Entertainment of Monday, 1 October 2012

Source: Ewurabena Hagan

Life Of A Hip Hop Emcee

Emceeing is a product of hip hop, which is gaining grounds globally it is in view of this that Ghone television decided to help grow the industry in GH by coming up with the Next Big Thing In GH Hip Hop.

The competition which has been showing on the TV station every Sunday at 6pm has seen some promising talents and future for these young emcees. It has not been a smooth journey for these young emcees that are rooted in hip hop.

For most emcees’ they have been doing hip hop most of the teen years whilst some are for the first time trying their hands on hip hop and are strangely doing so well in the competition that they can rock shoulders with the experienced ones in the competition.

The emcees lives behind the scenes of Next Big Thing revealed that most of their parents are not in full support of their hip hop career and would want them to pursue different career options. They are however motivated by their mentors who also share the same stories as theirs.

Another challenge they face as emcees is lack of popularity by the Ghanaian music community, they are of the view that hip life another product or even a baby of hip hop has been given so much popularity amongst the Ghanaian music without giving recognition to its mother (hip hop).

Slurring or slanging that is trying to sound like the ‘Americans’ does not help them because most Ghanaians are used to by listening to the likes of Kanye West, Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Dj Khaled and the rest and therefore would want something they can call their own and easily identify with. Although they are doing the possible best to sound original, the main challenge is that they grew up listening to songs by foreign artistes and ended up imitating them. Some emcees in the Next Big Thing competition must however be recommended for their originality over the weeks.

Most emcees who personally have an album to their credit say the radio stations are not ready to play their song just because it’s hip hop and would give back their promo cd back to them. Again most producers and event organizers would at any time of the day go for hip life artistes because of their ability to sell or guarantee their profits from their investments. This pushes hip hop and emcees behind because they lack the necessary exposure.

In all their lamentations, they are happy to see D-Black and Kwaku T try put GH hip hop on the worldwide map although they believe with the right investment and exposure, GH hip hop would go beyond the shores of GH. Some emcees submitted their songs for the upcoming hip hop awards and are hopeful to make it through. The newly introduced hip hop awards have also given them hope to fight for recognition and be rewarded for their contribution to the industry.

Last week’s show saw Leety and E.D.N.A the only female emcee exiting the competition and was very emotional for the female emcee. The task for last week was Gospel; most emcees turned into pastors and won souls for the kingdom of God. The night’s performance was overall good and impressive as it was church time for everyone including the judges.

Viewers are advised to keep voting for their favorite emcee by texting their names to short code 1758 as the next show will see two emcees evicted from the competition.

One can also log on the fb page www.facebook.com/NextBIGThingGH page or the website http://ghonetv.com/nextbigthang/ for more information and leave shout outs to their favorite emcee which will be read during the live shows.