‘Rap Doctor’ Okyeame Kwame is alluding to the belief that change is the only constant in life. He has advised rappers to switch up their style of rap to attract more commercial success.
The revered rapper’s comments came while sharing his take on the most recent Billboard’s ‘greatest rappers of all time’ list. While others believe Drake did not deserve a spot on the list, Okyeame Kwame thinks otherwise, stressing that it is even more difficult to possess a melodic rap style.
He explained saying;
“In rap music, what we sort of call melody is a cadence. The more melody you put in rap, the more difficult it is. Putting melody in rap means the rap music is going to sit with the chord, sit in time and be in key, so melodic rap is more difficult than regular [rhythmic] speeches”.
Okyeame Kwame
Okyeame Kwame insinuates that Drake deserves a spot in the recently released greatest rappers of the all-time list due to his hard work. He thus cited melodic rap as an ingredient for commercial success, advising rappers to tap into it.
The rap doctor opined;
“Let me use a classic example like Sarkodie. When Sarkodie started rapping, we all enjoyed what he was doing, but it was when he started adding melodies to it, then it became a national success”.
Okyeame Kwame
According to him, it is not advisable to ‘water down melodic rap because that is the future of rap’.
He further buttressed his point;
“People screaming at us on records isn’t sexy anymore. People want to hear some melody so that even if they don’t understand what you’re saying, there’s a certain symbiotic connection between the artiste and the audience”.
Okyeame Kwame
Okyeame Kwame, himself, has been named in three-time Grammy Nominee Rocky Dawuni’s top 5 best rappers list. Rocky appeared in an interview, where he opined on a lot of industry-related issues, including advising rappers to take melodic rap a bit more seriously.
I would’ve worn Kente to Grammys
Artiste Okyeame Kwame has spoken about how he would have appeared at the 65th Grammy Awards if he was invited.
He told in an interview that if he attended the event, he would have put on a kente cloth.
He said;
“I would have gone in my kente, in my ‘ahenema’, with my beads all around, and get like a boom box, a boom player and be playing ‘adowa’. Since I cannot go with a whole ensemble, I would have a whole boom box following me, and then I would go in my regal kente and gold everywhere and it would have been very difficult for anyone to steal the shine”.
Okyeame Kwame
Expressing his joy for the artists that were invited to the Grammy event, he said he would gleefully have accepted the same offer it came his way.
“I thought it was an amazing opportunity because if I had the opportunity to go to the Grammys I would jump on the next flight to go and see all those amazing artists that I look up to and seize the opportunity to try and see if I can get a telephone number or two, so I can get some features and take pictures and take pictures for my social media and connect; find management and find plugs, and try and see if I can get a real connection with someone that can take my music to the next level”.
Okyeame Kwame
Okyeame Kwame is not only known for his exquisite fashion sense; he has deliberated to set an agenda to promote ‘Made in Ghana’ products, a reason he released the ‘Made in Ghana’ album to set the tone for the cause.
He usually appears in clothes that are either fully Ghanaian or have Ghanaian fabric, patterns, and motifs embroidered in them.
The 65th Grammy Awards which was held at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on February 5, 2023, had in attendance some Ghanaian artists like Edem, KiDi, and Stonebwoy.
Even though they were not nominees like Ghana’s Rocky Dawuni and Guiltybeatz, they were given the invitation to attend the event courtesy of the Founder of GUBA Enterprise, Lady Dentaa Amoateng MBE.
According to Dentaa, she requested to invite some Ghanaian artists to the program after selling the idea of her African Nominees Brunch to the CEO of the Recording Academy of the Grammy Awards, Harvey Mason Jr.
She has said that she looks forward to inviting more people to the subsequent editions of the Grammy Awards.
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