King vs god - The battle for rap supremacy.
The Ghana music industry has been graced with some vibrant and deep thinking artistes over the years.
The Ghanaian music industry before 1994, was filled with a sense of contemporary music. Musicians sung more about their culture, tradition and life over slow beats which was in fact held in the highest accord by our 'ancestors'.
But all changed in 1994...
In 1994, the "Grand Papa", Reggie Rockstone will introduce a new genre of music which will transform the lyrical output, beat production and content delivery of artistes and music producers forever.
It's name was Hip-life.
Hip-life was a term coined out of hip pop. The difference was that hip pop is delivered in English whiles hip life was going to be delivered in the Ghanaian language. Smart dude.
More than a decade after its introduction, hip life has gained weight and new heights and has contributed massively to the transformation of Ghana music. Hip-life acts including Obrafour, Obour, Okyeame Kwame, Reggie Zippy, Bollie amongst others have contributed their quota to making hip life an enjoyable genre of music.
Now to my main focus. Michael Owusu Addo, known poultry as Sarkodie has earned the title of "Ghanas rap king" over the past decade. His inauguration was performed by 'Ghanas rap pastor' Obrafour and has stayed relevant ever since his introduction to the Ghanaian music industry.
His style, flare and lyrical contents has set the foundation for him to win several awards both locally and internationally. Despite his lyrical delivery mostly in the Twi language, it has proved worthwhile winning him several international awards. He is the first Ghanaian and only African to win the BET Award for Best International Act twice. It will be an understatement to say that Sarkodie set the pace for other Ghanaians to have an experience on the BET stage. His efforts set the platform for him to be featured on the Forbes list twice.
He was ranked 8th on Forbes and Chanel O's 2013 and 2015 list of the top most bankable artistes in Africa. His relevance and consistency earned him the award for the Artist of the Decade at the just ended VGMA Awards.
Astute, inventive, perspicacious, profound, quick-witted are some small number of words to describe this rap whiz. What M.anifest has added to the industry is pure intelligence. With unmatched rap techniques and a tongue of vocabulary, M.anifest summates and incorporates sheer wisdom and knowledge to the Ghanaian music industy.
Nicknamed the god Mc, he is a master of 'intellectual rap artistry'. His style of rap is top notch and it is only fair to say that his music is for the advanced, matured and intellectual minds. M.anifest is an ingenious artiste and the creme de la creme when it comes to intelligent rap delvery. His unique and splendid rap style was enough to crown him the Best rapper of the Year in 2013 at the VGMA beating Sarkodie to the award.
The lyrical battle.
2016 was a year which lightened up the rap game as the two rap gurus went head to head in a fierce battle for supremacy. It wasn't long for M.anifest to craft his name on the heart of Ghanaians when he engaged in a lyrical banter with Sarkodie.
Sarkodie released his Bossy track which as usual was lit and heart warming. But a borrowed line from M.anifest will lead him to his first rap defeat.
Sarkodie in the last part of the track sung a verse which didn't go down well with M.anifest. He said, "M.anifest me sr3 wu let me just use your d) d) d) ti d) to end this verse". A line which will partially send him to his doom.
M.anifest replied Sarkodie with a very well laid out intellectual rap which left Ghanaian music lovers grabbing their lexicon and loading airtime on their smart phones to research. Ghanaians subconsciously 'went back to school' after listening to M.anifests bars.
Every line of the rap had a subliminal message and the whole three versed rap was enough to make any person well vested in the English language. Lots of vocabulary and lots of idiomatic expressions made him the talking point for weeks.
"Clash of the titans I had dinner with Medusa.... They sipping on amarula me I kick it with the cougar....Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious....", the bars were just out of this world.
King Sark who didn't want to stay defeated will get to the studio and spit some hard bars in his Kanta song. The song was a usual Sarkodie rap flow which was unfortunately met with a lot of criticisms. Pundits and objective music lovers will question Sarkodie for failing to hit M.anifest with strong bars. Some later said he did not rap in bars.
The god has defeated the King.
Well in 2019, after a long banter and subtle throw of shades between the musical duo, they will resolve their problems and be at peace with each other. M.anifest will later wish Sarkodie a happy birthday during one of Sarkodies studio sessions and the drift will soon be repaired.
I will state categorically without mincing words that the feud between the "Rap King" and "god Mc" contributed immensely to shaping the atmosphere surrounding Ghana rap music. The duo are professionals and "Kings" in their own right. Ghana will forever remember the lyrical exposition between these two 'gods' as they have contributed immensely in their own right to shaping the stereotypical perception surrounding Ghanaian musicians and the Ghana music industry at large.
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