|
| Oheneba Drops First Album - From Far Away Connecticut |
6/9/2007 |
|
While hiplife music keeps growing in Ghana, up and coming artistes resident outside the country also keep doing their best to ignite the magic of this music genre to Ghanaian communities abroad and foreigners.
Some of these young artistes only gained the opportunity to develop their musical talents when they left the shores of Ghana and though most of them are unknown to local music lovers, they are household names among Ghanaians leaving abroad.
Oheneba Poku Acheampong a.k.a Oheneba P.K. is a new hiplife artiste based in America who has decided to join the train with his maiden 12-track album titled Full Stop.
The 25-year-old Koforidua native who travelled to USA with his parents and two older siblings at the age of 17 while still a student of New Juabeng Secondary School, started singing as a member of the Methodist choir in Koforidua and performed at other functions until his departure.
Currently a law student at the Central Connecticut State University in America, Oheneba P.K. wishes to combine both his music career with a childhood ambition of becoming a lawyer.
In America, Oheneba teamed up with another young Ghanaian called K. Nana to form a music group known as Ahenema who performed at public functions for three years.
The two, however, split and Oheneba ended up getting a producer by name Alfred Priddy to handle the release of his maiden album.
Full Stop, the album title, is a fast-paced highlife song which uses the jama beat of popular sound engineer Morris Babyface and spiced up with some rap from both Oheneba and Akwasi Appe who was featured.
The song is about the artiste''s decision to cease searching for the ideal love partner since he has found the ideal one called "Obaa Yaa".
Oheneba proves that he does not only rap but sings well too as he collaborates with Abena Sarfo on another song titled Darling which also adopts the highlife rhythm in a fast-paced vein.
The rhythm and melody of this song are sure to get a music lover to his dancing feet. Though the instrumentation is well arranged and good to the ears, the percussion dominates so much that one has to pay close attention in order to hear the sound of the other instruments like the organ and bass guitar.
A favourite on this album is Pat Thomas''s adopted Womma Me Nka Bi which was mixed with the jama beat. The lead singer''s voice and instrumentation are the exact ones of Pat Thomas.
According to Oheneba, they contacted Pat Thomas and sought permission to use his song to which he gladly agreed and even tutored them on how to go about things.
A slow-paced romantic song which adopts the reggae rhythm is I love You. This song brings out the best of the musicians talents.
Other songs on the album include Odo Power, I Do You Do as well as accapella and instrumental versions of five of the original songs which were written by Oheneba and programmed by Morris Baby-face.
Source:
Jonathan Thompson, Graphic Showbiz*
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
