The Artist Spotlight: KINPEE

Mr. Blue, Mr. Green, Massa Red, Dear Music fan, and lover – This is Cyan Music; take a seat and breathe …

Yes, yes, yes! With our first anniversary approaching, there were a few surprises we had to plan for you guys, and we’re happy to count this as one. We’ll be starting a new series on the blog where we feature Artists and get a little personal with them, and share their music with you guys. So without further ado, let’s jump into the very first one. We feature Kinpee on this!

Kinpee (b. 1991)

“To bring out a positive change in society with my art. Inspiring people in my little way to always keep going and never give up on their dreams and passions, no matter how impossible they may seem. And at the end, to present joy and peace through this colorful piece of art called music.” 

Those statements represent the Hip-Hop, Rap head, and lyrical genius, Kinpee. Kinpee, for those of you who don’t know, is a rap artist born and bred in the streets of Kumasi. He has been on the rap scene since his high school days at Presbyterian Boys’ Secondary School and came into his own when he started performing live and releasing bodies of work on the stages of KNUST. Part of the Moonlight Cafe crew that stormed the yard in their era. He has progressed and matured with his craft and is up there with the ones who hold the mic. He has gone by many pseudonyms in his career as a rap artist. Some names are The Machine and, more recently, Oseikrom Aberanteɛ. Today we dive into the world of the rapper who plies his trade in Accra with a job in the energy sector whilst maintaining the aura of an insane rapper. 

So, how did this whole journey begin? What’s the genesis of this scripture being written?

“I started doing music when I was 13. Before that, they knew me for being a big rap fan. I could rap verses from so many hip hop songs, and so I became known in my junior high for being able to rap. At 13, a friend (A&Drey) and I tried writing our stuff, so we formed a group called The KnB.” 

Oseikrom Aberanteɛ

And that was a perpetual intro to welcoming greatness 101, as Kinpee himself put it on one of his previous records titled FLG (Feeling Like Greatness). Touching on the past and what happened in the historic parts of the journey of this talent. 

There was a time where The Machine dominated as your alter ego in music. How did that come about? What was the driving force behind it all? 

“The Machine came about as a coping mechanism. The idea was to use The Machine to say things that I wouldn’t be able to say on a normal day. Also, as a growing boy, society expected me to not be weak or emotional. Hence, I wanted to not be weakened by emotions. I wanted to be like a machine.”

That’s quite a lesson on using alter egos. Coping mechanisms. Surreal. The Machine was responsible for 3 records that Kinpee put out.

• 

  Metaphorical Insanity

• 

  Invasion of the Machine

• 

  Kinsanity

There was the debut tape Metaphorical Insanity, the sophomore album which was dubbed Invasion of the Machine (IOTM), and the last to complete the trinity, Kinsanity. The diversity that The Machine used in these 3 albums were cutting edge and damn near-futuristic. There were spoken word artists making appearances, features from other talented lyricists and vocalists who charmed on their deliveries on records. 

The intriguing question: is the Machine still alive?

“The Machine has taken backstage, and now Oseikrom Abranteɛ is running the show. This new chapter is about an older and more mature person who wants to talk about things affecting the daily lives of young adults, including myself. And not just young adults, but Ghana as a whole. Highlighting problems and proposing solutions.”

Kinpee’s alter ego journey continues as he has successfully evolved from being just The Machine to becoming the more mature Oseikrom Abranteɛ who is ready to delve into life’s issues and the motions that the youth and people go through. Although this may feel like a new chapter, the previous years have only helped establish Kinpee’s dominance in the rap game as he’s well respected for the approach to his craft and his personality. 

He has dropped a few records in recent times. There has been the Duppy Freestyle, Bring it Back, 100 till Asieyɛ, and the latest, So Kumasi. 

• 

  Oseikrom Aberanteɛ Freestyle

• 

  Bring it Back

The big question: is anything on the way? 

I am currently working on an EP titled Oseikrom Abranteɛ to the World, and a few videos.

And there you have it, folks! We are expecting an EP from the Oseikrom Abranteɛ, and if you have enjoyed the singles he’s dished out so far, you know we are in for something impressive. 

