Black Sherif : New Sheriff on the block?

 

The Sheriff at work on one of his videos

He seems like a phantom rising from the catacombs. Or rather a clairvoyant siren emerging from the ruinous depths of this our necropolises. Has the urban blight that is our cities from Accra through Konongo to Tamale found its most lyrical spokesman minstrel who mirrors as well the decline of this our Republic? Time will tell. But this time he has come correct. No wonder he urges with brash machismo all competitors to "tighten their basis." There is a new sherif on the block who is taking no prisoners.

It is just as well this Black Sherif is sermonizing. He has given us two such sermons bulging with pain and passion. The pain of youth trapped in a country in which class divisions are widening and made the moreso by teasingly graphic displays of ostentatious consumption side by side with gross palpable want. All street level. The passion is entangled in the fiery versified storytelling that plaintively draws urgent attention to the grotesque mess the Republic has become with its farce of a democracy and stuttering economic strides. It is a bad time to be young and Black Sherif makes it clear-he and his aptly named motley band of Sad Boys. 

It seems that the new musical acts coming up in Ghana lately have been besotted by love and lust and lewdness. The easy comfortable formula. None seem to have the balls and mojo and craftsmanship to marry hard driving social commentary and fun in a Felasque way. Precisely when the times call for such. It has fallen to this new Sherif in town who has come out lyrics blazing and cutlasses fully brandished in our faces. 

I like his voice. It is arrestingly urgent with its unique timbre. It sits comfortably above the ever imperious instrumentation. He can sing and so much so I will describe his rap as sing songy. His lyrics are clever in being simultaneously philosophical yet penetrable-made for the urban streets of Gh and its rugged hordes of youthful hustlers of all shades, stripes and sentiments. We have on our hands a secular preacher right here who knows his Musama Disco Christo Church and Islam too. We are seeing a very unique style in gestation that is framed by highlife and drill-a fusion that harks back to how our modern music has always flowered. Dude has good looks that will surely even get better when the luce starts to drop and truck loads of charisma. I truly wish him well on this trip like his many skateboard ones(his languid frame belie his love of that entrancing object; I used to be good at it myself). 

Is this another Black President? I await the 3rd Sermon.