New Beginnings for Nana King - Watch Video

Hip life icon brings out the crooner in him.

Nana King is without a doubt one of the biggest names in the Ghanaian Hip life scene. Spotting a moniker that literally means 'King King'; he is definitely a colossus whether as a rapper, composer or producer, or even as a judge on Ghana's hit talent show, 'Stars of the Future'. While Reggie Rockstone can safely claim to be the originator of Hip life, Nana has certainly done his bit to sustain the genre over the years. His Ashanti International record label has launched the careers of many of Ghana's most prolific young talents including the MOBO award winner Samini, VIP, Akyeame and many others. Through the years, he has released several of his own albums, predominantly Hip life/rap. However, he has recently completed work on his latest hip-hop and R&B album titled, “The Beginning”. Nana describes it as…“It is like an R&B, hip-hop album. It has some afro-beats and reggae here and there, and some jazz influences.” Jamati caught up with him to find out more about this ambitious 19-track album and what the future holds for him.Jamati: What influenced this album?
I was in Nigeria for a meeting with former Charlie Boy right before the 2007 Ghana Music Awards. On our way to the airport, I was playing some of my rap CDs and Charlie Boy heard some of the choruses I had done for my rap and he was like, the way I was singing was really great. So he advised me to do the singing and forget about rapping because he thought I could go farther with my singing. When I got back, I said to myself that, since I had my own studio I could try something out. So I started with “If I” and it was tight; everybody was like wow! So I kept on going because it was time I released an international album, and the way that this was going I felt that it would work. Even through the rap, I did a lot of shows with international artists. I played with Akon before he even came to Ghana. I have done a lot of different shows with the likes of Jay Z and Ja Rule. This opened the door to more opportunities outside Ghana so I thank God that at least I was directed in the right way at the right time.

Jamati: Listening to the album, I sometimes had the impression that I was listening to Keith Sweat. Do people tell you that you have that quality to your tone?
Some people compare it to R. Kelly, and some people say Keith too but basically it is God, how the songs come.

Jamati: You seem rather convinced that this album would be an international hit. Why is that?
I don't know. Other people have different ideologies and procedures that they want to go through. For me, I knew that I wanted to go this way, so when I started this album, I got the CDs of people like Ne-yo and R. Kelly to listen to so I could hear what is currently going on internationally so that my album would follow that trend. I believe that when you go anywhere, you have to do what the Romans do. Once I break through with that, I can start to introduce a little bit of “Yaa Amponsah” and other African songs. You give it to them bit by bit and they will accept it. Already the kids in those markets have been brainwashed with what they have, just like the kids of Ghana are used to hip life, so if you come in too different from what they know it is hard to break through that way. I have tried it before in the past and it didn't work but doing an album like this, any American would want to hear it. I have sent this album to LA through my brother and all the DJs and engineers cannot believe that I did it in Ghana. So they are impressed and once I am able to get in there, we can get in there and do whatever we want.

Jamati: How are you going to get in there?
I was born in L.A and I have a lot of connections there but it is now that I am starting to use them again. R&B and hip-hop music is more of the world music no matter what. If we can break through that and we can get a Grammy, then we would be moving forward. We have heard Akon and T-Pain, so the African boys are ruling now. Soon people would get to hear me and they can judge for themselves whether I am up to par or better or whatever. If Akon can make it why shouldn't I?

Jamati: Would you incorporate Akon in your music at any point?
Of course, once I am there I will consider that but we all have to struggle to get there first. He is a good guy. When I get there, I must be 'cracking', and then they will all come onboard; Snoop Dogg and the rest of them. I know we are going to do it, it is going to happen.

Jamati: On the single, “Back Jackers” you basically warn people about backstabbers in the music industry. Has anyone done you in before in any way?
Of course, every thing I speak about is the truth because people smile in your face and they stab you in the dark. It is a common practice in our part of the world. So you have to really protect yourself, go to church so that God would put His ring around you so you don't get hurt. Even Jesus was betrayed by Judas, so that song is my way of saying that I know and people should know.

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Jamati: On “Slave No More” you get a bit political and controversial as usual.
In Africa, we have good people and bad people. Ghana is peaceful but in other places, it is really rough, look at all the wars all over the place. When you take Warri for example, all the oil in Nigeria comes from there but Warri is one of the most underdeveloped places and the people are poor. It doesn't make any sense. That is why the people kidnap the expatriates, they never kill them; they kidnap them to get some money. The people of Warri were promised of compensation for their lands but that doesn't happen. Instead, individuals are reaping all the benefits of the oil. So I just mention some of the things that happen in Africa, I made mention of Fodi Sanko cutting off the limbs of people; I talked about the amazing exploits of Kofi Annan towards humanity; I talked of what Charles Taylor did to the people of Liberia; and of course who can forget about Nelson Mandela, the Godfather of Africa. So if you do bad, we will say it and if you do good we will also say it. Like I said in the song, I wish Africa could have one president but we are not ready yet because a lot of the guys are too greedy. It would be very hard for black people in Africa to make that happen, that quick. So the song is just a wake up call, I thought I had to just say something like that.

Jamati: And what did you have to say on the “Ghana” track?
I just talk about how I have been 'rolling' and how it is in Ghana. I have a couple of versions of that. I had to do something with some kind of highlife feeling mixed with hip-hop because I am proud of what I am and where I am from.

Jamati: When anyone listens to this album, they would have a fair idea about your musical career. How did it all start?

I started playing music at about age four in Los Angeles, California. I was playing 27 instruments, and my parents were very scared because they didn't know why I could play all these instruments without going to school. So they brought in a pastor and he said that it was a gift of God. From there on, I have just been doing it the whole time for a lot of people, doing different things. I have worked with people like Guns and Roses, I did some stuff with Rick James at the age of 16, I worked for Queen Latifah's Flava Unit at the time, and of course I also worked with Tupac. I was then on the same management, which was Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam. I was with Chika Abubakari and Tupac was with Watani. So my band was on a live concert and Tupac was my special guest.

Jamati: What was the experience of working with such an icon like?
It was awesome and people couldn't believe it. All the police departments from the Los Angeles County came to my show because of Tupac, they thought that something might happen. It was a very high security show.

Jamati: You won some awards in Nigeria?
Yes that was Best African Rap Act in 2006 and Best Foreign Rap Act in 2007.

Jamati: What have been the highlights in your musical career so far for you?
I don't know, but the best time of hip life for me was that period when Ex-doe's album came out. Those were the highlights because it was the beginning of it and there weren't so many people; there were only a few people doing it well. Now, I can't even listen to too much of it. Everybody started copying the same beats and it was becoming one beat throughout. That killed what hip life is all about. New rappers, the people we used to reject, started springing up because the lyrics weren't that great. It was people like Obrafour, Kwadea and the rest who were saving us.

Jamati: GH Rap is a growing genre in Ghana. Do you think that it has a future?
Yes it does. It depends on the media and our DJs. The DJs love those songs but some of them are taking money from some people so they don't play these song. Scientific and Kwaku T are doing big things big time and they should have been heard long time ago. Because of Big Brother Africa, Kwaku T is finally in the limelight but it should have been from the music straight forward. Anything done in Ghana is still Ghanaian; it doesn't matter what it is. We cannot listen to the same music all the time; we need to have a variety of Ghanaian music. We should even have Ghanaian country music.

Jamati: What should people expect from you in terms of music?
For now, just this album, as well as doing music videos.