Mensa, A Forefather of Hiplife Music

When I spoke to Mensa on the phone to arrange the interview, I knew he would be fun; I expected him to be funny. And I was right!! I had such fun I forgot it was an interview and I forgot I had just met him. I think I even fell a little in love with him. That is how engaging Mensa is. Plus he is cute! And he wears an earring - a cute, little, sexy stud!

Unfortunately for all of you reading this, the best parts of the interview, I sadly cannot reproduce. There are some perks to being the one asking the nosy questions you see.

Mensa is a third son - that means he has two older brothers who I hope are as cute as he is. he is a Cancer [July 16th] but not your typical crab and a Dansoman boy through and through; he went to St. Martin de Porres, from thence on to Adisadel College and then left Ghana for the UK.

Music is a natural activity for him; professional music a natural progression. He started playing the piano very young and became so good he even played in church. But he would never practice until his mother run after him threatening to beat him. Eventually, she gave up when he discovered Hip Hop because then he lost all interest in the piano and turned to the mic.

Every Ghanaian under 50 remembers [and if they do not they should not confess it.] the hit song Mapouka by Reggie Rockstone, featuring Mensa and Lord Lust. Mensa was 18 years old when he did that and it was exhilarating for him. Rockstone was a personal hero and getting to work with him was a dream become form. How does an 18 year old know so much about Mapouka? Mensa says "Its easy to talk about things you've never done, you make it up as you go along." I wonder whether to take that comment at face value or & His talent impressed Rockstone enough that he did another song with him- Me Nsesa. [Most people call it Obibiniba- a beautiful song.]

Because a man of many talents is never content in only one field, Mensa moved from just making music to producing both his own music and that of other artistes - including Reggie Rockstone. "It just occurred to me, if I can write my own music, sing the tune and play it why not produce it and my good friend David Bolton [computer whizz kid.] taught me, still teaches me a lot of stuff whenever I need some help."

He was part of the group Lifeline Family - and although the group did not live very long, their album was a work of raw talent and a personal favorite of the writer.

His first solo album did not do too well commercially. He would not pay "payola" [a sort of DJ bribe to get your music played. It is not illegal but it is definitely unethical] and so it got very little airtime. Earlier that day at lunch, his name came up and suddenly my private conversation was taken over by a casual group of people talking excitedly about tea bread and other songs on that album. Obviously, the quality of the music was too fine to be controlled by DJs.

He loves blue. But on a woman, he thinks the best colour is the colour of her skin... ahem. He is drawn to a woman with whom he can randomly have a great conversation and be on the same wavelength. He loves being with people who enjoy his company, he says, [with an apology that it "comes out sounding narcissist"] he feels that if they are enjoying his company then he is enjoying theirs. On the other hand, narrow-minded people and people who do not want to travel disgust him.

Whenever he has a bit of time on his hands, he likes to spend it "bugging" his mother by "saying things that miff her like church is useless etc just to bug her."

If you want to buy him a drink, get him a dark stout, he will appreciate it.

The wildest thing he confesses to doing is walking up to Tommy Mottola [ex CEO of Sony] last year in the UK and saying that he knew him. Tommy M obviously did not believe him but he went on. "I know you personally. We met before but you don't remember me, never mind. Anyhow what's up?" The man knew he was lying but he played along and they had a lovely long chat. Sadly he did not follow it up with a multi-million dollar record deal, an MTV crib and wheels like P Diddy's. Still it's a good memory to have and Mensa has such great storytelling skill that I was laughing for a good number of minutes.

I asked him what his professional challenges had been and without missing a beat he replied "monogamy". For a moment I thought he was being his usual funny self but thinking about it, with his looks, charm and line of business, monogamy must be difficult. But he says he has been successful so far. One of the nicest things about Mensa is that after every light comment he usually says something deep about the topic and on this one his serious note is "it has been and continues to be a challenge making music that I am comfortable with and not compromise for the sake of fads, opinions and what's selling."

He likes Toyotas because he finds them driver-friendly. [I do not know anyone who considers that factor when buying a car.] It is an exciting if dizzying experience to meet someone who is so funny, so trivial, so deep and so sensible all at once. And I think Mensa is a worthy ambassador to his profession. He completely killed all the preconceptions I had about the shallowness of rappers.

He never needs quiet time because he likes people and likes being with friends. Whenever his head gets crowded, he spends time with his, to quote him, "bestest best friend" because he helps him disaggregate his thoughts and put things in perspective.

Nowhere in Accra appeals to him like Dansoman particularly the front of his house in Dansoman. He says "it rocks" and he has a lot of great memories from hanging out there.

He loves wakye but his favourite food is "without a doubt fufuo. And I love eating it in chopbars, my mother doesn't know that." And he always eats his food boiling hot and according to him "I eat very fast." Hmm I wonder if a scalded tongue will turn me into a cool rapper, maybe it helps.

For someone in his business it is very deep statement that he makes when he say "I haven't done anything that I regret." The only time he is nervous is right before a performance but it's a good sort of nervousness because it fills him with energy to perform to the max.

With a bemused how-far I've-come look, Mensa recounted his first experience of hearing his song on radio and how it felt. "Growing up we were real broke and we had a messed up radio in my mum's room. Mum didn't know I was recording, and I had to sneak the radio from my mum's room into my brother's room and connect it before the song was over. It wasn't easy but it was worth it. It just felt good to hear the song. It was a Lifeline song; we are going on a summer holiday [which for some reason he feels uncomfortable about now. He says it was very raw. Ignore him, I liked that song.]

Mensa loves babies, isn't that cute? He can't whistle to save his life. He tried. It comes out as a shrill wisp of air.

He brings all barber fees back to Ghana - not cutting his hair while he's away in the UK. This guy is a hero, not only is he a musical ambassador abroad, he puts money into Ghana's economy, creates employment, helps tourism, we should knight him.

Mensa is working on bigger and better things and having met him, I know he will succeed. He has the spirit and the strength and most important the talent and he is nice enough that our wishes are sincere. So we wish him the best of luck as he continues to make music he is proud of and make us proud of him! Cheers Mensa!