Music of Friday, 4 March 2005

Source: ghanamusic.com

Kofi Nti Stays With ?Rakia?

Kofi Nti A Great mind once said ?two things a man cannot hide: when he is drunk and when he falls in love.?A musician has put it in another way:?If you know you love somebody you?ve got to let them know about it.?

All over the world musicians have made hit songs using the names of women they have fallen in love with.It could be part of their creative imagination or that they really did fall in love, but whatever it is they make their views known by the only public means available to them - singing.

In Ghana several musicians have done it but in recent times Slim Busterr has been one performer who has mastered the art.He has used such names as Sophie, Mina, Baaba among others in his songs.

One new artiste who is taking a walk down this lane and whose song has caught on well with radio presenters, and disc jockeys at social gatherings is Kofi Nti. The song is entitled Rakia.

The content of the song is very simple.He begins with the chorus and in it he calls the woman he has fallen in love with by name and asks her to go and tell her mother that she is the only person he loves because her beauty has shot him in the heart.

Perhaps to show how serious he is with the proposition, Kofi Nti goes beyond the woman to talk to her mother, a woman he refers to as Auntie Marie.?I have seen something about your daughter that has triggered something in me, indeed I was shocked when I saw her,?he says.

?Her culinary skills, how she speaks with the mouth and her sweet evening conversation are what she kills me with.? He also concedes that among all the food she prepares ?tuo zaafi? is what he enjoys most.

There is no doubt that one of the sleekest vocalists of our time is K.K. Fosu and he brings that quality to bear on Rakia.He comes in with his own style when he says that he likes what Rakia is doing and adds that what women want is for them to be overindulged and it is what he would do to her.

Okay,so it is a star studded piece of work because just as K.K. goes off Ofori Amponsah, another tough vocalist enters with his own ?vibes.?

Check what angle he comes from:?She is my Diana,my Lady Diana? and that is about all you hear since the rest is couched in the Lumba-Amponsah style of singing.But it sure aptly describes what he wants to say and that is Rakia is his priced woman.

There are other songs like Atweetan,Odo Nwom,Monica, Adaadaa Kra,Kae Bo No, Bra and Wake Up.Among all these songs Wake Up seems to be one that is interesting.

In this song Kofi Nti talks about the fact the he had come home late and was asking his wife to wake up and open the door for him because he is feeling cold standing outside.

He blames whoever got him into a conversation resulting to his coming home late.It is a fast paced song that has a good deal of instrumentation worked into it. K.K. Fosu appears here also to add his distinct brand of music.
Although Kofi Nti has done very well with the release of this album and the fact that the title song has caught on well with a lot of people,one hopes he would do well to improve on subsequent productions.

Most of the songs (including Rakia),on the album were composed by Ofori Amponsah; engineering was by Appiatus and Morris Baby Face with Ben Mensah as Executive Producer for Big Ben Music Production.