#FeatureFridays Interview With Miikah
Words By Phil Chard
“Up until last year I was basically fooling around on [Fruity Loops]without a serious drive for it. Then at the beginning of this year I felt like this was a viable option for my life.”
Michael Bopape aka Miikah is an enigma. That's the only way I can describe him. A 17 year old producer and rapper who balances his time between music, school, binge watching anime and pondering on the various topics of philosophy and introspection.
My first introduction to Miikah came in the form of his 8 track debut project - NegativeXero.
“The whole EP is based on the title Entropy to Nihilism. So the whole thing is idealistic Entropy from the surface of what Miikah’s daily thoughts are, which incorporates the influences from Japanese anime. Like 10 Tails”
For an artist so young and so new to music NegativeXero is surprisingly dense yet impressive. It's not an easy listen by any means. The beats are layered and complex, Miikah's lyrics touch on several abstract topics loaded with nerdy references that even I had to look up. From covering anime, to depression and the existence of God, it is by no means a project that the masses will latch onto.
What it is though is a well packaged window into the mind of an artist with a non linear and developed thought process and how it relates to his surroundings. Much like the Woke Warrior on our timelines, we might always get what they're saying or the references, but you can appreciate the art form. The way Miikah builds his beats with sounds that you would never normally pair to make diverse and palatable soundscapes is impressive. Even more impressive is all 8 beats are completely different to each other. There is certainly a lot of potential in Miikah's work and I look forward to hearing more.
miikah_2d
#FeatureFridays Interview With Phlow
Words By Phil Chard
Last week's #FeatureFridays winner Phlow simply stomped out her competition in the voting poll by a big margin. With such a large following and a small yet impressive music catalogue to back her, I got hold of the Nigerian rapper to discuss her career thus far, being a women in rap and her career plans.
You seem to have a substantial following based off your margin of victory in the last [#FeatureFridays] poll. Can you give us brief rundown of how long you've been in the rap game?
It's been on and off, technically I got into the the game in 2014. But since 2009 I've been recording stuff. Way back in college I was part of a rap group and we would record songs and covers. My fan base is basically the rap heads here. My sound is not as popular as the usual African sound. But so far i've been able to get a little bit of a fan base
I read that you're a computer science graduate. So are you doing this Hip Hop thing part time or invested in it fully now?
I'd like to say I'm doing both part time. I'm doing the music part time and the work part time. It's a mix of both.
As it stands do you feel that your lifestyle cannot be fully sustained but the music?
In the long I'd like to think so, but between 2014 and now is a really short time so I'm just trying to see where it goes.
How did you link up with Tekzilla?
I met him in 2014. Within two months of meeting we started recording a lot of tracks. I went for this Hip Hop show that happens once a month with a friend. I got there and Tekzilla was the DJ and thankfully they let me perform. It was really good and Tekzilla hit me up and said he was working on a project I got into the studio and we worked on a song that is on the Mind Body and Phlow to [Reputation] the following week he hit me up again and it's been magic ever since.
As a woman in Hip hop how hard has it been to get your name out and get respected and recognised.?
Getting recognised and getting respect in this game are two different things. Getting recognised isn't that much of a problem because not that many of women are doing this. Getting respect is what you really have to work hard at. Some people just assume that you're a girl that you can just throw a couple of rhymes and “it's fine we'll listen to you”but to actually be respected and for them to be like “OK this girl can really really do what she's doing” is really tricky. I was recently part of the Hennessy VS Class [Rap] lyricist competition and it was really fun. I was the only girl and I was hoping I wouldn't have to get picked on that fact. I was one of the winners and I still like to believe that because it was a lyricists competition they really respected what I brought to the table Respect is something I'm working on trying to get every time.
When can we expect your album or follow up EP?
