Ghana's top music personalities
Check out the artists and music industry personalities included in the Ghana Black Stars Network's list of Top 50 Ghanaians.
To celebrate the achievements of Ghanaians, and as part of Ghana’s 50th anniversary, the Ghana Black Stars Network has compiled a Top 50 of Ghanaian personalities from every field.
At number 1 is Kwame Nkrumah , the founder and first president of the modern Ghanaian state and one of the most influential Pan-Africanists of the 20th century. Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is at number 3, while Ekow Eshun , Artistic Director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts is at 9, Chelsea footballer Michael Essien at 13 and fashion designer Ozwald Boateng at 29. Amongst the chosen 50 are also various music and music industry personalities.
Find out more about these below and then make sure to let us have your thoughts using the comments section. Who do you reckon are Ghana’s top music personalities?
Kanya King
(no. 17) was born in London to a labourer of Ghanaian descent and a nurse of Irish descent. She studied English and Drama at Goldsmith's College in London and afterwards obtained a position with Carlton Television as a senior researcher where she was a founding member and part of the production team on the Chrystal Rose Show. In January 1996 she began to develop the successful
Music Of Black Origin (MOBO) awards show
and ended up financing the first event by re-mortgaging her house. It was only when she obtained a television slot a few weeks before the event that she realised that it was all becoming real. The first MOBO Awards were held at the New Connaught Rooms in London. The MOBO Awards Show in September 2006 was broadcast live on BBC3 and repeated two days later on BBC1. The show reached 250 million people in 57 countries. In 1999 she was awarded a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). Other awards include an Honorary Fellowship of London University, and an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Business Administration at the London Metropolitan University (December 2006). As one of the most influential women in the music industry, Ms. King is frequently asked to deliver public speeches at all kinds of events.
Oxford-educated, trained in finance and management,
Tony Tagoe
(no. 19) is also one of the directors and head of artist management at
Deal Real
. Deal Real opened in 2002 at its Carnaby Street location. The shop specialises in bringing hip hop music and its surrounding culture to the UK market. On sale you will find US imports, limited-edition UK releases, mix CDs, clothing, DVDs, magazines and Deal Real merchandise. Tony has established good working relationships and friendships with UK stars such as Amy Winehouse, TY and Estelle. He also collaborates at an international level, with some European but mainly US artists, such as Kanye West, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Common, Dead Prez and Mark Ronson. The Evening Standard newspaper dubbed Deal real as ‘the record shop that made Carnaby Street hip again!’
Derek Andrew Safo, better known as Sway (no. 20), is an English hip hop rapper and producer born in 1982 in Hornsey, North London, of Ghanaian origins. 2004 saw Sway writing and recording at a frantic pace, devising a masterplan for success, and setting up his own a totally self-run production company and label Dcypha which would be the independent outlet for Sway’s first trilogy of releases ‘This Is My Promo, Volume 1’, ‘This Is My Promo, Volume 2’, and ‘This Is My Demo’. Sway’s cheeky chappie chat-up lines shone through on Terri Walker’s ‘Whoopsie Daisy’; he rode roughshod on a verse in Taz’s ‘Cowboy Film’ remix; and cash-backed in style with the Mitchell Brothers and Mike Skinner on ‘Harvey Nicks’. Sway has also been showered by awards such as ‘Best UK Hip Hop act’ at the Hip Hop Awards of US TV network Black Entertainment Television, ‘Best Newcomer’ at the Urban Music Awards, ‘Best of British’ from the Channel U Awards, and probably, most surprisingly ‘Best Hip-Hop Artist’ at the MOBOs 2005 despite at the time being unsigned, not having released an album, and being up against rap heavyweights 50 Cent and The Game.
Ras Kwame
(no. 22) started in the music industry as a club DJ playing hip hop, R’n’B and reggae in the early nineties. Ras Kwame joined BBC 1Xtra at the launch in 2002 with the 100% Homegrown show which is dedicated to the sound of UK black music and has provided a live platform for talent and given major support to new acts like Lethal B, Skinnyman and Estelle. In 2004 Kwame won Best Radio DJ at the Urban Music Awards and started a new music show called Showtime on digital TV’s Channel U. Check out this BBC Radio photo gallery of Ras Kwame in Ghana .
