Reggae For awareness journey-Omama Blackman 

Reggae music is one of the most recognizable genres in world music and this album defines the philosophy of contemporary reggae as it explores the rhythmic variations of reggae and is conscious lyrics in today’s world. Though OMAMA BLACKMAN is one of the newest and finest reggae artists discovered in Africa, he is building a reputation as a Jah messenger who employs the power of reggae music through his philosophy of reggae for awareness concert to address global issues such as racism, migration, broken marriage, vulnerable children, inspiring the weak to trust God in hard times and give to glory to Jah.

This maiden reggae album was solely recorded in Kumasi with the support of talented young instrumentalists and engineers in the garden city.

This is because in Kumasi, Reggae music is gaining strong grounds courtesy ‘kinky kinky’ Reggae Reggae’ led by award winning reggae presenter Bontai Talawa, African child Rull, P God/ Reggae ambassador as well as other emerging reggae presenters. Omama Blackman, known in private life as Owusu-Ansah James hails from Ghana’s second capital Kumasi, which is the ancient capital of the Ashanti kingdom where the flag of the kingdom and that of Jamaica flag have the same colours combination.

Glory to Jah (2024)

Both flags have the colours; black, yellow and green. Interestingly, the maroons in Accompong Town in Jamaica trace their ancestry back to the Akan and Ashanti people in Ghana. It gives meaning to why Jamaicans have returned to Ghana and lived peacefully not only because most Ghanaian Towns bear extreme resemblance to Jamaica but in essence due to the spiritual reunification and that they are African descendants who have carried African music to the Caribbean and other parts of the world in the form of reggae. As Ghana celebrates year of return the year 2019, many Africans in the diaspora have not only visited Ghana but have been given citizenship.

This young artist is called OMAMA BLACKMAN not because he is an African by birth but his extreme dark complexion, whiles OMAMA in Akan language means a citizen who has contributed positively towards the development of the society. Besides, his reggae inclination is not different from those of the predecessors in the global movement of reggae.

The image and spirit of reggae is in him striking resemblance of the reggae fraternity thus joining the world reggae stars who have stolen the heart of reggae lovers worldwide. There is no question about his future in the reggae world with such exceptional ingenuity in conscious lyrics and who is also set for another ten-track reggae album as his second before the end of the year 2024.

In his first album “Jehovah” he attempted a gospel reggae song titled ‘’Hallelujah” and has since switch his song writing skills to reggae.

This ten -track reggae album defines his philosophy of contemporary reggae as he explores the rhythmic variations of reggae and conscious lyrics for social positive change. The album’s first track ‘Victim of love’ that opens the ten-track album is a love piece that opens with sax solo on high note and is timely complemented with emotional vocals and sentimental lyrics about failed vows that   tune with standard reggae instrumentation. The track two ’Born’ addresses global issue of racism and the need for all races particularly Black and White to live peace. The third track ’Blackman reggae’ opens with an amazing drum rolling that spice the mood of the song coupled with lyrics about what reggae music is about and intermittent sensational keyboard works and backing vocals match perfectly to give the piece a serious reggae feels. This is followed by track four ‘that recounts ‘Who Jah bless’ recounts the Biblical stories of Daniel, Shadrack, Meshack, Abednego Joseph and how the power of Jah brought Mandela, Nkrumah, Rawlings and Kuffour from prison to presidency. The track five5 ’Glory to Jah’ is the title of the album and is an inspiring root reggae that extols the attributes of God.  ‘Guide me’ is track 6 where the artist shares his hustling life experiences and trust in God with a background of   groovy guitar solos and emotional timbre. Two songs from the album sung in English and French is ‘Petit a petit’ that opens with a catchy horn and the lyrics give hope to the hopeless to not give up is found in track seven. It is followed by ‘Les enfants’ on the eighth that lament the plight of vulnerable children in war countries and the lyrics tend to attract the attention of the listener. The ‘Tears in my eyes’ in the ninth track about migration of African youth who die in desert and on mediterranean sea trying to get to Europe.  The last track from the album is gospel reggae that has choruses in call-and-response vocal style with exciting sax solo sections and excellent lead guitar. Its message is about the need to thank God for a new day.

