I saved most of my thoughts as texts on my Nokia phone. In fact, na Borga nso ayɛ loose to afford the costs of slow Ghanaian internet. It's not always easy for us Borgas. Even when we have 'returned' to Ghana on holidays to visit families and do other things, we find the costs of living not much different from 'Aburokyire'. Ghana's fastest and hottest rapper at the moment, Sarkodie knows this too. He composed a song about Ghanaians in the Diaspora and it is quickly becoming a cult classic. In fact, in the years to come, we shall all remember Sarkodie's Borga as one of the legendary hiplife songs. Let me tell you why. Michael Owusu, known to many fans as Sarkodie , is a hiplife artist. He had spent the last few years freestyling a...

Culled from Chale's blog on Museke.com I was so excited when I heard Obrafour was releasing some new singles after his Heavy album in 2006. Obrafour is my favorite rapper and through the years, he's faced a lot of criticism, but I don't think he has hardly put a foot wrong. Obrafour is a wise man, like we see from his lyrics and he knew he was re-entering the music industry at an interesting time that called for some creativity and hard work. He delivered his singles and he has quickly become the talk of the town. I am really looking forward to getting his " Asem beba dabi " album and I hope it does really well and Obrafour becomes an international superstar. It's about time. His singles have caused some controversy and I'll like to discuss the issues arising. Obrafuor's first single is Kasiebo (Nkasiabo) . Kasiebo in Twi means news. In the song, an Execution FM radio presenter called Guru (who's a new hiplife artist) talks about "hiplife ne...

I watched a documentary called "Living the Hiplife" recently and hearing them play Reggie Rockstone's Visa made me feel nostalgic. I was at a Stanford Library borrowing movies and had searched for "the Godfather". This documentary came up in my search because the summary included the Godfather of Hiplife (aka Hiplife Grandpapa aka Ɔboɔba Reggie Rock aka Oseikrom President aka Reggie Rockstone). Anyway, listening to Visa and a couple other songs have made to write this blog post. I'll be sharing 10 hiplife songs I think you should definitely know about. They were either groundbreaking, popular, interesting or inspirational. Before that, you have to check out my 10 favorite Ghanaian songs of 2009 , my 10 songs dedicated to African women , my favorite Ghanaian songs , 10 favorite songs from Kenya , 10 favorite songs from South Africa , my 10 favorite Nigerian songs and 10 African songs I think you should know about. I hope you feel the songs are worth the tr...

Most of you loved the first episode of the MIghTy African Music Video Program (MAMVP). Well guess what, thanks to Melanie Reynard, we have a second episode. This time we talked about a Ghana-Nigeria collabo between VIP and TuFace Idibia called ' My love '. This feature is for a TV program on KMTP TV (a non-profit public TV station in Palo Alto) The MAMVP will feature me talking about various African music videos, the artistes behind them, discussing the song and music, etc. All these videos are by Phamous People. The very first feature was on VIP's Manenko . You can see the video for this second webisode/episode below http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pP4IStiBZg The opening music was by Jonathan Ford and the video was edited by Melanie Reynard. I think this video is funnier than the last one though it's shorter. Melanie advises that people's attention spans are too short to do longer videos. So if you are reading this and you want to sponsor an awesome promotion of Af...

Obrafour is my favorite lyricist ever. Nya Nteteɛ pa is also one of my favorite songs ever. We haven't heard much from the Rap Sɔfoɔ recently, but if you ask me, he's been replaced. The 'new guy' is Okyeame Kwame , also known as the Rap Doctor. In his latest single , he called himself, 'your favorite rapper's favorite rapper'. I won't argue with him, the dude is good. Many people will know Kwame Nsiah Appau from his Akyeame days. He's the best lyricist in Ghana these days and with time, he may overtake Obrafour as Ghana's best ever. Like joke like joke :-) I interviewed Okyeame Kwame for Museke.com sometime last year and I must say I came away impressed. He's not a rapper but he's a student of rap. He attends KNUST (university) and is studying Akan and Sociology. This is what he had to say - "I am studying Akan because I can’t help the poor if I’m not one of them. If I’m part of the academia then I can convince them to look. If ...

I have always imagined myself being on some television show talking about Africa, or African music, African development, engineering, etc. After the recent interview with Tracy Pell about BarCamp Diaspora , it seemed I was making headway. On Monday night, KMTP TV (a non-profit public TV station in Palo Alto) aired the first feature of the MIghTy African Music Video Program (MAMVP) thanks to Melanie Reynard, a producer there. The MAMVP will feature me talking about various African music videos, the artistes behind them, discussing the song and music, etc. All these videos are by Phamous People. The first video in the series is Manenko by VIP. You can see the video below http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS8jWZdbtI4 The opening music was by Jonathan Ford and the video was edited by Melanie Reynard. I love this video so much that I have been watching it over and over again. I like how she combined the conversation we had with the video. I loved this interview, it took a while to shoot it, an...

This blog entry is upon request to list the Top 10 Hiplife artistes currently eliminating those who haven't done anything in a year and half. In determining this order, I took into consideration, artiste popularity, song popularity, demand for shows/concerts, award recognition, number of features with other artistes, amongst others. I also took out the groups with more than one member, and artistes who are more Afro pop or hip-hop. This is not scientific and this list is adjudged by a committee of one. Let's get into the countdown. 10. Barima (Sidney) - This former Nananom member has been in the hiplife game for over 10 years and is still going strong. He's stayed pretty consistent with his style and he may have earned some more fans with his last album 'Barima bi ba', which did really well. Africa Money was a huge hit outside Ghana's borders, as its French lyrics endeared it to Francophone Africans as well. 9. Obour - His last album was around 2007 but he ha...