Hip life might be touted to be losing its focus and just when there has been hullabaloo as to if is dead or not, Kokote another hip life group has emerged. The group is the latest hip life rap duo to make entry into the hip life game. The name Kokote actually means Bush Pig or Wattock.
The rap duo is made up of two young men Emperor Amslin (Raymond Koranteng) and Ragoon (Emmanuel Bossman) both from the Eastern part of the country.
They were in different schools yet developed their musical talents as they used to entertain their respective colleagues on stage almost every time on entertainment time and that moment encouraged them to take music serious after completion of school.
Emperor Amslin had plans of becoming a great football and to don the national colours but realized his calling is singing so he shunned playing football. “As a young boy, football was a constant part of my daily life; and even though I enjoyed music a lot, I didn’t pay much attention to it until I started singing during the entertainment period in school. My singing improved so rapidly that the students couldn’t do without my performance during entertainment; and that gave me the reason to choose music over football”, he said.
“Like everyone else, I also had a role model. Musicians who inspired me include Buju Banton, CJ Lewis, Sizzla and Elephant man. Among these, Buju was my favourite and so I made him my role model and tried to imitate his voice style. Incidentally, some students called me ‘Yoggie’ (a Ghanaian raga artiste) because they thought we had similar styles.”
Facing the harsh reality of being disowned by his parents, if he chose music over education, Ragoon’s problem compounded but he never gave up.
“With them, it was either I choose to further my education or do anything else and am disowned. I didn't give up from there still, I started creating my own rhythms (beat) in the house because no one could satisfy me with the kind of rhythms I wanted any time I trip the studio. And also no one got my back in the music thing I was doing and for that no one was ever willing to support me money wise so I really had to do something for my self.. with all the dreams of becoming a top hitting artist in Ghana one day and at the same time setting up my recording studio”.
“I started making rhythms for my self in the house with a Pentium one PC, actually when I started at first a had a plan of creating beat for my own personal use but I later realized most of my friends were interested in my beats so I really had to commercialize it and do it for people too”
“I think I had my break through from this point because I was then making money for my self and doing more featuring in studios as well. I actually see my self as a beat maker and rap star even though there is more for me to learn, my dad later understood what I was doing and decided to let me further it, I continued by studying Multimedia in N.I.I.T in Accra and later furthered my sound engineering program in Fredyma Studios Inside Adabraka Accra and I even wish to further it more after making some more money”, he ended.
Kokote have a lot of stories to tell but it can all summarize to the normal hardship, new artistes face in this game being lack of producers, lack of funds to records demo, lack of opportunities and the fact that every producer wants to work with the already known artistes.
Not finding success in their previous engagements, Emperor Amslin and Ragoon believed in the saying “two heads are better than one” hence coming together to form this group and they are certainly going to take their place in the hip life game sooner or later.
The duo are gifted with real talents, they are currently in the studio recording their debut album, which is set to hit you like a time bomb. They aspire to work with different artistes both famous and ‘underground’.
By Ebenezer Anangfio Jnr.
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