Keep up with Kinpee’s releases on the following platforms: 

Soundcloud: Kinpee 

Twitter: @_urBoiKinpee

YouTube: Kinpee

Kwaw Kese’s Victory: Album Review

Mr. Blue, Mr. Green, Massa Red, Dear Music fan, and lover – This is Cyan Music; take a seat and breathe …

We are keeping it real and keeping it moving as another review comes your way. Today we look at the one and only, Kwaw Kese AKA “Fa Wo nsa bɔ wo tirim na ka sɛ Abɔdam!” as he dropped a full-length album titled Victory. The album was teased with the single “Trap House” mainly and took some time before they released it last month. Emmanuel Kofi Botchwey dropped this album on the 28th of August, with 10 records on the full-length record, with features from Stonebwoy, Kwesi Arthur, Quamina MP, Sarkodie, Medikal with the list going on. The album runs a little over 30 minutes.

Personal sentiments, Content and Lyricism, Vocals and Production in no particular order …

The mad time entertainment founder is slowly but surely shedding off the “Abɔdam” persona in his music. Partly because of going through adversities like getting a divorce, going to prison, and the death of his father as detailed on the title track victory. The song is a gospel song, plain. From the choral chants of “Onyame”, laced into the song, and Kwaw Kese’s expression of gratitude to God for his life and divine endowment materialistically, “me Gucci down ɛna me hilltop.”

On Victory, Emmanuel Kofi Botway dips his toes into multiple genres from Hip-Hop to Afro-pop to Reggae. This formula is relatively commonplace in Ghanaian albums as it increases streams and placates multiple customers. For Kwaw, it only exposes how painfully limited his range is as a rapper. On “Mente Mpo” where he tries his hands at Afro-pop, it’s the strength of Mugeez’s feature that carries the song. Verses from Sarkodie and Medikal inject life into “Dondo” and the album. Kwaw Kese is at his best here, rapping over 808s, horns, and some synths engineered into a traditional rhythmic Adowa pattern. “Love and Affection” has a production where tone choices do not mesh and performances from Black Prophet and Kwaw Kese that make for a forgettable dancehall song.

The project continues the downward spiral with “Trap House”, a single released before this album. The song was not made any better with the addition of a patois verse by Rygin King. Kwaw Kese delivers a lackluster hook over an equally dull Afro-pop beat, and Kwesi Arthur’s star power is not enough to intrigue even the most attentive of fans or lure the most gullible to the trap house he is rambling about.

On the closing track Bottles, Kwaw seems to go ahead of himself and envision a concert where people repeat “bottles” at the end of every bar, and that’s about the entire appeal of the song. The song is phoned in as he, at a point, rhymes “bottles” with “sister Akos w’ayɛ ama me de atwɛl adane wo tottle” just because… Let us just end it here.

Concluding …

Though Kwaw Kese’s intention on Victory was to celebrate his success that came despite unprecedented adversity, it is undercut by his clumsy performance and uninteresting composition. The production is in large parts as disjointed as Kwaw Kese’s performance on the album. We cannot say anymore than this.

The Signature Sign Off …

Big thanks to Mr. Blue and Massa Red for their input and general insight and much appreciation to you, our reader. What do you think of the album? What do you think of this review? Leave a comment and let us know your thoughts. Cyan Music, Music Review corner.

Kwesi Arthur’s This is not the Tape, Sorry 4 the Wait II: Extended Play Review

Mr. Blue, Mr. Green, Massa Red, Dear Music fan, and lover – This is Cyan Music; take a seat and breathe …

The reigning VGMA rapper of the year, Son of Jacob, Kwesi Arthur, blessed his fans finally with some music in anticipation of his inbound project. Following the pattern he created, this is the sequel to This is Not the Tape, Sorry 4 the Wait, which came out before he released his LFNK II: Home Run. He dropped it on the 1st of September, and it has 3 tracks with a run time of almost 8 minutes in total. Let’s jump right in.

