Dancehall: it seems to be a preferred genre for youth pretty much everywhere. Especially with the blurred lines of today’s genre definition, it has become increasingly difficult to find an international club song that has no Dancehall elements. Episode is one of Ghana’s up and coming talents that is looking to make a mark on the Dancehall scene, Ghana and eventually the world. An incredibly talented individual, music is just one of his outlets. He also sculpts, paints and manages other creatives to create their own fashion line. Still on the come up, he isn’t alone; Episode is always working with his crew to elevate himself and everyone around him. The reggae music of Bob Marley is an obvious influence but Episode is also drawn to Marley’s political action and ability to assess the human condition. Others like Nelson Mandela and Kwame Nkrumah fill idol rolls for the young musician. Right now, music is the medium he uses to reach the youth and do his part to shape society but other avenues are not out of the question. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a “Vote for Episode: 20XX” in the not so distant future!
I want to be the next Bob Marley. I want to be the next Nkrumah. I want to be the next Mandela. I want to be that boy who every mother will say ‘I listen to his Mother’s Day song’ because this boy gave me a reason to listen to it. I want to be the artist who’s gonna put Ghana on the next level. I want to be the Episode, like you want me to be. I believe that I’m the mouthpiece of the people so if things are not really going well and my people are suffering, I should be able to tell the next person that you are worrying, my people. Because my people listen to the music and they feel that, yeah, this song is really talking about how we are suffering. I’m saying this because it’s been like 58 years now, Ghana gained independence, and we are still suffering from some things that I don’t think we should be. I’m talking about dumsor and all of this stuff. No one else can tell the government what should be going on. No one can tell the big men or the media what is going on. I’m a musician so I think I should tell them that my people are suffering.
My inspiration comes from, I don’t really know how to put it but, there are no limits to what I think of. If I want to paint this so let me paint it. It turns out to be a different thing. I’m not really good in landscape; all I do is cubism and abstract paintings. And you know, with that kind of painting you don’t really predict; you don’t really have a borderline to abstract kind of paintings. You might just have a mindset, ‘okay I want to paint harmattan’ but at the end of the day it turns out to be a different thing. So I don’t really choose. I don’t know how to put it but there’s no bridge if I want to paint or I want to do a song about one particular concept. I just put my mind to it completely. I want to do a song about my lifestyle and you really see that THIS is my lifestyle. My life is made up of music and art, having these two talents, trying to figure out which one I should use. But as I was using one, I couldn’t really choose one and leave one out because my whole education has been arts. From junior high I was doing art, senior high I did art, after that I did a degree in arts, after that I had to really go perfect or master my craft in the graphic design aspect. It was really not a mindset of me choosing one and leaving one because I believe music moves with art. That is what has brought my whole ‘Episode Art’. When people think of me, they can’t really predict what will really come in the next episode
It has been just like 2 years, officially, professionally doing it because I got signed to my first record label, two years now. That is Global One / On Track Team. That is two years but before then, I come from a musical background where my mom is a musician. She is a twin and they both do music. My other sister is also a musician and myself. They do traditional kind of African music. I’m the only one in the family doing my kind, that is, reggae dancehall music. From childhood I have been doing music but professionally it has been just two years.
Checking from my records, for like a year now, I’ve done songs like “Mandela” which I believe is making us Africans know who Mandela was. Giving us a mindset about some of the people who have really helped Africa to get freedom and put Africa on the map. When you talk about songs like “Mama Ghana” which talks about how beautiful Ghana is and some funny reasons things are not going well. So we need to go back to our roots. And then you talk about songs like “Born African” which talks about the leaders, all of the leaders who have really made Africa what it is today. So I don’t really preach forced messages, I don’t do that kind of music. I don’t do songs that you can go to the club and just dance, even if I do a high tempo song, I do my personal best to put a message in it that you can relate to. I’m a pastor, I’m a preacher, I’m a reverend. I believe that these are the messages that come from, more or less like a pastor. It’s not just music, it’s songs that you sit down when you listen to, you feel like this is a personal message.
On Track is a movement I started myself. For three or four years now it has really gone worldwide with a local vibe. From the point of view that we have everybody on the On Track team; we have graphic artists, we have the whole big record label, we’ve got the production team, like the whole thing. We’ve got the whole family. So On Track is not only the music kind, the whole family where we do everything that’s got to do with creativity.
From history we learned that if one person wants to send a message to the next, they use drums, they use musical instruments, they use sound. So I believe that we now in Ghana, we lose something. The fact that now, no big man wants to invest in you because they feel like ‘you’re a screw job’. Blacks have this mentality that only, I don’t know how to put it, but they say that if you come up in a suit and tie you’re better or your importance is more than someone who comes like this. It’s a normal view. But I believe that it is a wrong mentality. We just need to change it. Being from Ghana, talking about the music scene in Ghana, it is really hard. You have nobody to support you; you do it on your own. … So here’s the case that you need to perform, you need to bring food home, put food on the table for the family. [Shakes head] The music industry in Ghana is low.
Kirikou was just songs that I recorded to put out. To put all on one CD, or to put it up like an EP and then chop it to the people. But the maiden album has tactic, it has a mindset, it has some sort of focus that we really want to achieve. It has some sort of market that we want to be in. Some people that we want the songs to reach out to. So there is more or less like a line that we are really working with. But the mixtape I want to say is just some of my songs that I recorded.
The title of the album is S.P.A.R. Junkie. The SPAR, the S is for Successful Junkie, P for a Principled Junkie, A for A-Class Junkie, and R for a Rich Junkie. I know by now people may be wondering ‘why these songs junkie, junkie… Episode is a junkie’. Yes I’m a junkie but my kind of junkie is the level where you have money to the next level and you’re like ‘I’m a money junkie.’ I get to the studio and put lyrics that people don’t think about, that makes me a lyric junkie. I want to be a world known record setter that makes me a world class junkie. So my kind of junkie is not the smoking or drug kind of junkie. I want to be a successful junkie, a principled, a-class and a rich kind of junkie. And that is the title o the album that comes out in August. It has got some international collaboration on it. It has like 15 or 16 songs. It was solely produced by one producer, he produced the whole album. No other producer worked on the album. I really want to make this album really great. So all of the songs on the album, we will release none until the day the album is out because you listen to other peoples’ albums and you find songs that have already been released on the album. I want to make a mark. I want to set things on the junkie level. So this album, you wouldn’t hear any song that I’ve already released on the album. I don’t think I want to change my mind. Maybe I might add one or two songs from different producers but I really want to make a mark.
Camera Work: Simon Asamoah, Prince Dake, Hardy & Benjamin Cohn
Editor: Kwame Ohene
Logo: David Addo
Da-What 
Posted on August 10, 2015 by Benja
0