Dylan Mills, known professionally as
Dizzee Rascal
(no. 24), is a London-based MC/rapper and producer. He is formerly a Roll Deep crew member, who emerged from the UK Garage music scene. Dizzee began MCing on pirate radio and at raves at 15. Rascal grew up in the East End of London in an council estate in Bow, raised by his single mother. His music is a blend of garage MCing, conventional rap, grime and ragga, with extremely eclectic samples and styles. Dizzee Rascal has had international endorsements deals with urban brand Ecko and designed his own shoe with Nike. Dizzee has also had the chance to work with cross-genre artist Beck on a remix of the song ‘Hell Yes’. After winning a Sidewinder award for 'best newcomer MC' in 2002, his album Boy in Da Corner was released to universal critical acclaim in August 2003 and it was awarded the prestigious Mercury Music Prize for the best album of 2003. He was simultaneously the first rapper and youngest person (at 19) to do so. In 2004, Dizzee Rascal won The NME award for Innovation.
The pioneer of Hiplife in Ghana,
Reggie Rockstone
(no. 26) has taken Ghanaian music from a local based art and made it a global phenomenon. He opened doors for many artists in the genre of hiplife and will forever remain the best African rapper and most importantly the originator of hiplife.
Formed in London in 1969 by three Ghanaian and three Caribbean musicians,
Osibisa
(no. 27) played a central role in developing an awareness of African music amongst European and North American audiences in the 70s. Osibisa describe themselves as the godfathers of world music, claiming to have paved the way for more famous musicians like Bob Marley, who became popular in the mid70s. Their music is described as a fusion of African, Caribbean, jazz, rock, Latin and R’n’B. Many of Osibisa's works are highly danceable. A fair comparison would be to Earth, Wind & Fire from the USA only with a “world” flair.
In an exciting career spanning over two decades
Kojo Antwi
(no. 28) has gone from bubbly vocalist through introspective songwriter and lead singer to consummate musician, arranger, producer and enigmatic performer. As a musical genius, Kojo Antwi, highlife’s bounty killer is described by many as Mr Experimenter. But if you know the man well enough and understand what drives him with his musical exploration, you would realise that far from experimenting, he is a visionary and knows exactly the direction he wants to take his music. Kojo’s first priority was to woo back the alienated youngsters whose departure had shrank the domestic market thereby threatening the livelihood of musicians.
Rhian Benson
(no. 30) was born Rhiannon Afua Benson in Ghana and grew up surrounded by music and musicians. Her mother, from Wales, is a singer, and her father, a native of Ghana , is a guitarist. Rhian's grandfather led an acclaimed big band in the 50s and 60s, her eldest uncle was a popular highlife singer and her youngest uncle a record producer. Home for Rhian was a place of music; her childhood was immersed in the sounds of Miles Davis, Earth Wind & Fire, Ella Fitzgerald and Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti among many others.
Mensa (no. 35) is a London-based Soul/Hip-hop producer, multi-instrumentalists, rapper and dj. His father, Ebo Ansah was a well-renowned actor (Love Brewed in an African Pot, Heritage Africa), guitarist (Osibisa) and lecturer whose contributions to African folklore music and culture are invaluable. Mensa used to play the piano in the church and was a member of the choir at a very early age. His first appearance was with Lifeline Family, a critically acclaimed but short-lived Hip-Life act from the late 90s. Mensa's style was so very different, his sound so very mature that he became an overnight sensation. Reggie Rockstone was one of the artists wanting to work with him. Mensa subsequently featured on and produces Reggie’s album Meka and then later the Last Show which sold in record numbers. After that Mensa went on to produce several other acts who have gone to dominate the Hip-Life charts. He has toured extensively in Europe, Asia, Africa and North America and is currently working on launching Daily Bassyks, an album about his everyday activities, in the UK and North America. He does the production for a lot of the underground Hip-hop, Soul and Breakbeat scene in the UK.
Kwame Kwaten (no. 44) is part of 90s soul/acid jazz group D-Influence which have now become one of very few British Grammy-nominated producers due to their work on Heather Smalls’ debut album. As it stands they are the only UK production team to produce/remix American hip-hop superstar Jay-Z (Wishing On A Star). Kwame is also the director and founder of the Urban Music Seminar and he has continued to work for Kids Company, the charity set up by Camilla Batmanghelidjh as a mentor.
The Ghana Black Stars Network (GBSN) is a consortium of four companies, Ment2Excel, PUSH, RougeNoir and The TLS Forum, all run by young professional British Ghanaians who have come together and created a portal for Ghanaians from all over the world to reconnect with Ghana. The mission of the network is to celebrate Ghana’s history, people and culture and to contribute positively to moving Ghana forward and to act as a network for Ghanaians and other communities from around the world to connect and learn about Ghana.