Rap music is not a genre embraced by all Africans and Ghanaians to be precise because some people have the notion that rap music is all about gangster life’ drugs and other bad acts but for the past few years some Ghanaian rappers who have emerged have given is classic rap songs some about life, love, how good God is and many other things music can talk about.
Gyedu-Blay Ambolley is a Ghanaian Highlife musician who originated rap music in Ghana. He used to fuse comic rap with highlife in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s which made him more popular and known globally.
Since then rap music has thrived in the Ghanaian music industry and below are the top 15 best Ghanaian rappers.
Obrafour
Obrafour, popularly known as “Rap sofo” means rap preacher or pastor. is the number one on the list due to his genius way of using rap music to talk about love, and life and most especially address pressing issues in Ghanaian society? Obrafour has introduced so many young rappers to Ghanaians and one of them is Sarkodie. He is called the godfather of rap music in Ghana by music lovers. Obrafour is loved by all, because of the different ways of rapping and storytelling music. He won the hearts of many with his “PAE MU KA” album and addressed pressing social issues for the people.
Sarkodie
Sarkodie is number two on the list due to his longevity in the rap game. He even won the Artist of the decade award at the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards in 2019 for good rap music for the past ten years and he has also won over 25 individual awards for his good works. The said rapper won the maiden edition of the BET Award for Best International Flow in 2019 with his dope freestyle rap which he spoke about how beautiful African women are and how Africa as a continent to unite to develop. Sarkodie has also brought up many young rappers now making waves such as Lyrical Joe, Amerado, Teephlow, and many others and so he is regarded as the “Land Lord” of the Ghana music industry.
M.anifest
M.anifest also known as the God MC is third on the list of top rappers in Ghana due to his good way of promoting African culture with his dress and rap. M.anifest is one of the finest lyricists the Ghanaian industry will ever see because of how he presented his music, his wordplay, and his good storytelling. He won the Best Rapper and Hip-Hop song of the year at the 2017 Ghana Music Awards with his God MC song, a diss to his fellow, Sarkodie rapper when they were beefing and it amazed a lot of people how wrote a diss song without a single insult but just bars and hardcore lines.
Omar Sterling
Omar Sterling who is part of award-winning R2bees, a Hip-Hop duo is one of the best rappers in Ghana. Omar is not like other rappers who try to rap fast to show how long they can hold their breath but rather he takes his time being it Hip-Hop, Afropop, or Hiplife and he delivers with heavy bars and rhymes to make the record a nice one. His raps are good for the elites because he usually raps about life, love, and money in English and a little bit of Twi. Even though he is part of a duo, he sometimes releases solo singles and albums. One of his solo albums is “Back to Basics” and it is regarded as a masterpiece by rap lovers.
Strongman
The fifth-best Ghanaian rapper is Strongman, a young Ghanaian rapper who has been in the game for a long with a lot of good works. Strongman became fearsome after his beef with Medikal ended. He is one of the untouchable rappers in Ghana when it comes to writing diss songs. His name strongman does not reflect his personality because he is slim but his lines always come with a punch and that is why he is called strongman.
Kwesi Arthur
Kwesi Arthur is sixth on the list of top rappers in Ghana because he has served music lovers with a whole lot of good records which include hip-hop, Afrobeats, and highlife music. The versatility of Kwesi in the music industry is why he is loved by many. He got his breakthrough with his first single “grind day” and remixed it with Sarkodie and this helped his career in 2018. He usually uses bikes and motors in his music video with boys on the streets and this gives his viewers a proper Hip-Hop vibe.
Amerado
Amerado is next on the list of top best rappers in Ghana. The success story of the young Ghanaian rapper is just amazing. He fused highlife, tongue-twisting, reggae vibe, traditional beats such as Kete drum(used in the Ashanti Region), and hardcore rap into his songs and this makes his rap style unique. He sings about life, money, love, and how he will establish his supremacy in the music industry in the next few years to come. He is one of the young rappers Sarkodie featured on his “Bibii ba” song and since then he has strived hard and remained relevant in the game. Amerado gain much popularity after he introduced “Yete Nsem”, the first Twi newscasting with rap and it was about trending issues in Ghana.
