On 2 June 2013 Fuse ODG released his debut single “Antenna”, the song peaked at number 7 on the UK Singles Chart, the song also peaked at number 85 on the Irish Singles Chart. On September 29, 2013, he released the single “Azonto”, the song peaked at number 30 on the UK Singles Chart. On 19 October 2013, he was awarded ‘Best African Act’ at the MOBO Award’s 18th Anniversary. He recently won four awards at the Urban Music Awards 2013; Best Music Video, Best Single, Best Artist and Best Collaboration.

On 29 December 2013 he released the single “Million Pound Girl (Badder Than Bad)”, the song peaked at number 5 on the UK Singles Chart, the song also peaked at number 65 on the Irish Singles Chart. On 18 May 2014 Fuse ODG released “Dangerous Love”, featuring Sean Paul. It peaked at number 3 on the UK Singles Chart. His next single, “T.I.N.A.” featuring British R&B artist Angel, was released on 19 October 2014. His debut album, T.I.N.A., an acronym for “This Is New Africa”, was released on 3 November 2014 and includes all five singles, the album peaked to number 25 on the UK Albums Chart, the album also peaked to number 63 in Scotland. Fuse ODG turned down an offer to sing on the Band-Aid 30 project because he objected to the way the lyrics of the song portrayed the victims of the ongoing Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa, and Africa generally.

Both born and raised in Tema, east of the country’s capital city – Accra in Ghana, West Africa. Paedae is the CEO and leader of the group, whilst Mugeez is the lead vocalist. The two cousins, who have been together their whole life, lived in the same house and also attended the same primary, junior and senior secondary school in Tema. Beginning their career early, they started off representing their school in rap competitions as well as inter-school music contests. This led them to participate in popular radio competition Kasahare, which they won most of and also performed at most shows; gaining them more buzz under their stage name at that time – Camp Yard.

2007–2012: Da Revolution I

R2BEES released their first single in August 2008 titled ‘Yawa Gal’, and became an instant hit. They then went on to release ‘I Dey Mad’, a chart topper across Ghana. ‘I Dey Mad’ featured Unda Melodies. The song topped most Ghanaian Radio Music Charts for weeks. In 2010, R2Bees featured one of Nigeria’s biggest stars Wande Coal on their track ‘Kiss Your Hand’, as their third single. The video was criticised but R2Bees did not come out with any explanation. In 2009, R2Bees released a 17-track album Da Revolution which has already released songs; ‘Yawa Girl’, I dey Mad’, ‘T.E.M.A’, ‘Kiss Your Hand’ with new songs; ‘Radio’, ‘One more Chance’ and ‘Africa’ with production from Killbeatz (Joseph Addison) as well as guest appearances from Wande Coal, Sarkodie, Samini, Kwaw Kese and a host of others.

2013–present: Da Revolution II: Refuse to be broke

On 29 March 2013, R2Bees on released their second studio album, the ‘Refuse To Be Broke – Da Revolution II’, at the place at the Silver Lounge at the Accra Mall. The 19-track album features hits such as ‘Ajeii’, ‘Life (Walaahi)’, ‘Odo’ and ‘Bayla Trap’. The album had guest appearances from Wizkid, Sherifa Gunu, Davido, Tinchy Stryder, and Voicemail. The album’s production was handled by KillBeatz who produced or co-produced all the tracks on it. After the successful release of their album last year, R2Bees released their first official single for 2014, “Lobi”. The highlife influenced song’s video was released on 25 September 2014. The single received massive airplay since it releases.

R2Bees often sing and rap in native language Twi and Pidgin. R2bees is one of the top purveyors of Ghanaian hip pop subgenre hiplife, which mixes rap with sounds of hilife (African pop music) and reggae. In 2012, R2Bees was featured in Forbes’ list of Top 13 African Celebrities to watch in 2013. R2Bees have had the privilege of performing on the same stage with international musicians such as American R&BÂ singers Mario and J Holiday.

Career

Shatta Wale changed his name to “Bandana” after senior high school and released the hit track “Bandana from Ghana”. The song made tremendous airwaves in the Ghanaian music industry in 2004. Shatta Wale’s sudden rise to the occasion happened in 2013 VGMA awards when he threw lyrical insults to VGMA because he proclaimed they robbed him of the Dancehall artist of the year to a female Dancehall artist “Kaakie”. Even though the song had vulgar lyrics, it was so anticipated by the media which created his musical breakthrough.

His greatest song hit in 2013, Dancehall king took the airwaves by surprise. Shatta Wale’s musical revenue is mostly generated through the hosting of shows which attracts most 1000’s of Ghanaian youths.

