Positive Vibes Emanate From
the Lyrics of a Self-proclaimed ESL Emcee
By Linda A. Annan                                                                                          

His name is M.anifest (Music Always Needing Illumination For Every Soul Today), and asserts music is his very existence. He poetically strings lyrics with soulful accents that reflect his life as an African. This 24 year-old Ghanaian native and his striking lyrics brand the emergence of a new wave of music by today's African artists. With an upcoming solo debut, Kwame Tsikata appears to be ready to seal his work set to be released in either late March or early April.

The forthcoming album, Manifestations is only one of his creations crafted while still seeking opportunities to break through the hard-knocks of the industry. It is the first amongst three or four collaborative projects that he hopes to release this year with 40 Winks, an instrumental Hip-Hop group from Belgium. He will also be joining forces with 4Shades, a band in which he stamps his membership as the only emcee of three producers.  

Tsikata maintains that the album is an expression of his awareness and understanding of his environment, which was why he chose the name “Manifestations.” Each song is a unique musical interpretation of his perspective on a particular issue. He says, “It's my consciousness manifested…it's just how I take in the external world and spit it back to the people.” There is an African theme that runs through the record, something he attributes to his background and a desire to be home (Ghana) and to surround himself with the concerns of his people. “I think in an African way, so when I start expressing that in songs, it becomes an African sense of theme. Manifestations is just an African trans-national me expressing my view of the world around me, what I see,” he explains.

Interestingly enough this African trans-national artist did not start rapping as one with much awareness, except for knowledge of how good he was as a rapper with his high school group “Rebel Camp.” Though he admits to have begun rap singing his own praises, he explains that he enjoyed that period because it went more with feelings than content. He continues: “I'm comfortable with what I do because it goes a lot with feelings. You can only be as good in music as you are in person…I mean you know you have something in your consciousness that's positive, that's strong, to be able to express it in music.”

Tsikata's drift toward a more positive-focused lifestyle began during his transition from high school to college, a time when his thought-process was challenged after perusing books about African revolutionaries like Kwame Nkrumah, Thomas Sankara and others. This new perspective eventually permeated his writing and music.    

Currently residing in Minneapolis, MN, Tsikata came to the United States in 2001 for his Bachelor's degree at Macalester College, a Liberal Arts university in St. Paul, Minnesota where he graduated in 2005. Although his interests were steeped in music, he majored in Economics with one intention: to acquire knowledge and understanding of the discipline. He never applied for a Wall Street job after graduating because like he said, he did not approach it as a thing of academia; it was solely for the knowledge of it. Though he claims to have never transitioned from music, he discloses that the compelling budge came when he decided to make it a career. During the same period he grappled with frustrations of a recent college graduate getting a taste of a world different from the college environment to which he had become accustomed. “I didn't want to go back to school like I thought I actually would,” he humorously said.      

Tsikata's music, though mostly in English, contains some Twi words, his mother's Ashanti tongue. He asserts that his state of mind reflects his father's side of the family, being Ewe. “I have a strong inclination towards my father's people in terms of habits of thinking even though I grew up with my mother, which is kind of crazy…I don't speak my dad's language (Ewe), I speak Twi,” he says.

Tsikata's earliest influences besides the environment he grew up in and his grandfather, who was an Afro-musicologist, was Daniel “Koo Nimo” Amponsah, one of West Africa's greatest guitarists. At the very young age of 7 or 8 while at home in Ghana awaiting the return of his grandfather, he had the luxury of listening to Koo Nimo play a tune at a gathering. “I remember as a kid I was so enchanted, I don't remember what he sang, whatever he did, it had a major influence,” he reminisces on the spark that eventually developed into a profound interest in music. Some of his initial inspiration besides Fela Kuti and Osibisa were Hip-hop artists Nas, Lauren Hill, Naughty by Nature, Queen Latifah and others.

In fact his music style and content, though unique and different from other African artists', can be faintly compared to the poetical flair of Hip-hop artist Nas. “I make soulful music that relates to the African experience in some form or shape,” he clarifies, and further explains soulful music to be that which can be felt or related to. “You can catch me making love albums very soon,” he bursts into laughter and continues, “We can have ‘M.anifest, the love session' so you need to look out for that album too.” Fans, are you listening?

As unrestrictive as he is, Tsikata intends to follow up on his writing by authoring a couple of books in the future. “I think there are ways in which when you write reading material it affects people. It's a different way of expressing things…there's a certain way that I want to write and say all the time that I would not put in the music because it just doesn't work musically, it just doesn't feel right,” he says. He reveals that it is the poet in him and a desire to write that intensified his interest in Hip-Hop. “That poetic value makes you consume all that information…it's a good way to reach people,” he adds and recalls the effect of Queen Latifah's 1993 hit single “U.N.I.T.Y.” on youths like him at the time.

Tsikata's abhorrence of speciousness moves him to communicate realistic messages through his music. “I think a lot of falseness goes with negativity. One of the things I have is being reality-based and staying true, to be real,” he says of one of the most important things that keeps him going as an artist.

He is looking forward to the success of his music career and says, “I'm really serious about it, it's not a hobby, it's really deep. It's my very existence.” He hopes to become an established artist with a wider audience and perhaps travel the world at some point. “Maybe in 10 years I'd have bought my mom her first house, you know, that definitely I can say in 10 years,” he laughs.

Tsikata's desire to be involved in the establishment of better performing arts centers in Ghana is one he hopes can be used to facilitate artists like him. “In 10 years I can take all of that positive energy, build something creative and influence the people that I know and love best,” he adds conclusively.