The 4 Ks – New age for Ghana music?

Some names have been trending a lot in the Ghana music industry but among them are four acts whose names are attached to almost every trending song, released in the last three years.

For these artistes, every song they release, every single they feature on and every show they play turns to gold or is gold, which is it?

They are the Midas’ of the music industry.

You know them, I know them, everybody knows them and almost every artiste wants a collaboration with them, ladies and gents I present to you, Kidi, Kuami Eugene, King Promise and Kwesi Arthur.

You can call them the Four Ks as they are popularly known.

Before these four, the Ghana music industry was ruled by the ‘Ss’ – Sarkodie, Stonebwoy, Shatta Wale and Samini – and even though they have not been sidelined, the four Ks are challenging them at every turn.

Since 2017, the Four Ks have been treating Ghanaians with a lot of great music, timeless ones too.

In 2017, Kidi released his single ‘Say You Love Me’, Kuami Eugene introduced ‘Angela’ to the world, Kwesi Arthur did an amazing freestyle with “Grind day” and King Promise delivered on his promise to give Ghanaians good music when he released “Selfish”.

All in one year! People danced to these songs then and still jump to their feet when they hear the songs are being played.

And the exciting part is there was more and they are still giving us more.

Meet KiDi

Not only does he have a good sense of style but he has an amazing voice to go with it. The 2015 MTN Hitmaker winner shot to fame in 2017 with his hit single ‘Say You Love Me’.

It was not always a good road for the young artiste. In 2013, he was not picked to be part of the final cut who were to compete in Vodafone Icons.

In 2016 after the Hitmaker, his singles ‘Naadu’ featuring MzVee, ‘Bleed’ and ‘Never Again’ did not do so well. But his consistency and dedication to be better and make great music have gotten him this far.

The Highlife, Afrobeat singer-songwriter and music producer has his silky distinctive voice making love to the ears of every fan listening to his songs.

He is just that good. We all know it, in fact when he released “Odo”, people got so attached, it got to Nigeria, wowed Davido which prompted a remix of the song featuring him (Davido) and Mayorkun.

“Odo” till now is the most viewed song by Kidi on YouTube with nearly seven million views, 6.9m to be exact, followed by “Adiepena” released early 2018 with five million. This gentleman did not come to play.

Check out some views from his fans after listening to ‘Adiepena’;

“This guy continues to challenge us non-Ghanaians to speak Twi… I will learn this song (‘Adiepena’) by force,”

“That moment when I first heard the song, fell in love with it 😍🙌🏾👅and had to ask my Ghanaian boyfriend what it meant.”

A Nigerian fan even wrote us a letter. It read, “our dear neighbour Ghana, take shaku shaku dance and Mr. Eazi’s Nigerian part and give us Kidi”

You see that! They want him, you’ve gotta admit, he’s super. His latest song Mr. Badman? No long talk!

You know why he’s trending, maybe it is his talent to make music look like a fascinating piece of painting with intricate brush strokes, bold and subtle colours all mixed together to create an art that is to die for.

Basically, his lyrics, tunes, beats and the productions are always on point.

Meet Kuami Eugene

This gentleman dazzled audience with his performances in the 2016 MTN Hitmaker.

Although he did not win, CEO of Lynx Entertainment Richie Mensah saw that unique talent and knew not only Ghanaians but people from other parts of Africa and beyond will enjoy his music.

Of course, he has had his ups and downs! Remember when he would be in the news just because of his choice of clothes? Ahhhh, the good old days.

Well as they say money can do a lot of things, check his fashion style now, “e dey on top”!

But when it came to his music, he had everybody dancing and singing along to ‘Angela’ before he had even finished penning the lyrics.

With, ‘Wish Me Well’ he spoke the language of the people, took the words right out of their hearts and gave it back to them in the form of music.

“I always say nobody will pray for his neighbour to make it. But when you pray for your neighbour to make it. You will enjoy part of their blessing. Pray for me. I will pray for you. Wish me well, I will wish you well by God’s grace. Stay blessed.”

“Finally, a song about human wellbeing, compassion, empathy, devotion etc… This is proof that there are other things in life other than lust and sex even though that is what sells the most.”

Now, people play the song to encourage themselves especially when haters hate for no reason.

No wonder it has fetched him 9.4 million views on YouTube and still counting.

You want to know why he’s trending? Giving the audience something, they can relate to, not just dance to is his expertise.

Meet King Promise

The singer known for the big “camboo” he wore to the 2018 Vodafone Ghana Music Award’s has been releasing amazing music about love, devotion and life since his big break in 2017.

The singer before his first hit song was performing at school events, and underground events until he was discovered by the award-winning music producer KillBeatz.

With an incredible voice like his, having KillBeatz as his producer and Kojo Antwi a mentor, by his side, he cannot serve anything less than great music.

Fans and music lovers cannot get over every song he releases or features on.

Have you listened to ‘Tokyo’ his super late 2018 hit song featuring Wizkid?

“From a Nigerian fan, have always said that King promise is the future of Ghana music, he only does good songs, he does not rush doing many unnecessary songs, good vocals and calm tempo, nice collabo, the sky is your starting point.”

“Number One #KingPromise. I’m in love with this bro.”

“Africa connects. Who liked before watching? King Promise will go places.”

Those are just the tip of the almost 2000 comments there are about the song.

