Artist Spotlight - Ghana Represents

Ghana Represents!

Today we'll be looking at two artists, one of them working very hard at his career as we speak, and one of them, well, lets just say that we'd be pleased if he could get behind the pen again, back into studio, and release some more songs because the world is a better place with his music gracing our humble ears. Both of these artists are from Ghana.

Lets start with off with some Neo Soul and and pick up the tempo from there.

Kwabs

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When I first heard Kwabs' voice, I stopped what I was doing and I stared at the speakers as if I could see his lips move through the vibrations of the speaker cones. It was like he was in the room with me. The depth and of his voice layered with the futuristic, warm instrumental haunted me, and I stood transfixed. His is a voice that reaches into your soul and commands you to pay attention.

"Last Stand" was my first introduction to Kwabs, and I quickly let my ears devour the rest of his music.

Last Stand

Its also worth checking out this live version. Its always very special watching an artist at work in an intimate situation.

This incredible baritone singer, Kwabena Adjepong, was born in Ghana in 1990, and raised in South London where he studied jazz at the Royal Academy of Music and cut his teeth as lead vocalist of the National Youth Jazz Orchestra for some years.

A lucky break saw Kwabs performing at Buckingham palace for Prince Harry - and entourage I'm sure - as the culmination of a BBC2 series, Goldie's Band: By Royal Appointment.

Quickly about Goldie

Goldie is a DJ, music producer, and actor, well known for his pioneering work in the Jungle and Breakbeat sub genres. His acting wall-of-fame includes movies such as Snatch, James Bond The World is Not Enough and East Enders.

It was in 2011 that he began the search for talent amongst "troubled" youth as part of a BBC2 show, and with other music experts, trained them for a performance at Buckingham Palace.

Real talk though, I can't imagine Kwabs needed much in the way of training when it came to those sweet vocal chords of his.

I'd like to draw your aural attention to a particularly subtle, well executed vocal run at 3:11 in this next video

Kwabs has been dubbed by some as a modern day Seal, and its hard not to agree with that. While staying so true to his soul roots as a vocalist, the productions that support him manage to take the overall sonic quality into the "Now" with incredibe modern elements. This is what it means to be moving forward with music. There's nothing wrong with soul sounding like it did back in the 60's, even if produced now, but the opportunities to create music that transcends a particular time period are just too good to be missed.

When it comes to lyrics, he manages to say a lot with very little. Just listen to Last Stand again, and behold how few lyrics are used.

War's over but I soldier on
Still battling the ghost long gone
Still struggling to see the signs
Too heavy for a heart like mine
Save me, save me
Keep my heritage to keep me clean
Keep the devil watching over me
Save me, save me
Last stand before I walk away
Spell-bound I stutter, I pray
Release me, say you need me
Still burning from the heat of your touch
Know I shouldn't but it's never enough
I know I don't belong
But I'm scared to leave you

The artist is clearly battling some demons, and to have a glimpse into the soul of one such as this is a wonder.

This next video is a great one-shot video, where there are clearly two versions of himself. A version that does bad things, and another version that witnesses and has to face those bad things.

What a great metaphor for the need to be self-critical in a world of instant gratification.

He again explores the theme of cheating in this single from his debut full-length album "Love and War". While its obvious that the song is about cheating, I also get a sense that he's bringing in issues that have come up with his rise to stardom.

Discography

Kwabs hit the scene hard in 2014 after his Atlantic Records signing releasing 3 EP's that year followed by a full-length album in 2015.

• Wrong or Right - February 2014
• Pray for Love - May 2014
• Walk - October 2014
• Love and War - September 2015

In 2015 he was also a featured artist on Disclosure's Willing and Able.

Since then, Kwabs has unfortunately not done much more studio work, and I honestly hope that we haven't seen the end of this incredible talent releasing new music, although 2017 saw him credited as a composer on Stormzy's album "Gang Signs and Prayers" so hopefully this means more collaborations and releases in the near future!

Hit him up on Facebook and hassle him!

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Moving on

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Next up we have another Ghanaian-born musician of incredible talent. I've touched on his work partially before but figured he deserves his very own feature.

Blitz the Ambassador

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Samuel Bazawule, know to the world as "Blitz the Ambassador", was born in Accra Ghana, and developed a passion for the visual arts while attending the renowned Achimota School. His love for hip hop came around the same time, but as we will discuss later, his passion for the visual arts never subsided. In 2000 he won an award in Ghana for best new artist at the Ghana Music Awards, and shortly after that moved to the United States of America to do his Bachelor degree in Business Administration. While in Ohio studying he recorded his first album in 2004, "Soul Rebel" as Blitz. Even though he didn't explore using African elements in his productions on this record, its still a great Hip Hop record.

Title Track from "Soul Rebel"

I first stumbled upon this artist a few years ago when I made a Facebook post asking my friends to recommend new music.
I fell in love with the perfect fusion that takes place in his productions between West African harmonies and rhythms, heavily influenced by Afrobeat, and Hip Hop. Horns cascade all over his recordings in the style of Fela Kuti.
The album that I first got into was "Afropolitan Dreams", released in 2014 it is Blitz's most recent full length album.

Afropolitan Dreams Album Artwork
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The album explores themes including the Ghanaian Diaspora, touring the world and missing his son, the passion for music as a driving force, Africa as inspiration, and all-encompassing love.

Not a single track on this album feels as if its been placed to fill time. Each track has relevance and seems to be part of the same story. Blitz spits bars that are engaging and rhythmic, filled with meaningful content. In an age of mumble rap, its always refreshing to listen to musicians that respect the original art form of rap. He has a style that is his own, perfectly marrying American hustle with African class.

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Check out some more music from Afropolitan Dreams. I highly recommend adding this artist to your Spotify (or whatever service you use) playlist.

Make You No Forget

Success

And here's one of his latest releases from his 2016 full-length album, "Diasporadical"

Hello Africa

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From 2016 to 2018, Blitz started to focus heavily on bringing his love for the visual arts back to the fore. He wrote a movie titled "The Burial of Kojo". I remember speaking to him in 2016 as he emphatically explained about his idea for this movie that he was writing. Back then it was still the seedling of an idea, which quickly grew into something that could actually be executed. After spending much of the year shooting the film, and running out of money, he decided to launch a Kickstarter campaign, with the aim of raising $75,000 to finish the film. After a rocky start, he started getting some attention from people such as Questlove from "The Roots", and others, and he ended up raising $78,000.

As we speak, Burial of Kojo is in final stages of production with first airing being the Cannes Film Festival in early May this year.

Look forward to anything that Samuel Bazawule has to offer as this is a man of pure, creative genius.

Discography

• Soul Rebel [EP] - 2004
• Double consciousness [EP] - 2005
• StereoLive [EP] - 2009
• Stereotype [Full Album] - 2009
• Native Son [Full Album] - 2011
• The Warm Up [EP] - 2013
• Afropolitan Dreams [Full Album] - 2014
• Diasporadical [Full Album] - 2016

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