Meye Obibini (2024)

Contemporary Highlife album                    

 This is contemporary Highlife album made up of ten-tracks titled ‘‘Meye Obibini’. The first track that opens the album is ‘Ene me tenaa daa’ which is a reminiscent of classical highlife music that brings the memory of Ramblers with a beautiful swing horns and lyrics partly mixed in Twi, Fanti and English to spice the romantic content of the song. The second track ‘Meye Obibini’ as the album title has a fascinating horns intro and strums of two lead guitars combined with a powerful bass line mixed with good percussion that produce an excellent highlife instrumentation. The lyrics of the song is about African identity and cultural awareness calling for mental emancipation with vocals partly mixed with poetic recital. ’Do wo yonko’ as the third track is a guitar based Hi-life song that brings out the distinctive feature of Ghanaian Highlife music including sax solos alongside exquisite vocals in Twi and Fanti in powerful duet and the song talks about the need to love each other. Both the fourth and sixth tracks ‘la musique’ and ‘l’argent’ have titles in French and both have distinctive African dance rhythms.

 

‘L’argent’ is sung in Twi and French fused with the stylistic similarities of Ivorian bouncing tune of zouglou but partly mixed with zouk and Ghanaian highlife with accentuated guitar interspersed not only with Congolese jazz but captivating horns that set to move the laziest feet to action. ‘La musique’ on the other hand is a blend of highlife and Afro beat that include extensive guitar solo with lyrics that tend to promote Ghanaian cultural dances. The sixth track ’Nkogya’ combines a typical. traditional guitar style well played and fused with good horns arrangement where a dirge is sung to introduce the first verse of the song and the main artist sings the second verse to complement the features artist who performs the first verse to heighten the song’s emotion. Similarly, the seventh track ’Awiase’ share identical elements with ‘Nkogya’ because of the free flow of horns, sax solos and excellent highlife guitar works with a message about death and the impermance of life.

Afro Hybrid in world music

 

This album defines the artist musical imagination of contemporary Afro hybrid in world music and a criss-cross rhythm.  ‘Me Nyame’ as the first track from the album is an inspiring spiritual song that opens with the classical halleluyah chorus interspersed with beautiful highlife swing horns and captivating lyrics in praise of the creator. The high tempo of the song ends slowly as it rediscovers the initial intro of an amazing variations of rhythms that beautifies the sense of hearing and sets the listener in good spirit that (The rhythmic variations of this song vibrating in unison perfectly synchronized into a perfect harmony that beautifies the sense of hearing) makes it outstanding. Similarly, ‘Jehovah ‘the second track is also a spiritual song in slow vein and the lyrics are predominantly in praise of God with an irresistible rootsy guitar intro typically non-synthetic guitar riffs from Africa and sensational sax solos that brings out a deep spiritual touch as the chorus flows. 

Track three and four from the album are ‘Je te donne mon amour’ and ‘Woa na me do wo’ have irresistible jazz elements that fans of this international genre will like to listen for emotional enrichment.  In the case of track three it is fused with salsa with lyrics in Twi and French where track four has punctuated sax solos and the song begins with vocal ad libs and deep romantic words that heighten the lyrical content of this love song in slow tempo.

The track 5 ‘Opono hini me’ and 6 ‘Onua do’ are traditional palm wine guitar music with beautiful sounds created through acoustic guitar and local percussions including Pempesiwa (hand piano), Dawuro (bell), Frikyiwa (casternet), Apentema (small conga), Nnawuro (bell), and Dawurunta (twin bell). The track seven ‘This is the time’ is a mixture of Afro beat and Highlife with a captivating funky groove that moves the laziest feet to be on the floor and the intermittent horn solos bring out the beauty of this master piece. The song featured experienced session players including Abankoro on lead guitar, George Spratz on acoustic guitar, Attakora on bass, Bonsu on drum, Nana Yaw on percussion, Osor on keyboard, Liza on backing vocals. Track 8 is ‘Our Music for the World’ as the title of the album has no vocals except a single chorus and a high instrumentation that combine jazz fusion and funky.  The track nine ‘La Musique ‘has a regular highlife beat which is introduced by a very creative opening of tantalizing sax solo, followed by a thunderous scat of afro chant that precede the chorus and part of the lyrics is a captivating recital.  World music fans who have appreciation for African music will like the songs from this album titled’ Our music for the world’ as a contemporary world music album. The tenth track ‘Mama Africa’ an inspiration song that calls for Africa to unite has a charismatic blend of inspiring backups, keyboard and the very best of sax solos that comes after few verses in the song. 

