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M.anifest Muzic

Twenty-five tracks from a Ghanaian rapper who writes in three registers at once and comes from one of the most distinguished musical lineages in Africa.

M.anifest (manifestations) on Myspace

M.anifest

Kwame Ametepe Tsikata is the grandson of J.H. Kwabena Nketia, the Ghanaian ethnomusicologist whose scholarship effectively established the academic study of African music. That is an unusual inheritance for a rapper, and it is visible in how seriously he treats the traditional material in his work.

He studied in Minnesota, which put him in contact with the American independent hip-hop scene, and the result is a style that moves between English, Twi and Pidgin, frequently within a verse. The writing is dense, literary and funny, and he is one of the very few African rappers taken equally seriously as a lyricist on both continents.

The production draws on highlife, hiplife and contemporary Ghanaian pop, which keeps the records from ever sounding like American rap made elsewhere.

What to listen for

"Someway Bi" is the record that made him a household name in Ghana, and it is the best introduction to how the languages interlock.

"Nowhere Cool" and the version with Cina Soul and Ama Ata Aidoo are the most significant tracks here — Aidoo was one of Africa's most important writers, and having her voice on a rap record is a remarkable piece of cultural continuity.

"Sugar" with Brymo is the best collaboration, and Brymo is among the most distinctive singers in Nigerian music.

"Cupid's Crooked Bow" with Nomisupasta is the prettiest thing on the list, and "Do My Own" is the most swaggering.

"Rich People Problems" with Tumi Molekane is the pan-African rap summit — Ghana and South Africa's two best lyricists on one track.

"Ozymandias" takes its title from Shelley, which is exactly the kind of move that makes his catalogue rewarding, and "Mind Games" and "Invisible" are where the writing is most introspective.

"No Fear" with Vic Mensa and MOLIY is the most recent and the most ambitious production.

Go deeper

Nowhere Cool (2016) and Nowhere Cool II are the essential albums, and GodMC is the most technically dazzling.

For Ghanaian music more widely: Ebo Taylor and the highlife tradition behind everything here, and Sarkodie, Amaarae and Juls as the contemporaries.

Listening note: the code-switching is structural, not decorative. English, Twi and Pidgin carry different registers — argument, intimacy, humour — and he moves between them within a verse to change who is being addressed. Following which language a line lands in tells you a great deal about what the line is doing.

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