Personal sentiments, Content and Lyricism, Vocals and Production in no particular order …

So going into this tape, we had high expectations, and we can agree that those expectations were met. Live from 233 was the opener, and it kicked off the project nicely with a fusion of a beat similar to what the UK Rap/Grime artists thrive. It has a natural bop, and the instrumental, the guitar, is enjoyable. The hook? Perfect. It captures the direction he was going in, talking about love songs being too much in the beginning and then dropping something in the bracket of a soft drill song. Jehovah follows suit, delivering a very dope hook. Jehovah may have been a bit off the pace, but it still carries the listener through. Sarkodie’s feature was nothing to be excited about, to be honest. Turn on the lights sounds like an attempt to make a song out of the phrase. That doesn’t mean it’s an awful song. It just means it felt generic and didn’t close the project in a way we expected.

Concluding …

How do we conclude this? Kwesi Arthur’s fiery streak of making delightful music continues. Whatever project is on the way is going to be all flames, and we are here for it.

The Signature Sign Off …

Big thanks to Mr. Blue and Massa Red for their input and general insight and much appreciation to you, our reader. What do you think of the album? What do you think of this review? Leave a comment and let us know your thoughts. Cyan Music, Music Review corner.

Joey B’s Lava Feels: Compilation Review

Mr. Blue, Mr. Green, Massa Red, Dear Music fan, and lover – This is Cyan Music; do take a seat, and breathe…

We’re here with the review vibes on our side and today we take a look at Joey B’s ‘Lava Feels’ record that came out this month. Darryl Paa Kwesi Bannerman-Martin, icon, fashionista, model, singer, songwriter, and rapper has been a phenomenon since his Tonga single hit the streets. He has indeed built a reputation for himself in the industry and he’s pushed music to far heights with his experimental approach to it. Joey is an influencer and it shows because a lot of new artists with similar styles have been able to step into the limelight because of what he’s been able to achieve. Like every artist, he has his scars from battling the music scene here but it hasn’t stopped him at all. Joey’s experimental nature is what has pushed him to be where he is. Always looking to try something new and flawlessly execute it after many errors. He’s come a long way and we give him props for that. Lava Feels is a 9 track album with a run time reaching 25 minutes. It features popular artists like Stonebwoy, M3nsa, Ko-Jo Cue, Pappy Kojo, E.L, Bosom P-Yung, RJZ, Odunsi, and Sauti. Quite the list for dope guest artists. Well, let’s get into it and see what we have here.  

Personal sentiments, Content and Lyricism, Vocals and Production in no Particular order…

Before anything, we have to address the album art because.. we don’t know what was happening. It looked more like a PlayStation 1 action game rather than an album art. Red had this to say:

Sigh, to begin with, I’m very disappointed in Joey for coming out with such lazy work with regards to his cover art for this project. Little or no at effort at all was put into it.
It looks like the designer ripped a cool picture of lava and found a cool font and just put them
together. Well, to give him the benefit of the doubt I guess this quality of cover art was produced
because of the type of project Joey put out, it is just a compilation. But regardless a little effort
could have been put into producing cool cover art for the project

– Massa Red on the Cover Art of Lava Feels

The album starts with the album title, ‘Lava Feels’. The sound Joey B has adopted and has been experimenting with is growing with time and this album feels like something he’s using to show us how much progress he’s made. Lava feels provides this smooth, easy on the ears sounding instrumental with a very laid back delivery from the artist. You can tell he’s in his zone with this record and it’s a classic opener for the album. Then comes ‘La Bamba’. Honestly sick of hearing lines about time, ‘Rolex’, and ‘Hublot’. It’s getting really old. This song is also a very laid back record. Sark’s delivery was okay. No weird lines but no ‘wow’ factor about it. ‘Silicon Valley’ with P-Yung. I don’t care what anyone says, that hook was trash. It was clumsy, goofy, and lazy to be honest. There was so much more that could have been done and the concept could have been worked on to make it’s delivery better. And the ending to the song was, well, it was Joey B. Dunno what to say about it. ‘Paa Kwesi’ features RJZ of La Meme Gang fame and Joey B starts the song paying respects to legend Daddy Lumba, and you can detect the Lumba feel and sound in the record with the approach to the vocals and lyrics. The hook is pretty catchy as well. A good record overall. ‘‘Over You’ was also a decent record. ‘Affection’ sees Stonebwoy brings a livelier vibe to the record as the previous ones have followed a certain pattern so far. Stonebwoy did justice to his feature and it’s an enjoyable song. Now ‘Far Away’. That record will probably not get the props it deserves. 