In 2015, Shatta Wale asked not to be nominated in the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards even though he could have won the prestigious Artiste & Song of the year for the second time running with his hit songs Dancehall Commando featuring Sarkodie, Party all night long featuring Jah Vinci, Wine ya waist featuring Davido and Korle Gonno among many hit songs he released the preceding year: because of an impending court case with the organisers of the Awards Charter House Productions Ltd for allegedly making defamatory remarks against the CEO of Charter House in a video he uploaded on his Facebook page.

Shatta Wale’s hardwork in 2014, got him nominated for the maiden and highly prestigious GN Bank Awards as the People’s Choice Male Musician of the year.

Early life

MzVee was born in Accra to Ernest Hamenoo-Kpeda, a businessman, and Florence Hamenoo-Kpeda, a caterer. She has 2 older sisters and a brother and attended St Martin de Porres School in Accra in her early years. She moved on to St Mary’s Senior High School and is now studying Business Administration at Ghana Telecom University.

Music career

2012 – 2013: Early beginnings

MzVee first burst onto the Ghanaian music scene in the summer of 2012 as the lead singer of Lynx Entertainment’s girl band D3. The band released hit singles such as ‘Good Girls Gone Bad’ and ‘Gyani Gyani’ before splitting at the end of 2013 due to educational commitments of the young group members.[7]

2014 – present: Breakthrough

MzVee launched her solo career with debut single ‘Borkor Borkor’ released in January 2014. She followed this with hit single ‘Natural Girl’ and went on to win the ‘Unsung Artiste Award’ at the 2014 Ghana Music Awards. Her debut album was released in November 2014 and features collaborations with several award-winning artists such as Stonebwoy, VIP, Shatta Wale, Richie Mensah, Manifest and Didier Awadi.

Musical Style

MzVee’s music contains elements of Afropop, R&B and dancehall and her strong vocal abilities earned her a nomination for ‘Female Vocalist of the Year at the 2015 Ghana Music Awards and the award for ‘Most Promising Act’ at the 2015 Ghana Music Honors. She is regarded as one of the stars of Ghana’s dancehall scene and received the award for ‘Best Female Vocalist of the Year at the 2015 Ghanaian dancehall awards, BASS awards. Her trademark natural African hair and hit single ‘Natural Girl’ has made her an inspiration to young girls across Africa who want to celebrate their natural look.

MzVee’s impressive rise to the top continues with a nomination in June 2015 in the ‘Best International New Artist’ category at the BET Awards 2015. This brand new fan-voted category celebrates rising stars from across the channel’s international footprint.

Sarkodie is often named as one of Africa’s greatest Hip pop artists. MTV ranked him number 6 on their list of Hottest African MC’s in 2014. In 2013, Lynx TV ranked him number 1 on their list of the “Top 10 Ghanaian Rappers Of All Time”. In 2015, AfricaRanking.com ranked him number 3 on their list of “Top 10 African Rappers Of 2015”. In 2015, Sarkodie was named by The Guardian as one of the top five hip-hop acts on the African continent.

Life and career

Early life and music career

Sarkodie, the fourth of five children, was born and raised in Tema to his mother Emma Maame Aggrey, a single parent. Sarkodie started rapping at a very young age and continued throughout his educational career. He earned a degree in Graphic Design from IPMC.

Sarkodie began his instrumental career as an underground rapper; he appeared on Adom FM’s popular rap competition Kasahare Level. It was through rap battles that he met his former manager Duncan Williams of Duncwills Entertainment. He also met musicians Edem and Castro who introduced him to Hammer of The Last Two, an established record producer. Hammer decided to feature Sarkodie on two songs off the Volta Regime album after being impressed by his rap flows. After this exposure, Sarkodie recorded his debut album Makye. His first single “Baby”, featuring Mugeez of the duo group R2Bees, became an instant hit and made Sarkodie a household name within the Ghanaian music industry.

2009-12: Makye and Rapperholic

After battling rappers from the popular rap competition, Kasahare Level, Sarkodie signed a record deal with Duncwills Entertainment. He released his 2009 debut album Makye, with production from Killbeatz and Jayso as well as guest appearances from Kwaw Kese, J-Town, Sway and Paedae of R2Bees. The album received positive reviews from critics and fans. It was launched at the Accra Mall; in addition, a follow-up concert was held at Holy City Gardens in Accra. In 2010, Sarkodie’s “Push” and “Baby” songs were ranked ninth and thirteenth on Joy Fm’s Top 50 songs of 2009, respectively.

