Nigeria Content Online

You may come across a dreadlocked man dressed in a T-Shirt and
a wrap-skirt walking the streets barefoot. It may be startling at first sight,
but that is the signature for the Ghanaian artist and self-proclaimed
propagator of Pidgin Music – Wanluv Kubolor (Kubolor means Vagabond in the Ga
language; one of the languages of Ghana).

The musician whose real name is Owusu Bonsu, recently launched
the first ever Pidgin Musical film titled, “Coz ov Moni” which he says would
soon be premiering in Nigeria. Ahead of the film’s opening in the UK on July
22, Wanluv Kubolor speaks to NEXT about his life and music.

The travelling musician

Music has always been around me, it always makes me happy.
While growing up I saw my parents enjoy music and every time there was music
playing, I saw my parents dancing. It just made me believe that music gives
happiness. While I was studying Computer Science in America, I was rapping and
singing as a hobby; one day, I realised that some of these small gigs was
getting me some kind of money. I knew that if I took it seriously I would be
able to live off music. Though I liked Computer Science and computers, I
realised I was enjoying the music more. I knew I had a rebel kind of life so I
knew I would not want to get an office job with that kind of life, so I did the
most logical thing and the best thing for me which was pursuing music.

The complexities of
Pidgin Music

The most appropriate label for the kind of music I do is Pidgin
Music, because my background is made up of different cultures that I grew up
in. In Ghana alone, I grew up in a Ga neighbourhood, but my family is Ashanti;
so with my father’s side of the family we were speaking Twi and in the house I
was speaking Romanian with my mother and listening to gypsy music. I was also
listening to Highlife, Hip-Hop and other folk songs on the radio. Highlife was
mostly in Twi and the folk songs mostly in Ga, while the gypsy music I listened
to was done in the gypsy language and the Romanian language. Generally, in my
life, I came into so many languages. I even learnt French at school. When I am
doing music I find it hard to separate these influences. A Romanian could be
listening to my music and hear a Romanian word or phrase that alone could
attract the person to the song. Being from a mixed environment has spawned this
style of music I do.

More than just the
buttock

My favourite thing is a woman’s buttock. I don’t really sing
about it; but if am doing a song that talks about a woman, it makes it very
compact. I do songs about many things around me like traffic – societal songs
which could talk about the people in uniform and what they do by the road side,
also I have songs like ‘Life Dey Jump’ which means: life is sweet, I also have
songs about the environment. As a wholesome human being I do wholesome music. I
keep myself open to all the forces around me to get inspired.

The short walk to music

I have been doing music professionally since 2004. I ran into
one of the greatest Ghanaian artist still alive, Gyedu-Blay Ambolley in Los
Angeles when he came to my show which was promoted by a Nigerian promoter.
After [Ambolley] saw my performance, he helped me take it to the next level
[and] he started booking some shows for me; I was also opening for him in shows
around the United States. Back in Ghana there is what we call PAYOLA which is
“Pay to Play” where people pay the stations for their music to be played.
Because of this system, my music has not reached a desired peak, but just the
small rotations I have got have made me one of the most popular artists in
Ghana.

I also do shows around the world. I attribute this to the
pidgin style. I did not release an album until ‘Green Card’ in 2007 (the cover
was designed by Lemi Ghariokwu who designed all the sleeves of Fela’s albums).
Some musicians who listen to foreign music believe that they have to sound like
the artist they ‘hear every day. So it’s a psychological battle. Now I have
‘Green Card’ and ‘Coz ov Moni’ out I am tending towards more traditional
sounds; am still sampling other sounds but am more into a live band traditional
sound. I enjoy touring the World [Music] circuit more than the Hip-Hop or the
Pop circuit. There might be money in the Pop circuit but you have a certain
life span.

Skirt wearing and
barefooted man

Growing up in Ghana I was always the odd person. In a way it
has desensitised me to comments or to stares. I wear a T-shirt or some
traditional shirt, a wrap-skirt and I don’t wear shoes. As a child, anytime I
was leaving the house to play, my parents will force me to put on footwear,
even when I put it on when am out of the house I hide it in the bushes or under
a block. When am coming back, I will remove it from where I hid it and wear it.
My parents always found out that my feet were dirty but my slippers always
looked new. As I grew older I started wearing shoes to school but later in 2006
as a student in America, I used to wear African slippers, the traditional ones
from Ashanti.

In 2007 when I got back to Ghana, walking around with these
ornamental shoes made my feet hurt by the middle of the day so I would put it
in my bag until I had to enter a Bank or the Club. After a while, I will forget
to wear them so I started leaving the slippers at home. One day someone came to
my house, his foot wear had cut so he borrowed mine. From that day I have never
worn shoes. I feel more alive when I walk around bare feet. For me it gives me
the enjoyment and freedom I had as a child, I feel that same youthful energy,
like Peter Pan. You also get a direct flow with the planet. The only
disadvantage for me is that the microphone I use to perform is not plastic so
it shocks me when I put it near my lips, so I put paper or cloth. I have been
walking around bare feet for three years. I have walked in places that no one
would want to go even with boots on.

The rap-skirt gives me easy access to things like fresh air. I
can’t think of a more comfortable wear and I think our ancestors had figured it
out a long time ago. Right now I can’t even wear supporters (underpants)
because when I wear it after sometime I feel uncomfortable. Our wearing
trousers came from European influence but that’s because of their climate which
is different from ours. When it’s cold I wear double wrap-skirt. The last time
I wore trousers was in December 2007; if you exclude the time I wore a trouser
on the set for ‘Coz Ov Moni’ for the closing scenes.

Coz Ov Moni

I grew up to sound of music from Indian films, where there is a
lot of music, even when the last killer is about to shoot they break into song.
Somewhere at the back of my mind I always knew I wanted to do a musical. The
idea came up between me and Mensah (a Ghanaian musician based in the UK) to do
a musical. Mensah is one of the pioneers of Hiplife in Ghana, by 15 he was
producing for Reggie Rockstone.

We were in secondary school together where we used to rap
together; we met again in 2005 in New York and decided to do a concept album
where everything happens in one day for two friends, so the album from the
beginning to the end is morning to night. So when you listen to one song the
next continues from where the last stops; as we started creating the album we
realised that we could make it a film.

We played it for producers who agreed to shoot it with about
three weeks of rehearsals and three weeks of shooting we were done we had
enough material to plan everything for ‘Coz Ov Moni’ It’s the first of its kind
in the world; and the professionalism we put into the production has made the
film to be accepted in so many film festivals around the world.