You’ve Been Served.

It’s not everyday that you come across a young one with the mind of an oldie. We had a discussion with the King of Tea concerning music (as always) and his view of the current state of things. He shared his story and experiences that have brought him this far.

BRYAN THE MENSAH IS A COOL KID.

If you asked Bryan today how he’d describe himself, he’ll hit you with a statement like; “Okay. So my music is basically labelled contemporary.”

This is because he considers himself as a very current artiste who always has relevant issues to discuss or ideas to share. As a result, he allows himself to be carried away with the music and would not restrict himself to a particular genre like some other artistes. In his words; “Rather, I’m all about my message. So, to me, it doesn’t matter how I’m saying it. It’s just about what I have to say and that’s it. So contemporary is more suitable to define the kind of music I do. I make music to inspire, to teach and since I’m also a producer, every song I create is an opportunity to learn something new about music as a product. This is why I create.”

For Bryan, taking interest in music began at a very early age. He started recording and producing music back in primary school circa 2010. He recalls using his phone at the time to record himself rapping and thereafter, laying them over a couple of free beats found online. It was around that time that his second path as a producer was taken. “I guess that’s how I started learning how to produce because I was mixing those recordings by myself too. His name among the populous gradually became a household one with releases such as Wild Stereos in 2011, Jungle Fever in 2012 and Loud Silence in 2014. He firmly believes those tapes were key stepping-stones that helped define his craft and sound.

Just like most people, the early teen ages are the times that shape characters as young adults seek to discover themselves. Bryan, in this case was faced with insecurities mainly due to his weight. While growing up, he was ridiculed as a fat kid and in order to break out of that, he considered rap as a tactic.

“I chose to rap at first because I thought it was cool. At that time I felt like I needed to have something that made me cool, that way I didn’t have to even consider fitting in, because rap was going to make me cooler than everyone else.”

A lot has changed now and his view of things is much clearer and matured. He raps now because he’s realized he wants to share his experiences, perceptions and his culture with people. And considering how freely expressive rap is, it’s just made him feel better.

my mission is to make sure that out of all the bad, it’s not all bad. And people have to know that.

If you pay attention, you’d realize there are a lot of conscious storyboards in his sound. Also, his music receives a lot of influence from commercial genres like pop, trap, R&B and the sense of freedom and open mindedness from High Life as well as ‘not so commercial genres’ such as soul. When asked what inspires his need to use his music as a way to reach out, he said; “I read several articles about how music helps to shape one’s behaviour and I realized that a lot of the immorality, dishonesty, unfaithfulness, cruelty and ignorance that the world is facing right now is based on the kind of music that people listen to. Therefore, I decided simply not to be a part of it. Hence, the reason for the subject topics in my music, my mission is to make sure that out of all the bad, it’s not all bad. And people have to know that.”

Over the years, it has been proven that it is so easy to get lost in the sauce and lose sight of the relevant things that go on around the lives of artistes and entertainers. Staying woke is a common mantra among today’s youth. There is a current group of Africans doing amazing things with music. Bryan sees himself as a contributor to new sound and shows that he’s well aware of his surroundings.

He expressed his view on the current state of music in and around Africa while sharing his take on the entrepreneurial drive among the youth.

“Before, we used to have upcoming artistes just sit there, waiting for a mainstream artiste or some big organization to come and pick them up and invest in them. Now a lot of us have realized how much or even how much more we can do on our own. We have artistes dropping more music with more music videos, we have artistes organizing their own shows. We have artistes creating a whole lot of businesses from their music through selling merchandise and other products by virtue of the brand they’ve built.”

Bryan admitted that rap culture is shifting globally with minds like Kendrick, Cole and Chance leading a new wave of conscious rap, but only sees them as great sources of information and not exactly a source or point of direction that should solely lead upcoming artistes. He stands by this because he has such a huge feeling that there’s still so much left to discover and pioneer. As a result, he feels artistes should be more focused on creating their own direction because we’re all different people coming from different cultures and different environments. He continued saying, “There’s definitely a lot of those differences that we can put back into the music and create something unique instead of acting like they are the ones who have always set the trends so we should just keep it that way. We can do more. I know it.”

Brie Larson once said: “I love discussing social issues, but I’m not interested in scare tactics. I believe there is a way to bring awareness in tandem with forgiveness and love.”

Bryan shared his views on what music means to him, the role his music is intended to play in society and the challenges of making and promoting music in Africa.