Tracks 

  1.  Me Nyame  
  2.  Jehovah 
  3. Je te donne mon armour  
  4. Woa na me do wo 
  5. Opono hini me (palmwine guitar music)
  6. Onua do (palmwine guitar music)                
  7. This is the time (Afro pop)
  8. Our music for the world (Album title)
  9. La musique (original/Remix)
  10. Mama Africa

 

If we create music that meets the expectations or the taste of international audience then there will be market. The value of the intangible component is always there (quality of the work and  brand).

Jehovah (2015)

The artist’s maiden album titled ‘Jehovah’ was a ten-song collection and a hybrid of gospel, spiritual, jazz, soul, Afro beat, Highlife and Afro reggae as his gateway to the music world. Songs from the album include track 1 ‘Jehovah ‘, track 2 ‘woa na me do wo’, track 3’ Nkogya’, track 4’ L’argent’, track 5’ La musique’, ‘This is the time’, track 7’ Mama Africa’, track 8‘Oh love’, track 9 ‘Halleluyah’, and track 10’ la musique instrumentation. However, ‘La musique’, ‘This is the Time’ have been remixed with a contemporary touch. The track ‘Hallelujah’ which was a reggae gospel inspired him to record reggae album years later.

There was no question that he was a gifted song writer and natural singer whose musical inclination is a divine calling. The album featured experienced session players like guitarist Sulley Mustapha (of blessed memory), international acoustic guitar rising star George Spratz, the ever-green master guitarist Atta Poku, saxophonist Owura Prempeh, the legendary trumpeter Osei Tutu, South Africa based Ghanaian guitarist Richard Earth Kingston Benyarko, Keyboardist Solomon and drummer Nana Yaw, keyboardist George Mensah who brought their creative ingenuity to make the album a success.

On the vocals side, the late Highlife Guitarist and vocalist BB Collins was featured on ‘Nkogya’, the sensational King Fard on ‘La musique’, Selina on ‘L’argent’, Akosua on ‘Jehovah’, Afia Serwaah on ‘woa na me do wo’, ‘oh love’ and ‘Hallelujah’, Twum Barima on ‘This is the time’ and ‘Oh love’.  Kabore and David on ‘L’argent’. A young talented rapper by name BXY was featured on ‘Oh Love’ and ‘This is the time’.

All the programming, vocals arrangement, recording, editing and mixing of the songs were done by Kwaku Sarfo @ Eagle wings studio in Kumasi except ‘This is the time’ and ‘Oh love’ by Owura aka Smoke Ice and Solomon @ Pocalus studio.  The album was mastered at SKD Studio by Ferdi Seal and although the album was recorded between 2009 and 2010 it was finalised in the year 2012. Its launching took place on 5th March 2015 with the legendary Koo Nimo as the special guest with subsequent publications in the Newspapers. The album suffered promotional setback and the artist who went into obscurity is in a sensational come back in 2024.  After many years, Omama Blackman as a versatile songwriter and composer with an exceptional vocal ability is back again with concurrent three-ten track albums including ‘Meye Obibini’, ‘Glory to Jah’ and ‘Our Music for the World’ made up of varieties of musical styles and an amazing variation of rthythms including Jazz, Afro beat, Highlife, spirituals, gospel, salsa, palmwine traditional music etc.

 

In January 2020, the Alliance Franciase and the French government sponsored his maiden live concert in Kumasi dubbed ‘Omama Blackman presents Afro Hybrid in World Music and Reggae for Awareness backed by ONE HUMANITY Band. He is still looking forward for more local and international live music tours with any resident band in any part of the world.

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