E.L
E.L. popularly known as Lomi or E.L baby is one of the top rappers in Ghana with his amazing talent. He does magic on HipHop beats, Afrobeats, and Azonto. One of his famous HipHop songs is Lala Falama. He is regarded as one of the people who introduced the Azonto genre into the Ghanaian industry. E.L. has won so many prestigious awards and one of them that makes him special is the Artiste of the Year Award at the 2016/17 Vodafone Ghana Music Awards and Hip-Hop Artiste of the year.
Lyrical Joe
Lyrical Joe is a good lyricist, tongue-twister, and pound-for-pound rapper and that is why he is in the ninth position. Joe is one of the young rappers Sarkodie put on his “Bibiibi ba” record and since then he has worked hard to be recognized as a good rapper. He once got into a banter with Amerado over the 3music Rapper of the year award and that is where the whole of Ghana got to know how good he is when it comes to writing diss songs in a short period and giving out bars that carry weight.
Eno Barony
Eno Barony, the only best female rapper who has been consistent for the past five years is the tenth on this list. She has been able to compete with all the men in the rap game and has won the Rapper of The Year Award at the 3Music Awards in 2021, she also won Best Rap Performance at the 2021 Vodafone Ghana Music Awards and Africa Muzik Magazine Award for Best Female Rap Act in Africa in 2022. Eno started her career as a young rapper who does refix with popular rap songs and now here she is making waves in Africa.
Medikal
Medikal is one of the top rappers in Ghana and is known for making comic rap music, commercial songs, and sometimes hardcore rap with bars. Medikal was introduced to the rap game by Criss Waddle who is also a rapper and C.E.O of AMG Business. He has been very influential since he got his first Hip-Hop song, “How Much” making waves everywhere and he later remixed it with Sarkodie and Omar Sterling. He won Best Rapper of the Year in 2019 at the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards which caused a beef between himself and Strongman, he has also won a couple of awards such as the 3Music Award for Hip-Hop Artiste of the Year in 2021 and the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards, Artiste of the Year in 2021.
Flow King Stone
Flow King Stone, is the next top rapper in Ghana and as his name describes him, he is the king of flow(rap). Stone was part of a duo called Bradez which consisted of himself and his brother, Kunta but sickness struck down Kunta and Flow King had no other option than to go solo. The rapper is Medical Doctor by Profession but he still made time to drop songs for his fans. Flow King won his first-ever award at the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards in 2017 with his single, “Go Low” after so many years of hard work. Flow King is the originator of using talking drums(traditional drums in the Ashanti Region) to do rap music.
Tulenkey
Tulenkey is next on the list with his good rap skills. He came into the rap scene with a song he titled “Fork boys” which was about boys who change their girlfriends randomly and since then he has remained in the game dropping back-to-back hits. One of the songs that made him popular and loved by all is when he addressed the social canker, Child Abuse in his song he titled “Child Abuse” with the beat of Cardi B’s “I Like It” song. Tulenkey is good at tongue-twisting and dropping hot bars in most of his songs.
Ypee
YPee is also one of the best rappers in Ghana and has featured artists like Sarkodie, Kuami Eugene, Medikal, Shatta Wale, and many others due to his great talent. He is one the conveners of the “Kumerican drill” and he got more famous when he remixed the “Me Y3 Guy” song with Sarkodie and Medikal. He is known for making commercial songs and Hip-Hop songs. Ypee also known as Ypee BaakoP3 is regarded as one of the rappers in Ghana that are good at making songs with trendings issues and “terms”.
Kofi Mole
Kofi Mole, one of the finest rappers who were brought into the scene with the help of Sarkodie by featuring him on his “Bibii ba” track. Mole has also strived hard and remained in the game since he got his big hit “Mensah” with the help of a colleague(Kwesi Arthur) who was signed by Ground Up Chale”, after this hit he dropped “Die Rich”, a cover of Roddy Rich’s “Die Young” song and the song that gave him a massive listening audience is “Don’t Be Late”. Kofi is one of the rappers who entertained Ghanaian online by dropping episodes of rap he titled “Mole Mondays” during Covid Lockdown Era. He won Next rated Act of the Year at 3Music Awards in 2019 and Best Hip-Hop Song of the Year in 2020 at the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards.
Source: 233musicblog.com