I'm working on an EP right now it's basically done. It's with a Swedish producer called Rayko so that should be dropping sometime in September. . It's a bit of a personal project. It's a different side. Then I've got another EP that I'm working with Tekzilla and another joint project with Cyclone. [The friend who took Phlow to the event she where she first met TekZilla ]
Are you trying to get signed or stay independent?
Well I'm approaching it as an independent. I have a production deal with Str8 Buttah that's where Tekzilla is from. I'm just working with them and seeing how it goes.
How frequently are you getting booked for shows out there?
Not very often actually, we have our own crowd but for the mainstream shows item pretty tricky.
Are there any rappers you're planning on working with on the content?
Yeah. Modenine is one, MI, there Poe, there’s lots of people I'd like to work with.
@Phlowetry
#FeatureFridays Interview with Kweiks
Words By Phil Chard
Last week Ghanaian artist Kweiks walked away from the 4 man battle royal to be the winner of our Twitter poll that secured him an interview on our #FFeatureFridays series. I called up the Accra based rapper to discuss his burgeoning career, recovering from a serious accident, working with Edem and how he manages to fuse 5 languages into into his music.
Who is Kweiks and when did he start making music?
Kwiks is one individual who works with one of the biggest youth creative agencies in Ghana right now, however I started doing music way back. I just had to pause at a point so I could be in school for a while and I just jumped back into the game. Kweiks is signed to Gab Music. I have a few singles out and I put the latest one out last week [Doto] and it's been making waves.
Who else is on Gabs Music besides you?
Currently it's me and another artist named Jackie Morris she is a very great singer. She’s amazing.
The first time I really got introduced to your music was Whisper In Your Ear with Wanlov. Had you been making for a long time before that release?
I have been making music for a long time, I have a number of stuff out. Officially this will be my fourth release. Prior to Whisper In Your Ear I had one high life release titled Ankwandobi after that came Whisper In Your Ear then Kweku Sekyi then this current one called Doto. The issue with the space between Kweku Sekyi and Whisper In Your Ear was that 4 hours after releasing Whisper In Your Ear I was involved in a car accident that took me out for a year, so Kweku Sekyi was my comeback single
How bad was this accident?
I suffered a left humeral fracture. I was in hospital for a while. I had to undergo a some surgery to fix the broken bones. I've been to and fro [from] therapy and it's been great so far.
We're glad you made it out. In terms of videos what can we expect from you? I’m pretty sure Doto is going to get a video since you are pushing it right now.
We have plans of shooting a video very soon [for doto]. Hopefully we might shoot the video in South Africa somewhere in October and September and hopefully we can shoot for all the videos for Doto, Kweku Sekyi and Whisper In Your Ear
What's the Hip Hop scene in Accra like right now?
For the past few weeks it has shot up drastically. It's Amazing how many people have gotten involved in the whole Hip Hop thing because there was a feud between the top artists like Sarkodie, M.anifest and E.L. It became the talk of town, they took to radio and TV and everyone was talking about them. It has actually brought some focus onto the Hip Hop scene because it was one genre that people really weren't paying attention to because they felt it's foreign. They would rather vibe to something they can dance to [rather] than a Hip hop tune. I think gradually everyone is just accepting it and it's a good feeling knowing that the work that we are putting in wouldn't go to waste. It's something we can be thankful for.
That's surprising considering what I've heard from other artists in Ghana. It's always interesting when you listen to another point of view. Are you planning on releasing a project anytime soon ?
I'm actually planning on releasing an EP titled Kweku Sekyi. It will probably have 10 to 12 or 14 new songs. I have a lot of songs lined up, I just needed to drop the singles to inform people that I have something really awesome for them. I chose that strategy because I need people to understand my versatility. So the first single was a high life song, the next was a slow tempo club tune, then I put out a Hip hop song.. I chose to do that so people can know that the package I'm bringing out isn't just like ordinary they've been listening to all the time. I fuse 4 different Ghanaian languages onto my songs in addition to the English that I do. I try to diversify what I do so every Ghanaian out there understand something in what I do.
@KweiksLive