One thing that has helped him win the hearts of Ghanaians is his ability to write songs that celebrate and appreciate love and love stories, almost like his mentor, Kojo Antwi.

Meet Kwesi Arthur

The Ground Up Chale breakout star made Ghanaians fall in love with rap all over again.

The Ghetto university king is a rapper everyone can relate to. He made sure everyone knows he is from the hood, chewing gari here and there in his music videos, putting his boys in the videos and empowering others to work harder.

Kwesi Arthur had people rapping to ‘Grind dey’ at every spot and those who did not know the lyrics at least knew one thing, the chorus. ‘Monday yeh yeh, Tuesday yeh yeh, Wednesday yeh, yeh, Friday yeh yeh, everyday yeh yeh.’ It is still playing everywhere.

It even got a remix in 2017…

“Kwasi Arthur is the future who’s with me…?💪💪👌👌🔥🔥🔥🔥”

“Kwesi Arthur herr words can’t explain…. We go blow very soon I swear u do errtin”

“I’m a south African and when I found out that When Nasty C was in Ghana he linked up with Kwesi and they worked, and later i saw he got a BET Nomination, I was wondering who the hell this Kwesi guy is but after I heard this yesterday, I know why there’s hype around this guy . this might be the best African trap song I’ve heard since ‘Roll Up’ by emtee.”

…and the fans loved it!

His song “Woara” is so good even school choirs are doing their covers of the song.

Kwesi brought a fresh face to rap and had almost every artist from different genres dying to have his lines on their track.

The talent of the Gound Up Chale star got him nominated in 2018 for a BET award barely two years into his career, a feat many musicians have not been able to achieve. Big ups to Kwesi

Collaboration

There is a long queue of artistes old and new waiting to collaborate with any of these four.

Some of them are Sarkodie, R2Bees, Fuse ODG, Captain Planet, Samini, Tac, Andy Dosty, Mr. Eazy, Medikal, Eugy, Guilty Beatz, Kelvyn Boy, MzVee, DJ Virusky, Adina, Mayorkun, Strongman, Davido, Ice Prince, Wizkid and the list goes on.

With a lot of great feedback on their works, it is not shocking a long list of A-list artistes have and still are collaborating with them.

“Can’t Let You Go”, the Sarkodie song King Promise was featured on got 6.1 million views on YouTube alone. Even though it was released in August 2018, the song is still trending nearly two months into 2019. The fans just can’t let go.

With 5.5 million views on Adina’s “Killing Me Softly” featuring Kuami Eugene holds a special place in the heart of fans, eleven months after its release.

“I Miss You Die” by Samini featuring Kidi, “African Girl” by Shatta Wale featuring Kwesi Arthur, “Dabebi” by Mr. Eazi featuring King Promise have fans making snap videos any chance they get.

Who remembers Stay Jay? Wait! Who could forget “Stay Jay Jay style ɛnya no”?

It has been years since anyone heard from Stay Jay and he has a new single coming out. It is an open secret he featured one of “The Four”, Kuami Eugene, on the track.

On Twitter, Kuami Eugene posted a sample of the song and it is fire.

People, it is about the Midas touch after all.

If there is one thing Ghanaians will love is a collaboration with these amazing acts on it. Kidi and Kwesi Arthur have taken the lead to give fans “Don’t Keep Me Waiting” and “Mr. Badman” and the fans are loving it.

However, looks like these fans are waiting to see all four in a song. It will be sensational, right?

Live band performances

Ghana has no doubt great musicians under its belt and they do so well during live band performances and still manage to keep the audience engaged. But some of these musicians sometimes fail to impress their fans when they are performing live.

For “The Four”, their live performances are lit!

On the end of year edition of Joy FM ‘Drive Time’, Kuami Eugene performed live at the +233 Jazz Bar and Grill and fans could not help but want more. “No size for u Kwame! U bring life into live band ooo boy you are too much!”, “You are a great artist,” “Very talented”, are just a few of the comments people made while watching the show.

Also, April 2018 performed a live rendition of his songs “Angela” and “Confusion” with the Viva Band.

Kidi in March 2018, also performed a live rendition of his hit song “Odo” with the Viva Band and It was on point and beautiful.

The hundreds that witnessed Kwesi Arthur perform live at his at his maiden EP concert dubbed Live From Nkrumah Krom could certainly not keep calm. They were not only captivated with the rapper’s rap skills and performance at the event.

In December 2017, Rayan Kort published a one-minute live session video with King Promise and it was all sorts of fire.

Awards

In less than three years, these young artistes have been bagging nominations and awards.

For the 2018 VGMAs, King Promise took away the “Best Male Vocalist Awards”, Kuami Eugene was awarded the “Best New Artiste” and “Highlife Artiste of the Year”, Kidi won the award for “Highlife Song of the Year” and “Hip Hop Song of the Year” went to Kwesi Arthur.

These young artistes in 2019 are keeping up the energy, the fire and great music.

Surprisingly many people have wondered how these four talented young ones have been able to push through the tight Ghana Music Industry and made their way to the forefront.

“Ghanaians wanted to see more than just a few acts dominate. they wanted a future for the Ghanaian music, so record labels worked hard to give them these talents,” the founder of 3Music Sadiq Abdulai Abu once said on Hitz FM.

They have been tagged “the new recipe in Ghana music industry” and “the future of authentic Ghanaian music,” do you agree?

Source: MyJoyOnline.com