Rapper and Co-founder of Giant Steps Kwame Ametepee Tsikata, popularly known as M.anifest, has urged the government and stakeholders in the creative arts space to nurture environments that put value on arts, beyond entertainment.
He made this known at an event dubbed “‘Creative Economy and Our Collective Future and Development” at the Cedi Conference Centre on March 6, 2023 as part of activities earmarked for the UG at 75 anniversary.
According to the god mc, there is a need to create an environment that appreciates the arts to recoup the success that will come with it.
“Creative success and cultural success are very important, hence, the environment needs to be nurtured to realize that, art can have a great value beyond entertainment and the commercial success of artists.”
M.anifest also added music, arts, and film making in Ghana should be able to tell the Ghanaian story and as well as define who a Ghanaian truly is.
“…maybe this is the time in which arts and music, filmmaking, etc. can begin to help us define our collective understanding of who we truly are…we can keep our individuality but have an understanding of who we are as a collective idea,” he said.
M.anifest further attributed the growing interest in arts and music by people who did not have prior interest, to its vast patronage and appeal.
“Making choices for arts is a challenge now and that, there has been a lolong-standingondescension towards the arts because we like to be entertained especially, by things like music and other things of sorts. In terms of the more intrinsic or bigger value, art is not considered, partly because the commercial viability of it has not reached its kind of zenith yet, in this country.”
M.anifest is the son of Ghanaian lawyer and academician Tsatsu Tsikata and Reverend Dr. Priscilla Naana Nketia, a lawyer and pastor. His maternal grandfather Joseph Hanson Kwabena Nketia was a composer, professor, and ethnomusicologist.
In 2015 M.anifest’s single “Someway bi” earned him a third-place honor in the International Songwriters Competition (ISC). In the same year, The Guardian named M.anifest as “the foremost rapper on the continent.”. M.anifest currently lives in Accra (Madina) and Minneapolis.
In 2017, he won Best Rapper and Hip-Hop song of the year at the 2017 Ghana Music Awards, and featured on five songs on the Rocket Juice and The Moon album.
Story by ; Winnifred Aba Amissah | univers.ug.edu.gh