Blue had this to say about that particular record:

‘Mensah had the best verse on the album. Period.’ 

The song in itself is perfect, vocally, sonically and it does justice enough to prove Joey’s mettle as a top artist. Because the song doesn’t even sound Ghanaian, and that’s how fresh the sound is. This song undoubtedly opened up the path for ‘Hard Knocks’ with Ko-Jo Cue to settle into the album. Without the other, just one of the tracks would have felt out of place a bit. Joey’s delivery on this record too was flawless and the feature only served to complement a masterpiece. The vocals on this record were also good. The outro to this album was classic and pretty upbeat. All artists delivered the goods and signed off on the album decently. The instrumental was unconventional but it still worked out in the end and that’s what matters. 

Concluding… 

This compilation had its flaws but still came out okay with a lot of very very classic records, a few hitches here and there but all in all an interesting record from Joey B.

The Signature Sign Off…

Big thanks to Mr. Blue and Massa Red for their input and general insight and much appreciation to you, our reader. What do you think of the album? What do you think of this review? Leave a comment and let us know your thoughts. This has been Cyan Music, Music Review corner.

Bryan The Mensah’s I Don’t Feel Like Going Outside : Extended Play Review

Mr. Blue, Mr. Green, Massa Red, Dear Music fan, and lover – This is Cyan Music; do take a seat, and breathe…

2020! And we have to say we are happy with the music scene so far. From the records that have been released, especially in the Hip Hop/Rap scene, to the award shows in the Grammys and the Brit Awards, it’s been phenomenal and we’re glad a lot of artists who have blessed us with good music have got the recognition they deserve. Here in our part of the world, there’s not been so much activity when it comes to music, as most releases have been singles and not so many projects; so when we saw this tape released, we knew we had our first review for the year. Bryan The Mensah, a native Ghanaian rapper and producer who has gathered notable clout since the release of his projects ‘Friends With The Sun’ EP and ‘Wildlife’ is at it again. He came through with this new EP titled ‘I Don’t Want to go Outside’. The 4 – track EP runs a full length of almost 12 minutes and features Kiddfresh and Tulenkey. So without wasting time, let’s get into it. 

Personal sentiments, Content and Lyricism, Vocals and Production in no Particular order…

So the most appreciable thing about this whole project aside the fact that Bryan kept it short is the production. It was notable. The production on the records here is very very refined as compared to his previous projects which had more chaotic elements to them. The first issue we had however with the first song, unfortunately, was the sound bite concept included in the song. We understand that artists are now open to including narratives, or recordings, or even live interviews on their projects and songs, and that’s good. It’s nice to see it. But the problem here was the sound bite was too much, too much, it felt more than the song itself. The effect? It made the song barely skeletal even though it was a decent one. And that’s the anthem for the project; decent songs. Tulenkey’s verse was good, well written and delivered without a hitch. There weren’t a lot of excitable moments to jump about and the project maintained this straight run of just decent songs. But maybe that’s why the record carries the title it does, because if you don’t feel like going outside, you’re saying you want to be in your safe zone, and I think for most of the records, Bryan played it safe. However .. lyricism and singing. Blue had this to say:

‘the singing has improved especially on the opening track. He’s pretty ambitious with the delivery although he doesn’t have the requisite skill to back it.’

– Blue on the lyricism and vocals on this project

Concluding… 

They aren’t bad songs, they are decent, listenable. It’s not a bad EP, it’s just okay. There’s not a lot to say about it.

The Signature Sign Off…

Big thanks to Blue for his input and general insight and much appreciation to you, our reader. What do you think of the EP? What do you think of this review? Leave a comment and let us know your thoughts. This has been Cyan Music, Music Review corner.