In August 2019, Jam Master Jay (JMJ), renowned award-winning Ghanaian Music Producer, made Ghanaians in showbiz privy to his willingness to serve music enthusiasts with a project dubbed “Riddim Of The GODS”.
The riddim compilation project cuts across Afrobeats, Reggae/Dancehall and Rap circles. For the purpose of clarity, the project seeks to assign a single instrumentation or better still riddim to a number of selected artistes to deliver their very best of lyrics.
To make long story short, the first batch or phase of the much-popularized project is out, therefore, this blog post curated by Adu Sarpeah, Ghana’s Realest Blogger, is basically to critiquè the output of the respective artistes featured on the riddim put forth by JMJ.
E.L
E.L.’s version is titled “Hi Up”. Listening attentively to his verse for more than 5 times, the content is all about him (E.L) claiming supremacy but he’s still missing a lot for obvious reasons.
As he reiterated severally in the song that he is the best and will forever remain the best in the industry and that proclamation is just ridiculous. You can’t blame him either as bragging has been the nature of rap. In all, I will rate him 6/10.
SARKODIE
Sarkodie’s version christened “Do it like Sark” and as usual, he didn’t disappoint. His flow energy and voice modulation remain superb. The least said about him the better. I will rate him 8/10 considering the fact that he was too self-centered. For once, Sarkodie should stop talking about his exploits in songs always.
OKYEAME KWAME
As stated earlier in the caption, Okyeame Kwame should be whipped severely for his abysmal output on the song titled “Diss”. Nonetheless, I can’t establish the truth or whatsoever if Okyeame Kwame intentionally put together that shoddy verses as rap as I am tempted to believe that his little son, Kwame Bota wrote the verses on his behalf (No pun intended). I will rate him 4/10.
FLOWKINGSTONE
Okyeame Kwame’s description fits him better so no time to waste. His biggest setback has to do with the erroneous perception that Ghanaians keep underrating him because he’s Kumsi-based. To give him the benefit of the doubt, I will rate him 5/10 on the “Governor” track.
STRONGMAN
His version titled “No Debate” has caused a lot of hullabaloo on social media following a comment passed by Mr. Logic. He didn’t disappoint on the track per his standard. Strongman is still learning on the job so… I will rate him 7/10.
TEEPHLOW
He got it when it comes to wordplay, but real rap is not all about playing-on-words (wordplay). His version is titled “Missing Pairs”. Per the lyrical content of the song, Teephlow feels rap music in Ghana is not complete without his signature – so, he remains the missing pair! I will rate him 7.5/10.
OBIBINI
Honestly, the seriousness Obibini, “rap mu wudini”, on his part of the cypher dubbed “Flow Dripping” is questionable. I don’t know if he comes from a super-rich family, but “Dada Bee” kind of raps nkoaa as one should be more attentive and critical to decipher his words. I will rate him 6/10.
EDEM
“Number 9” happens to be the title of his verse. His rapping tone or better still language remains a challenge, cetèris paribus. I will rate him 5.5/10.
PERSONAL OBSERVATION
In all, “riddim of the gods” cypher project spearheaded by Jam Master Jay (JMJ) is one of the best things ever to happen in Ghana Music Industry for the past decade. However, publicity about the timeless initiative has been low for obvious reasons and it’s unfortunate.
