A Peek At Sarkodie’s ‘New Guy’

Ever since the Okoye brothers made up of twins Peter and Paul alongside their brother Jude caused a stir with their sublime collaboration with American hiphop boss Rick Ross on the remix of their ‘ Beautiful Onyinye’ track and video, the race has been on as to which other Nigerian, Ghanaian or South African artist or group can catch another big American hiphopper to work with.

In answering that call, D’Banj snooped for Snoop Doggnow Lion on his Mr. Endowed remix, Timaya secured the services of SeanPaul on his ‘Bum Bum’ remix as did Fuse ODG in fetching SeanPaul once more for his ‘Dangerous Love’ track.

In all these collaborations, the work put in ‘Beautiful Onyinye’ remix remains priceless. The video has beautiful scenery with Peter and Paul offering some superb singing. Rick’s rap is brilliant and the content of the rap is in tandem with the theme of the song. There was no patronizing, no swear words and that’s how it ought to be.

D’Banj’s Mr. Endowed remix is a decent effort, the video offers the eye a few attractions. Timaya chose the explicit route with a lot of fleshexposed and twerking going on. Sean brought nothing spectacular on board.

‘Dangerous Love’ scores big on the intriguing video and an okay song.

Since Samini’s emergence as Ghana’s global music rep bagging in MOBO and Channel O awards in addition to others, the next big thing has been Dr. Duncan offering a young eager Sarkodie a chance to sell his wares on the one time popular ‘Kasahari’ (rap) show on Adom 106.3 FM. Since the exposure, Sark has becomeGhana’s music assassin among a battalion of soldierssuch as Manifest, Edem, Kwawkese, Stonebwoy and Shata Wale.

If for nothing at all Michael Owusu Addo better known as Sarkodie has hits such as saaokodie nu, baby, borga, u go kill me, azontofista and illuminatiin his vault not to talk of numerous international nominations and a BET win.

For a young chap from Tema Community 9 in Ghana to have the chance to record with an artist from the US he had watched on TV is a big thing alright but if such union had birthed a solid product that would have been even sublime.

It was therefore fascinating when news broke that Sarkodie was in the studio in the US cooking a sound with AmericanhiphopperAcehood. Acehood known for works such as cash flow ft. Rick Ross, king of the streets, letter to my exs, body to body ft.Chris Brown, born An OG and my speakers ft. Rick Ross has something going on although he is not in the league of Nas, Jay Z, Rick Ross, 50 Cent, Kanye West andeven relative new comer Kendrick Lamar.

The tune ‘New Guy’ finally reached Accra and opening it was a poetic intro about life’s struggles. The voice intimates that there is a lot of expectation and responsibilities on his shoulder and so he keeps grinding to cater for needs as help comes from no one.According to the voice, from Sunday to Mondaythe hustle is on, there are no role models and no true leaders left. It is therefore imperative that the new guy strives for himself.

Obidiponbidi takes the baton explaining that hardships lead many to commit suicide but he strives and is making it despite the challenges. The use of swear words wasneedless however and takes away rather than brightens the piece.Sark’s flow is tight and the transitioning from English to Twi ups the tempo considerably.

Rappers can confound and Acehood does just that when he talks about Dr. King having a dream and then straight from that intimates that he has 20 b*****s in his bed naked counting chees. He also employs needless curse words but acknowledges that prison cells in America continue to get congested.

Ace offers some good rhyme accompanied by a thumping beat while Sarkpromises to build a statue for Ace even thoughI am yet to see his statue in Ghana. Folks in Kumasi no doubt would be delighted with a mention of their city in the track as are many who heard Acehood say ‘medase’ (thank you).

The video opens with a scene depicting a state of savagery to civilization with aman in hunting apparel transformed to Sarkodie in urban clothes. The video directed by Justin Campos, produced by Ted Solo and co-produced by Entourage is drab to say the least.

There are a couple of indoor videos shot brilliantly without the viewer feeling shortchanged but the ‘New Guy’ video is limited in content, style, costume and even montage choice.

The ‘New Guy’ video pales in comparison to Sark’s own ‘Bounce’song and video shot and directed indoors bySesan as well as ‘Love Rocks’ directed by Vertex. I do not wish to talk of the magical work done by PhamousPhilms on the Illuminati video.

To think that Justin Campos who produced the visual for R2Bees ‘killing me softly’ directed ‘New Guy’ leaves one amazed, dazed and fazed.

This is a wasted opportunity. In answering the American hiphop call for collaboration, Sarkodie, his associates and affiliates could have worked the line to secure the services of Kanye west, Akon, Chris Brown, Kendrick Lamar, Nicki Minaj or Rihanna to produce a solid tune worthy of climbing global charts and paving way for tours with the chosen artist to have a bite at the American music pie.

Consume the ‘New Guy’ ft. Acehood here:

michaeleli dokosi
Email: [email protected]
www.elidokosi.wordpress.com