I think we would be extremely sad and underdeveloped, ignorant people if we didn’t have music in our culture

“Music to me is a chance to say something that can have an impact on society so I’d want that something to be relevant. For the next generation in particular, I’d like to see them being inspired to recognize all their opportunities and take full advantage. In order to have more successful brands coming out onto the global scene from Africa. With hip-hop in particular, the genre is borrowed but the culture is not. We should have more of our individual African culture in our music and we’ll be just great. Collaborative work is not easy here in Africa because everyone else is trying to do their own thing and they don’t really care about helping out with works from others. They just want to blow up. So sometimes it’s hard to achieve certain sounds on your own. I think this problem exists because of our insecurities and lack of trust for one another. Cause one person might feel like he or she is either going to be taken advantage of or cheated at some point. This really affects the quality of our productions. It is a personal goal to have a social topic to discuss most of the time I make music. Music is very important to us as Africans because I feel like we patronize all kinds of music here way more than any other place in the world because it’s free. Or at least it seems to be for most people. I think we would be extremely sad and underdeveloped, ignorant people if we didn’t have music in our culture. As far as I’m concerned, music has taught me a lot about the practical aspects of life even before I began to experience them for myself. It’s such a huge informant. We really need music in our lives in order to grow. Music is a very powerful tool for social change.”

It’s never a Rain affair if we don’t delve into a little bit more than the norm. To further wrap things up, we asked Bryan to take us on the journey his mind has traveled recently. Mind you, the following might take away whatever hard guy street credit he has amassed. There’s truth in it, however.

Music has gotten so commercial that it is not even a personal expression anymore for some mainstream artistes. It’s just an opportunity to stay relevant.

“Lately I’ve been trying to understand why we have so many love songs as well as lust songs. It’s kind of alarming because it makes me feel like artistes around here feel limited in their creative processes and that can really destroy the birth of new sounds that we can all vibe to instead of doing the same thing over and over again till you retire as an O.G. I realized that sometimes the people really just want what they want but sometimes the artiste has to be the influence and not the other way around. The artiste has to give the people new things to appreciate. Because the people are not the ones doing the exploring, the experimentation and the production of the song. That is for the artiste or the producer to do. So the people don’t know what’s new. They only know what they’ve been given. The creatives in this case have to be the ones to determine the sound and not the people. Music has gotten so commercial that it is not even a personal expression anymore for some mainstream artistes. It’s just an opportunity to stay relevant. That shouldn’t be the case cos that is what promotes mediocrity and mediocrity is a waste of time.”

Intricate thoughts, if you ask me.

Experience Bryan the Mensah on his website, where he shares the stories behind his new EP Friends with the Sun, as well as merch and a short film coming soon.

BRYANTHEMENSAH.COM

“I’ve made my mistakes but I learned from em.

So I know just how much we all love a fair judgement.

But nobody dey owe you shele. You for earn loving.

The world is super cold with no polar bear hugging.

All we want is love and freedom from the fear coming.”

Listen to Bryan’s recent single, ‘Show you Signs’ below:

Explore More, Read more, Discover more music on harmattanrain.com

For some of us, we’re at the prime of our careers when we perform in the showers, or when we walk about our homes engaging in our daily routine. But not everyone is brought up with musical juice in and around them. At some point, it’s only right that genius grows on you. Adomaa is a classic act in this scenario.

It’s 11:30

I stand in wait at the Adjeman residence. A young woman gets out of her friend’s car heading straight for the front gate almost seemingly unnoticing me till I yelled her name. Frankly, I went in blind. I had heard her music over and over again and had a vague idea of how she looked like. She can’t be blamed for “almost seemingly un-noticing” me. Or I her. You decide. My first impression was a knockout. I recall joking about how she could legit pass for one of my friends. Do not be mistaken. You might think she walks around with a bodyguard. Her down to earth nature is something she embraces very well.

To prove her regular idiosyncrasy even further, I found it amusing just how she grumbled for not getting her fair share of waakye when we walked into the crib. You know it’s real when after a long day in town, you come back home to find your team face deep in their waakye dishes just to discover you weren’t in their plans when they went out buying. But then again, people of her status need no asking.

Creatives are usually not the norm. They don’t practice the norm and do not believe in the norm of things. With all this in mind, an unusual setting was premeditated for our hour-long Q&A session. Trust me when I tell you this; the power of an AUX cord should never be underestimated. It was calming how light the mood got when sounds of Lianne La Havas hit the speakers.

Until recently, music of the new age didn’t tickle her fancy. It truly is uncommon to come across any one from the 80s-90s era that isn’t amused by today’s trap world and electronic music. In Adomaa’s own words, “I vibe heavily with the old folks. My influence is drawn from the likes of Michael Buble, Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Corinne Bailey Rae and Amy Winehouse.” That’s an outstanding catalogue of musical gurus to draw inspiration from. Out of the lot she mentioned, I was surprised she passed up on Sade. You’d think Ms. Adu would make the cut for reasons such as her ethnicity and style of music. But no.

On to some more music.

