Entertainment of Sunday, 23 June 2019

Source: razznews.com

Forget Medikal, Strongman's ‘beef’, Matthew needs such hype to win laurels for Ghana

Matthew in a grid with the two beefing rappers Matthew in a grid with the two beefing rappers

The Ghanaian music scene has been bombarded with a rap feud between ex-Sarkcess record label rapper Strongman and AMG’s rapper Medikal .

The unnecessary feud commenced when Medikal released ‘To Whom It May Concern’, a rap diss song directed at Strongman because the latter dissed Medikal for claiming he saved rap in Ghana’s music industry.

Fans on social media, and most celebrities like Yvonne Nelson, Sarkodie have not been left out on the debate over who the rap god is. But in as much as ‘beefs’ bring excitements, and exposes lyrical potency amongst artistes, it has never emerged before that an artiste has won Grammy,BET, or any other major award scheme for beefing a fellow artiste .

In this vein, it’s extremely deprecating that, all the attention, hype and support Medikal and Strongman enjoying now are not being channelled to Joseph Matthew, an artiste who has revitalised the Ghanaian gospel music scene.

Years back when Ghanaian gospel music was tagged as ‘old Skul’, celebrated gospel artistes like Koda, Joe Mettle, Sonnie Badu, and Cwesi Oteng replenished the genre with a contemporary style of singing.

To augment the argument, at the 2017’s Vodafone Ghana Music Awards for the first time in the history of the award scheme,Joe Mettle, emerged as the first ever gospel artiste to be crowned artiste of the Year.

Just as it looks like the aforementioned artistes’ styles are also fading out, another saviour as emerged in the name of Joseph Matthew.

The UK-based Ghanaian gospel artiste, has changed the spectrum of the gospel music scene with his latest single track ‘Nyame Ye’.

Crooned in a distinctive contemporary sound-a mixture of highlife, Afro beats, and Rap, “Nyame Ye’, which literally means ‘God Is Good in Akan, was engineered by award-winning sound engineer Francis Osei in Ghana.

‘Nyame Ye', is praise and worship song which talks about the essence of thanking God for overcoming obstacles and hard times. The vocal ability, lyrics and the entire production is world-class.

To further announce his presence as the new king of Ghanaian gospel music, the fast-rising Matthew has also released a world-class ‘Nyame Ye’ music video which is currently regarded as the most expensive and well-directed gospel music video.

The ‘Nyame Ye’ music video which was shot in UK and in Venezuela was directed by internationally acclaimed music video director, Martin Sean

Martin Sean’s background in illustration and visual effects means his videos are full of incredibly subtle tricks and motifs, forcing your eyes into every inch of the screen just to make sure you’

While this alone is enough to make a strong impression, when combined with such compelling visual concepts as he is known for, the results are nothing short of mesmerizing.

Though the video was not shot in Ghana and the fact that he is based in UK, Joseph Matthew still depicted our rich Ghanaian culture in it.

Per the location, concept, and the director, the ‘Nyame Ye’ music video according to RazzNews.com’s checks is estimated at a whopping sum of one hundred and fifty thousand pounds (E150k)

Matthew’s ability to broaden the Ghanaian gospel music spectrum with the blend of Afro beats, highlife, and Hip-pop create a perfect picture of his future in the industry.

He is currently recording his long-awaited gospel album (Solid Rock) featuring another smashing hit track’ Hallelujah.’

He is actually a versatile, and talented gospel musician, who will win a lot of laurels for Ghana if a quarter of the unnecessary attention and hype given to Medikal and Strongman over their miserable beef is given to him.