In 2011, Sarkodie released “Good Bye”, “One Time For Your Mind”, “You Go Kill Me”, “Living Legend”, and “Onyame Nhyira” as lead singles off the Rapperholic album. “You Go kill Me”, which features EL, was well-received throughout Ghana. Sulley Muntari, Castro, Deborah Owusu-Bonsu, X.O Senovoe, DJ Mensah and Funny Face made cameo appearances in the video.

In 2012, Sarkodie launched the Rapperholic album which received positive reviews from music critics. The album features guest appearances from Efya, Chidynma, Mugeez of R2Bees, Obrafour, Jayso, EL and others. Sarkodie went on a nationwide tour to support the album. The Rapperholic album earned Sarkodie his first BET nomination and subsequent win. Sarkodie was also featured on the BET Hip Hop Awards cypher alongside Talib Kweli, Jean Grae and Ab-Soul. He was the only African act featured on the cypher.

2013-14: Sarkology and Sarkcess Music

On October 30, 2013, Sarkodie released the official remix for his 2011 hit track “You Go Kill Me” which peaked at number 1 on various charts in Ghana. The remix features Wizkid, Ice Prince, Navio and EL.

On December 21, 2013, a concert was put together to launch the Sarkology album which was released on January 2, 2014. The launch was held at the Accra Sports Stadium. The album features guest appearances from Fuse ODG, AKA, Davido, Tiwa Savage, Banky W, 2 Face Idibia, Joey B and Efya, among others.

After releasing the Sarkology album, Sarkodie released the official remix for “Adonai”. The remix became an instant hit across Africa, and was featured in BBC’s Capital Xtra Top 35 Afrobeats Songs.

Sarkodie launched his own record label, Sarkcess Music, in 2014. As part of the launch, he premiered the video for “Adonai” remix and “Special Someone” which features Castro and AKA, respectively. Sarkodie also released the songs “Megye Wo Girl”, “Love Rocks”, “Chingum”, “Whine Fi Me” under the label.

2015: Mary

On December 30, 2014, Sarkodie announced the release of his fourth album titled Mary. The album is named after his late grandmother who died in 2012. The live recorded album is set to drop on September 12, 2015. On July 10, 2015, Sarkodie released the first single off the Mary mewu which featured Akwaboah. On September 12, 2015, an autograph session was held at WestHills mall which is the biggest mall in West Africa. Sarkodie sold almost 4,000 copies on the first day of release.

Recognition and musical style

Sarkodie often raps in his native language Twi, and is considered a “multifaceted rapper” due to the various musical styles he possesses. He was ranked 8th on Forbes and Channel O’s 2013 list of the Top 10 Richest/Bankable African Artistes. Sarkodie has had the privilege of performing on the same stage with international musicians such as T-Pain, Miguel, Movado, Trey Songz,and Ludacris. He has a large fan base in Africa, and is considered one of the most celebrated musical icons to hail from Ghana.

Philanthropy

On July 13, 2013, Sarkodie launched The Sarkodie Foundation which is tasked with the mission of supporting underprivileged children. He made generous donations to the Royal Seed Home Orphanage in Kasoa. Sarkodie presented to the orphanage items worth thousands of Ghanaian cedis.

On December 25, 2014, The Sarkodie Foundation embarked on a feeddakids campaign in Tema, where they provided thousands of kids with eight sacks of rice, yogurt and beverage cans. They also gave away school bags, water bottles, hats and other items. The CEO of Tigo Telecommunications Ghana, Mrs. Roshi Motman, was also in attendance to support the campaign.

Business career and endorsements

Sarkodie has also established himself as a successful entrepreneur. He owns “Sark by Yas clothing line”, which was launched on April 27, 2013. The clothing line has accessories for men, women, and children. In 2012, he was officially unveiled as the Brand Ambassador for Samsung Electronics at the University of Ghana, Legon. As part of the event, Samsung unveiled the Samsung Galaxy Pocket and Chief Hero Phones that had customized wallpapers of Sarkodie and his signature; users had the opportunity to download exclusive tracks of Sarkodie. Sarkodie also launched the Obidi Chief headphones. In 2013, he signed an endorsement deal with FanMilk Ghana. Sarkodie is currently in partnership with Tigo Telecommunications Ghana, a brand that sponsored the 2013 Rapperholic tour.

Awards and nominations

Sarkodie is the first Ghanaian to win the BET Awards for Best International Act Africa in 2012 and has was nominated in 2014 and 2015. In 2010, he received many awards and nominations ranging from “Artist of the Year” to “Album of the Year”. His sophomore album, Rapperholic, was the recipient of 3 Ghana Music Awards from 12 nominations.

The Album houses 15 complete tracks. which feature artiste from Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda and some other Africa country.

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