The rapper is going into orbit on his current single and upcoming album
The current hip hop scene in Ghana and across West Africa is more exciting now than ever before. The genre’s infiltration has sparked a number of underground movements with new talents gaining global attention. At the centre of it all is M.anifest. Since his arrival in 2007 with the breakout album Manifestations, the Accra-born MC has been propelled to mainstream prominence through his refreshing sense of storytelling and musicality.
Our conversation took place days after the release of his single ‘Confusion’ with Juls behind the beat. Led by luscious guitar strums and rhythmic percussions to set the pace, M.anifest documents the fast-paced lifestyle of his hometown. Despite the thrill of the inner city, ‘Confusion’ is a reminder to slow down. “We absolutely do get caught up in the routine pace of doing things, it's kind of crazy that it took a pandemic for a lot of people to reset and reanalyse,” he says.
Alongside the track is an animated video by the South African collective Cult Wife. Using elements of surrealism, the visuals follow a cartoon avatar travelling through different dystopian landscapes that represent the world that we live in today. “You’ll see a lot of exaggerated things, like somebody with four hands and a spirit that's being chased away,” he explains.
Through his melodic rap flow and captivating word play, he also depicts the beauty of Accra, an environment that has shaped him to be one of Ghana’s most creative rappers. “Being heard globally from this side is a challenge that many artists embrace. You feel like you have to work three times as hard to take your hustle beyond,” he reflects. “It's not like in the West where, let’s say you’re an artist, you can go and get some grants. There are so many inbuilt infrastructures to help you make a come up. Over on this side, it’s like you can have a hit single but have no money so your work is cut out for you. I think because of that, nobody takes the road less travelled as a musician or an artist casually. It shapes you to know that big aspirations require a way bigger work ethic than anywhere else.”
“The album represents the comfort in knowing that I have worked on my skill and I’m clear about my voice”
Growing up in Madina, Accra, M.anifest’s road to music was a natural one. From having an ethnomusicologist for a grandfather to hearing music spill from store fronts and pubs, it is something he was always surrounded by. He takes me back to one defining moment that opened his mind to the possibility of using music as a form of expression. “I remember being around six or seven when my grandfather was returning back home from the US and a famous palm wine highlife musician called Koo Nimo came to the house to welcome him. He had a bag with a stool and a guitar in it and as my grandfather walked through the gates, he started playing a song. That for me was where I started feeling that immediacy of music.”
M.anifest’s evolution as an artist came with his broader understanding of African and highlife music as well as rap, which resonated with him as it felt like it was made for the youth, by the youth. Hip hop pioneers like Naughty By Nature, The Fugees, Nas, Criss Cross and the prolific musings of Tupac were at the centre of Ghanaian pop culture. He also spent some time in the US for his studies. All of this led him to develop a notable versatility, which has landed him in rooms with an array of artists. Having collaborated with names including Erykah Badu, Tony Allen, Red Hot Chilli Peppers’s Flea and Tiggs Da Author, he holds the belief that it all comes down to “being able to speak the language of music and being able to speak it well.”
He adds: “That’s a level of affirmation that I didn’t think would come that quickly but it also taught me that yo, I know I’m in the music business and it’s focused on crowds and attention and all that, but really the quality of your work and how you shape your craft is what will actually bring you great opportunities.” One frequent collaborator is Burna Boy who made an appearance on his track ‘Tomorrow’ and M.anifest repaid the love on Burna Boy’s track ‘Another Story’. This speaks to the wider relationship between African artists in finding ways to elevate the sounds of the continent with their global reach.
Beyond afrobeats, the assimilation of Western hip hop culture and Asante culture has quickly made way for a movement dubbed Asakaa. Deriving from a youth-driven community in the city of Kumasi, these artists are putting their own spin on hard-hitting drill, which M.anifest describes as “possibly and arguably the waviest thing happening in Ghana”. As it continues to spread like a wildfire, from a niche subgenre to an international trend, the movement has gained support from industry figures like Stormzy and Virgil Abloh who “aren’t coming to jump on the biggest afrobeats tune in Ghana, they’re jumping on the drill,” M.anifest explains.
Following on from his 2019 EP Gamble, which saw him reflect on the chances we take in life and love, M.anifest is ready to welcome another body of work into the world. ‘Confusion’ is a snapshot of the freeing sonic blend that we should expect from his fifth studio album due to drop this summer. In the whirlwind of a pandemic and political unrest, M.anifest was met with a sense of rejuvenation through readjusting and continuing to create. “Business-wise, there were strategic challenges this past year. But creatively, I took a back-to-basics approach by recording at home, which meant being prolific and that was good for me.”
Entitled ‘Madina To The Universe’, M.anifest is ready to retrace his roots and take us through the sounds he nurtured at home that have taken him to the world. “You know, these ideas that you start incubating in your little corner now become ideas that you want to take beyond to excite and provoke people with. I recorded most of this within a month during lockdown so I really had the chance to be in that kind of zone,” he says, adding: “The album represents the comfort in knowing that I have worked on my skill and I have range and I’m clear about my voice. Ultimately my ambition is that M.anifest becomes a genre so when someone is listening to my music, it feels true to me regardless of the different sonic textures.”
With previous projects amassing countless streams, M.anifest feels no pressure to compete with his earlier winnings but to level up and be able to naturally measure his growth as an artist. “I’m definitely looking forward to taking this new album to the people dem and having a new level of resonance and just seeing how this can at least shift the landscape, whether by 1 kilometer or by 100,000 kilometers, we’ll see.”