To be able to be on top of your game as a musician for more than a decade is not something to be joked about but must be celebrated.
The journey as a musician is not an easy and smooth road but hard and rough with a lot of expectations from fans, family, music lovers and the country you represent.
Most musicians started on a good note with a hit song or songs but couldn’t stay on top for even 2 years to talk about being relevant for a decade, giving back to back hit songs in all those decade as a musician.
Ghana as a country has been blessed with so many talents which has never been in doubt but some of these talents couldn’t live up to the expectations, but this is not th3 story of the 3s in the Ghana music industry.
Who are these 3S that must be celebrated and not be comparing new arts to them because the new arts are enjoying the bars and steams now.
Rapper Micheal Owusu Addo,popularly called Sarkodie, reggae dancehall artistes Livingston Etse Setekla known as Stonebwoy and Charles Nii Armah Mensah known popularly also as Shatta Wale and Emmanuel Andrews Sammini are the 4S in the industry.
These 4 have had together more than 4 decades as musicians and have set the standard in Ghana that most of the young arts follow because of their impacts and achievements.
Celebrated rapper Sarkodie is the most decorated musician in the history of Ghana, with over 107 awards to his name. He is also the most decorated rapper in the history of Africa and the first artiste on earth to win Black Entertainment Awards (BET) best international flow award.
He has also won the BET best international artiste of the year.
Sarkodie holds the record for the most watched music video on YouTube with the song “Adonai”.
His impact as a rapper and a musician is unmatched.
Sarkodie is yet to release a song in a year now but still relevant with his name in every conversation.
Shatta Wale as most people refer to him as the most controversial artiste in Ghana, has achieved a lot after his comeback in 2013.
He is the most awarded African reggae dancehall artiste and one of Africa’s best hitmakers.
He is the only Ghanaian musician to be part of American and multiple Grammy winner Beyonce’s album “Lion King: The Gift”.
One of Africa’s best performer and a huge impact on the young acts as well.
In the learning process of Stonebwoy, he was nutured by Samini, which should gives a clue who the reggae dancehall artiste actually is.
Samini and Stonebwoy shares similar trait especially when it comes to live band performance.
Samini is regarded as the king of highlife music and the first Ghanaian artiste to win MOBO award.
Stonebwoy is the first African artiste to win Afrima best reggae dancehall artiste of the year 3 consecutive times and Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMA) reggae dancehall artiste 5 times.
After more than a decade in the music scene, it’s natural they will not need the same energy as a young artiste Will need in looking for hit songs to stay relevant.
The young artistes like Camidoh, Black Sherif, Kidi, Kuami Eugene, Gyakie, Kelvynboy, Amaarae, among others are doing so well especially when it comes to online streaming because it’s their time.
The question if they can hold onto this for more than a decade like these 4 have done is also something only three future can answer.
Comparison is good but it should be among peers not comparing young arts to legends. They have done a good job and has paved way for most of these young crop of musicians and must be given their flowers and not compare them to the extent of disrespecting.
As Sarkodie said; “Relevancy doesn’t depend on hit songs but rather how you grow your brand and your craft”.
By: Oktranking