Miles Davis once said “If you sacrifice your art because of some woman, or some man, or some colour, or for some wealth, you can’t be trusted.” There’s this general conclusion that artists sell themselves short in terms of family values and principles to attain their desired end. With that said, do you think that along the line you’ll have to bend to serve a more mainstream crowd?

Adomaa’s answer was – “No, not at all. I started out as a simpleton making the music I loved. Most of them covers by the way, but people got on with it as time passed, and I’ve slowly carved out a niche for myself. Thankfully, that crowd has increased day in day out.” (laughs)

I’ve always wondered what the true meanings of value and appreciation are. Obviously, there should be a general understanding of what these words mean. But to artists, I reckon it’s heartfelt. Be it on stage or in the DMs. For Adomaa, being an artist goes beyond life as an entertainer. It’s a position she has and one with which she intends on making positive impacts on the lives of her listeners. Adomaa was kind enough to share with me, what she referred to as “one of her most proud moments as an artist.” If you’re reading this, you probably have heard or will hear her 2015 single – Traffic Jam. It’s not too late.

Personally, I wish man never had to be in traffic. The honking of horns and amount of time spent in them makes it overly frustrating. That didn’t stop this creative. The song came about by literally being stuck in a traffic flow. No witty metaphor. No nifty business. A fan sent her a message of how puffed up he was when he found himself in the same setting only to have Adomaa’s Traffic Jam hit the radio. In his message, she could picture his hyped up self and instant reaction. In her own words, “knowing someone was vibing to my music for the intent behind it, brought me great joy.” There truly has to be a silver lining in every situation. Instead of complaining and looking side-eye at the world, she saw an opening for something everyone could relate to.

On behalf of all the fans who are enthusiastic about news on new music, I asked the question you’d probably want to ask.

‘Do you have plans for an album or project any time soon?’

She answered saying – “Yes, I do. The team and I are working on it. So God willing, this year. I won’t let you talk me into giving away any details apart from that.” (laughs)

“Afraba – The EP” was released earlier last year. It featured a number of artists and was what she described as a personal message concerning what was going on in her life and one she wanted to share with everyone. Adomaa might pull a Beyoncé on us but for now, visit her SoundCloud as the go-to spot for her songs.

It’s hard to imagine any celebrity as unsuccessful. In her own words, “she’s that fine line between blow-out star and underground artist.” She defined success as the point where she never has to introduce herself to anyone. I recall joking about how I had to explain and describe to my mum who and what Adomaa was. In agreement to our little joke, she nodded saying, “Yup! that’s how you know I haven’t reached the top yet” and let out a smile when ending that statement with “I’m comfortable.”

Now don’t get me wrong. This feature could’ve been titled differently – The story of the journalist turned professional singer or YouTube sensation turned blow-out songstress. She knew she could sing. Her family knew it. Her friends knew it. The difficult part was whether she’d be warmly received by others if she was to step out and make that doubt a career. There was journalism –  the ongoing job at the time and the sure money maker. And there was the singing – plainly put as the not so sure one. Believe you me, it’s hard to decide on what to pick when you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Going into this interview, I was told we might end up talking about her household more than her. This almost came to pass. Never had I seen anyone speak so admirably about their family and with so much cheer while at it. Truth be told, there’s nothing like home support. Be it in sports or mere banter among some friends. It’s always a good muse for success. You’ll frequently find Adomaa refer to her family as “her backbone,” with her father being the most supportive. The Adjemans are affectionately known by close ones as the Ghanaian rendition of the von Trapp family. If you grew up with the Sound of Music, you’d understand their opinion.

Just in case you were wondering how she developed her sound, you’ll be interested to know that she had no training. When I brought it up, she laughed saying “I have a Professional Bathroom Singing Degree in music.” With all the strides Adomaa has been making, it’s clear she hasn’t regretted her choice to follow the musical path. She however, opened up about how the music calling has come with its ups and downs just like any career option and how the fans and her passion are the muses behind her growth. Ultimately, she’s found solace in doing what she loves and does best. She transparently admitted that she still needed practice and does have plans of taking courses in vocal training and development but for now, will rely on her Professional Bathroom Singing Degree.

Vintage

Adjective:

Denoting something from the past of high quality, especially something representing the best of its kind.

Classic

Adjective:

Judged over a period of time to be of the highest quality and outstanding of its kind.

Consider these two words. Take them, mix them with a touch of youthful exuberance and bottle them up in the body of a 20-something, 5’7” Ghanaian-Nigerian woman. You’ll be sure to come across Joy Onyinyechukwu Adomaa Serwaa Adjeman in your findings. It’s unconventional to stumble upon a youth from this era with the heart and soul of Adomaa. She’s an afro-jazz musician in Ghana, and the first of her kind. A definite pioneer in that regard. It’s incredible the progress she’s made and how far she has come for someone who started out just a year ago.

Sin

Discover more at harmattanrain.com