Ghanaian star, Black Sherif, has hit 100M streams on Africa’s most expansive music streaming platform, Boomplay, making the ‘Kwaku the Traveller’ hitmaker the first Ghanaian artist to reach the 100M streams milestone on Boomplay after having an outstanding run last year.
With this feat, Black Sherif joins Boomplay’s Golden Club, a listing of artists who’ve clocked and surpassed the 100M streams milestone, together with Burna Boy, Wizkid, Davido, Diamond Platinumz, Fireboy DML, Joeboy, Omah Lay, and Rayvanny.
Reacting to the feat, Black Sherif wrote: “Reaching 100 million streams on Boomplay in such a short time and being the first Ghanaian artist to achieve this feat is a big deal to me. As a young kid from Konongo, who only had a dream and a voice, this brings me to the realization that I can achieve any and everything so long as I believe and dare myself to take action. Big love to the Boomplay team for putting me on from day one till now”.
Born Mohammed Ismail Shariff, the 20-year-old artist launched ‘Money’, ‘Cry For Me’, and ‘Destiny’ in 2020, which gained him some traction online. Later, he dropped ‘Money (remix)’, ‘Adea Kye’, and ‘Ankonam’ and garnered enormous buzz on Boomplay throughout a number of nations.
When Black Sherif’s ‘First Sermon’ and ‘Second Sermon’ were launched in 2021, both songs went viral and introduced him to the mainstream limelight. A remix of his ‘Second Sermon’ that features Burna Boy gave him additional reach throughout Africa and other countries.
Consequently, throughout Boomplay’s Recap 2021, which highlights stats and insights of music consumption and engagement on the Boomplay platform, Black Sherif emerged as Ghana’s Most Streamed Artist of 2021, and his ‘First Sermon’ and ‘Second Sermon’ have been the first and 2nd Most Streamed Songs of 2021 in Ghana.
Black Sherif, went on to win the 4 awards at the 2022 3Music Awards, held in March 2022, together with the Boomplay Breakthrough Act of the Year. On the occasion, he debuted a spectacular performance of his newest single, ‘Kwaku the Traveller’. The track skyrocketed him to African stardom and peaked at NO.1 on Boomplay Ghana and Nigeria charts. It presently has over 40 million streams on Boomplay.
‘Kwaku The Traveller’ Couldn’t Break Barriers?
Meanwhile, Patapaa holds a very different view on Black Sherif’s ‘Kwaku The Traveller’ as he recently opined that “the song couldn’t break barriers”.
The One Corner hitmaker speaking, gave reasons why he believes ‘Kwaku The Traveller’ could not break some barriers in the music sphere. According to him, the song did well by topping charts in Nigeria, but he believes it could have done better globally if controversies and comparisons weren’t attached to it.
He explained that Ghanaians could have propelled Black Sherif to win a Grammy with the song but due to unnecessary comparisons, they have rather shot down the mileage. According to him, comparing Black Sherif to other top artists in the music industry will only drag the musician into the negative.
“‘Kwaku The Traveller’, the petrol has finished for that song. Everyone has one song to become a hit before they cement their careers. With Ghanaians, when they raise you, they will eventually bring you down again. When the kids [upcoming musicians] sprung up, instead of pushing them forward… they will rather pamper you and make you feel like you are there”.
Patapaa
Citing instances, Patapaa noted that Ghanaians are gradually shifting away from Kuami Eugene to KiDi just like how they are treating Black Sherif presently.
“We have to support the person and not compare him with others,” Patapaa advised.
Read also: GNAT Urges Government To Rope In Junior High School Students On Feeding Program
