Blue EP: KiDi is still persuaded by highlife, fascinated by love

Since his emergence a few years ago, via Lynx Entertainment, KiDi has enjoyed repute not only as the label’s most technically gifted crooner, but also among the country’s elite.

Author of modern highlife classics like “Say You Love Me,” “Odo,” and months ago, the jolly “Enjoyment,” the man typically inhabits a lover-boy persona, a province that he has demonstrated remarkable expertise in.


Like Sugar, his popular debut, the Blue EP, which arrived days ago, finds the man born Dennis Nana Dwamena still obsessing over the love question. Crisscrossing both ends of its pole—a hopelessly stricken man one this song, and one who is nervous about fully committing on that one—the singer, though he fundamentally engages his highlife persuasions, also summons Afrobeats, Punk, Afro-dancehall, and pop.

On Blue, KiDi, himself a producer, taps the golden fingers of MOG, Jayso, NOVA, DatBeatGod, and mentor Richie Mensah for a truly solid argument about his reputation as a bringer of classics.

It’s a lovesick EP, so listeners are not spared the usual stock phrases and the recycling of classic highlife lines: of course, someone is still “the woman I desire”; one who “set[s] my heart on fire” etc.

While each song makes a strong case for its place on Blue, “Say Cheese,” which attends lustful teasing, and “One Man,” the emotionally intense, percussion–led, Adina–assisted duet are the most charismatic; the recommended entry points.

The five-song selection—under fifteen minutes, and featuring Adina as its sole vocal guest—is an objectively remarkable work; a far more impressive attempt than his debut full-length, at presenting him as not merely a singles man, but also one capable of an elegant collection. Perhaps, mid-length projects (not albums) are the folders he owes artistic fidelity.