By Nana Kofi Hammah
Kwame Nsiah Apau, popularly known by his stage name as Okyeame Kwame and nicknamed Rap Doctor is a Ghanaian Musician, Creative Director and Entrepreneur. He is without a doubt a brand who has used his personality to champion the ideologies of promoting everything made in Ghana and his influence in the Ghana music industry cannot be understated.
His very recent album “I’m made in Ghana”, was served to listeners with a blend of live traditional instruments shakers, talking drums, flute, xylophone, trumpets etc. Undeniably, his ability to pen down lyrics which resonates well with all ages in Ghana, earned him to win Songwriter of the Year at the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMA) with the song “Faithful” in 2012. An exceptional Artiste who brings to bear the Ghanaian culture with adages and exhibits the traditional symbols in almost all his music videos.
Despite the foundation of the genre he associates with is “hip-hop” and its mostly in English, the Rap Doctor has been able to defy all odds and represented “hip-life”, the Ghanaian version of “hip-hop”, by being consistent with rapping and singing in the Twi language and still making enormous impact.
Okyeame Kwame over the years has managed to carve a niche of being a real African and a true Ghanaian and that can’t be said, without appreciating his fashion sense. which in entirety makes him look made in Ghana indeed. His love for representing in traditional clothing’s is such an admiration. and the ability to represent other cultures other than his Ashanti style of dressing is a complement to the brand O.K who has survived and thrived as a solo artiste after a break away from his initial group mate Okyeame Kofi.
In the heritage month, which is the month of March where the promotion of Ghanaian heritage is highlighted, O.K visited the GTV Breakfast Show with a remarkable outfit, in a regalia representing the Northern part of Ghana.
Speaking with Valarie on the entertainment segment of the BFS, the “YEKOO” hitmaker recounted what has kept him active in the music industry especially when most of his contemporaries has long fallen off.
“I think as an Artiste you draw your ethos from a place, and for me it’s the Culture. I am so connected to my heritage, history and my culture and that I do not do anything without drawing from that rich well” he proudly said…
Okyeame Kwame believes it’s worth it when an artiste can be guided by his/ her own history, and that he, sets himself to reflect on questions like how can I repackage the adinkra symbols, in my music videos? how can I repackage adages in my songs? So as to redefine and make it look current.
“So I go back: I look at it, and then I see what I can do to improve it”. He noted.
“If I have been able to stay relevant over the years, I think it’s because I draw from the rich well of culture. And I strongly believe that whether Knowingly or unknowingly most artiste draw from same source of tradition excerpt very few people are able to project and maintain it” he said.
O.K however has a word of advice for the entire country on how to promote Ghanaian tourism. he reiterated that Ghanaians must first look from within and hypothetically assume Ghana was the only country left in the world. So we can begin to do things for ourselves.
“I think if we produce our own, promote, protect and project everything made in Ghana, it will go a long way to help the country avoid over-dependence on imports of foreign materials and that will in effect stabilize the cedi from depreciating against the U.S dollars”. He further noted that, “As a people, we must collectively find ways to make young people in the country express themselves as Ghanaians because it is the only way they can grow to maintain what our forefathers left for us”.
In the music space, upcoming artistes can fall on the expertise and directions of their forebears like Dr. Paabobo, Kojo Antwi, Daddy Lumba and the likes, it will help shape the Ghanaian music industry for the better and also preserve our identity as a people, especially in this age where we chasing after Nigerians for who owns Afrobeat, which should not have been the case if as a people we kept faith with Highlife which is even fundamental in all these Afrobeat sounds.