GIVE SARKODIE A BREAK !!!

Sarkodie is one hapless chap in Ghanaian show business. This guy has won several awards on the local stage, annexed international awards, mounted the stage with legends like Chuck D of Public Enemy fame, achieved inestimable commercial success and has been featured predominantly in the international media.

For the propagation of Ghana Hip hop on the international platform, he ought to be a recipient of the ‘Order of the Volta’– deservedly, yet, the level of backlash he receives for the little perceived gaffes he commits is incredible. Video: Sarkodie, Talib Kweli & more at BET Hiphop Awards 2012 cypher

His latest howler: In a BET cypher presentation together with hip-hop great Talib Kweli and others, Sarkodie spewed out some verse that most Ghanaians deem as weak, languid and inane.

It is upending for me to realize that, in spite of all the enviable feats Sarkodie has been chalking up, he attains little praise, commendation and encouragement but for the petty and harmless blunders – he is heavily lampooned and lambasted.

First, it was the so-called Atta-Mills popularity contest where the multiple-award winning artiste was said to have gloated on record that he was more popular than the late President Atta Mills.

From social media to newspaper reportage to radio and television shows, Sarkodie was openly chastised for the infamous comparison, so much so that, he had to come out and defend the lyrics.

There came the critically-acclaimed BET award honour where he encrypted his name inthe history book as the first Ghanaian to win the award after Kojo Antwi and D-Black set the pace with nomination nods.

Even with such a gigantic achievement, naysayers still punched holes in the win – arguing and pontificating that he was not given the award on-stage, meaning the award was debasing and an affront to the artiste and the continent as a whole. Absolute malarkey!

For the second time, Sarkodie made an appearance on the cypher but this time, as an acclaimed rapper having to prove that he is what he claims to be, as one of the best rappers in Africa and to lay credence to his winning of the BET award.

“Many rappers in Africa making a perfect meal but I am the missing ingredient, call me the Irish Cream” was the line Sarkodie expressed in his cipher presentation that has got many music-loving Ghanaians ‘blasting’ him left, right, and center. Was it really a bad line that warrants all
the castigations and mockery?

In 2010, Sarkodie set the record to become the first debutant to garner the most nominations in the Ghana Music Awards. In the same year, he was the first debutant to win the most awards and the first debutant to grab the topmost honour. In 2012, he set another record in being the first artiste to get two songs nominated in one category. In the same year, he has won a BET award, gets nominated for the MOBO Award as well as the Europe MTV Award – a feat never made by any artiste in Ghana, ever. What else do we want him to do to attract the maximum accolades?

Go to heaven, win a rap battle with the angels and come to earth with an award?

Winning a BET Award is such a big deal, whether you get it off-stage or on-stage and instead of us to have laid the red carpet for him at the airport; we were unnecessarily busy questioning why he was given the award off-stage. Nigerians have won the award severally in 2Face, D’Banj and Wizkid and their people offer the necessary recognition to these hardworking artistes and bask in the glory of having to say that their country is on top of African show business.

On the controversial BET cipher line: one should know that rappers have a way with theirwordplay, some put some consciousness to it, other inject humour whiles others lace it with wit – and it takes the listener to possess the same kind of attributes to grasp it.

Let’s even assume Sarkodie misfired with his line, which is not new and not criminal. A lot of internationally-acclaimed and Grammy-winning rappers have put out lines in platinum-selling songs that make little sense. Check this out:

On DJ Khaled’s “Welcome To My Hood-remix”, Wacka Flacka makes no sense with his line, “First rule to put t watches on the tv/everyday it’s a party on Grove Street,” Roc-Nation recording artiste Tinie Tempah confuses many with this line in his ‘Till I’m Gone’ song, “You don’t need a thermometer to tell you who’s the hottest IP/DIP, do muthafu**, you are not in.”

What about Drake in ‘Lighters-Up’ featuring Jay-Z: “Getting busy ‘cause I’m a star, no spangled banner.” Pure hogwash! But wait, there’s more. One of the biggest stars in hip-hop is Nas, and in his ‘Land of Promise’ song, he rhymes, “My synopsis is catastrophic/if satellites is causing earthquake, will we survive it?” Satellites causing earthquakes is just not on.

There are countless of rappers who have faltered in their delivery sometime in their career, yet, nobody takes them to the cleaners.

It is no fault of Sarkodie that he falls into an era of rappers who know little and pay little attention to the rhyme book and its essence in hip-hop. The rhyme book is that book, that note pad, that piece of paper that represents the rappers’ arsenal where he writes down witty, thought-provoking and insightful lyrics. The act of thinking-through and putting down words is gradually sliding down irrelevance, all because of changing attitudes.

In the new era, more and more rappers compose rhymes in their heads, scribble down lyrics on their smart phone, and computers. Others just get influenced by the production; they hear the beat, enter the booth and ‘spit’ out rhymes based on the patterns and rolls of the beat.

The only rappers to have mastered the act of coining sensible rhymes in their heads in the world of hip-hop are Notorious B.I.G and Jay-Z, and if you don’t have the skill to tow that line, then you only blurt out gibberish.

My advice to Sarkodie is this: He should first of all realize that he’s a star, and stars get talked about –they are maligned and mocked but it does not mean that he should always come out and defend his line, statement or verse anytime some people raise issues.

No other Ghanaian artistes’ lyrics have been scrutinized more than Daddy Lumba but hardly do you get him coming out to defend every line and song. Put a touch of intrigue on the rhyme or song, let the listeners banter and interpret it how they want, and you only come out to defend when it is, and I mean, when it is very necessary.

He should also realize that, as he sky-rockets on the ladder of fame and critical-acclaim, his rhyming skills will always come under the magnifying glass which means, he must take the craft very seriously.

In one of his numerous interviews on the success of ‘U Go Kill Me’, Sarkodie professed that he never prepared the lyrics to the song - he just entered the studio, heard the beat and put out the lyrics. Once you cultivate the habit of always coining words in your head, you tend to make mistakes and when the mistakes become recurring in your songs, critics start questioning your rhyming skills.

Once you are the best rapper in Ghana, the best artiste in Africa in the eyes of BET, which somehow makes you the best rapper in Africa - people will pay rapt attention to whatever you put out, even when you are singing in the shower, they would want to know if you are doing it right.

Another advice is this; Sarkodie should stick with the Twi rap and leave the English to those who are very good at it. He has not minced words in declaring that he wants to be ‘King’ of Twi rap, and wants to be known across the world for his rhyming in Twi, so why tinker with English?

In as much as I have no misgiving about his BET cipher line, I believe he should start putting some serious touch to his rhyming skills especially when he wants to be regarded in the same light of hip-hop rhyme kings like Nas, Rakim and Eminem and he should also stick to Twi.

Maybe, going to the Twi rhyme book won’t be such a bad idea.

BY: Arnold Asamoah-Baidoo