A brand new wave of inventive expertise is gripping Africa. One rising famous person is Michael Owusu Addo, higher generally known as Sarkodie. Professor Elikem Nutifafa Kuenyehia, an entrepreneurship guru and mentor to aspiring artists, profiles his rise and rags to riches story.
Tucked away on a meandering, unmotorable street off the Accra, Kumasi freeway at Mile 7 is a construction I’d be magnanimous in calling an uninhabitable shed. It defies creativeness to suppose anybody would reside right here.
But, 5 folks did precisely that, and hosted visiting family, a few of whom would keep for a number of days, making for a quite chaotic dwelling.
A flimsy partition divided the shed. In a single half, two adults and two teenage boys shared two skinny worn-out stained mattresses on the ground. Within the different half, seemingly a master suite of kinds, the ‘girl of the manor’ and a teenage boy shared one other mattress, barely thicker than the others, however simply as stained and worn out.
At daybreak, one of many teenage boys would emerge from this construction, carrying the one uniform he had, to traverse, on an empty abdomen, three kilometres of treacherous interconnecting highways to succeed in Achimota Preparatory, which doubled as a college and an escape from the abuse of the mean-spirited and cruel girl of the manor who paradoxically was an older cousin.
The extraordinarily malnourished boy was Michael Owusu Addo, higher identified at the moment by his stage title Sarkodie. Wanting again he tells me, ‘The very last thing I needed to listen to was the bell to go dwelling. Dwelling was a darkish place of abuse, ache and struggling with no peace.’ When his mother and father divorced, his father uprooted him from relative consolation, and dumped him on his cousin the place he survived on one meal a day – lunch, purchased with the measly sum he was given for varsity. Dinner was hardly ever an possibility, and breakfast was by no means an possibility. To this present day the idea of breakfast is alien to him.
Writing turned an outlet for his ache. A loner, he would spend hours on the ground filling his diary with uncooked feelings felt from his day-to-day actuality and imaginary conversations along with his mom. That diary would later encourage his music – lyrics for some songs got here proper off its pages. ‘It was the hardest interval of my life. However it additionally formed me to grow to be the particular person I’m at the moment’ he says, with out a hint of malice in the direction of his cousin.
Serendipity was to play an necessary half in his journey, when his mom, who had beforehand not identified his whereabouts, discovered him and moved him to reside together with her. The home in Tema was a stone’s throw from G7, a pub that hosted open mic periods.
By this time, Sarkodie had began to rap in his native Twi inspired by Obrafour, the primary musician he had seen carry out in Twi. However it was at G7 that he honed his expertise, usually risking his mom’s wrath and beating by staying out late at rap contests. He turned the undefeated champion of G7 and started to journey throughout Accra to take part in different rap battles, a lot of which he received.
After an introduction by his sister, Veronica, who he calls his largest supporter, Duncan Williams (Dr. Duncan), invited Sarkodie to carry out on Adom FM. The remainder is historical past. Listeners fell in love with him and his music, and he turned an everyday characteristic of the present. Dr Duncan was so impressed that he’d later signal Sarkodie below his label Duncwills.
In fast succession he produced a sequence of hits, and accolades quickly adopted. On the 2010 Ghana Music Awards he made historical past by profitable 5 awards together with ‘Discovery of the Yr’ and ‘Artiste of the Yr’. Worldwide recognition adopted – his second album ‘Rapperholic’ earned him a BET Award, the primary Ghanaian to win this prestigious award. He additionally turned the primary African to win BET’s Hip Hop Awards. The Guardian listed him as one of many high 5 African hip-hop acts. Channel O featured him on the checklist of high bankable African artists and in 2014 he received an MTV Africa Music Award.
At the moment he’s settled and appears again fondly at how a lot he’s achieved since these lengthy, solemn walks to highschool. As he says, he has a stupendous spouse and two cute kids, cash within the financial institution, an Instagram following of 5.3 million and a military of fanatical followers who name themselves Sark Nation. But Sarkodie is annoyed and stressed. Annoyed by the difficulties Ghanaian artists face, and stressed to see the narrative change to at least one the place gifted artists receive capital and different assist to succeed. After his success, his mission is to now concentrate on the success of others. Because of this he’s now spending extra time investing in and mentoring gifted aspiring artists.
After we meet, we’re sipping lattes at The Combine Design Hub in Osu, a good distance from Mile 7. Fifteen kilometres to be exact. Metaphorically, Sarkodie is as removed from Mile 7 as we’re. He’s even perhaps farther, due to his resilience, grit, sheer willpower, and dedication to his craft. By any measure, he’s emerged from the ashes of a life prior.
