Ghanaian Afro-fusion star KOJO BLAK joined Nandi Madida via FaceTime on Apple Music 1 to talk about his single, the Kelvyn Boy collab, “Excellent.” He also discussed his EP, ‘131,’ how music forms a part of his family’s history—and the legacy he’d like to leave behind. 

Here’s how the interview went down!

KOJO BLAK Tells Apple Music How Growing up in Dansoman, Accra, Shaped His Sound

KOJO BLAK: I come from a tribe, Ga, where many of our Ghanaians were fishermen. They played a major role in my tribe. We have our own music and dance culture called Palugo. So all this has had an impact in my music and in my life growing up. I was listening to a lot of Ga songs, a lot of highlife legends, like E.T. Mensah and Amakye Dede. I was listening to them always, so I would say that also shaped my sound.

KOJO BLAK Tells Apple Music How Music Forms a Part of His Family Legacy

KOJO BLAK: There’s one fact I think you don’t know about me: my granddad actually did music! I actually didn’t know until I started doing music myself. I was being stubborn as my dad was paying the fees for me in university, but I would run away and find myself in the studio. When my dad started allowing me to make music, he saw the progress, then he was like, “Your granddad was actually a musician!” I was like, “Oh, okay, I get it.” So it’s like a reincarnation kind of thing.

KOJO BLAK Tells Apple Music Why He Loves Afro-fusion

KOJO BLAK: One thing about Afro-fusion I’ve really come to love is creating something new, aside from following the original Afrobeats pattern and sound that we all can do. There’s something about Afro-fusion artists—because they always experiment with other cultures, it helps them create new styles. On my EP, songs like “Touch Ground” and “S.O.H” are very distinctive. They are two [majorly] different sounds! I love to experiment, especially when I’m making a full body of work.

KOJO BLAK Tells Apple Music Why He Named His EP ‘131’

KOJO BLAK:I was actually trying to not only communicate just my journey, but communicate realistic events. Because on the EP you’ll find love songs; you’ll find songs that are talking about perseverance; songs that talk about mental health. You will find varieties of songs, and one thing I wanted to transcend was the spirituality of it. That why I called it ‘131’—because in God’s time, everything falls [into] place.

KOJO BLAK Tells Apple Music About the History of His “Rulling” Tracks

KOJO BLAK: When I was recording “Intro (Rulling 3),” I was talking about my journey and life now. When I wrote “Rulling 1 (Day Ones),” it was about loyalty with my friends and those that I started with. When I was recording it, I had to actually walk to the studio across town, which was so many kilometres. At the time, I had no capital but the passion for me was so strong, I didn’t care. We were living in this single room, it looked like a store room, where myself, my stylist, my road manager, and I lived—all four of us!

KOJO BLAK Tells Apple Music About His Track, “Over Do”

KOJO BLAK:The chorus part of “Over Do” is very cultural. There’s a Ga tradition of singing this way when we are celebrating; we sing to the spirits of every twin. In this song, I’m not just implementing that alone, it was also was me telling a girl that if you give me the chance to love you, I’m not going to overdo things. I’ll just be calm. I’ll just be that cowboy that you want me to be. 

KOJO BLAK Tells Apple Music About the Legacy He Wants To Create

KOJO BLAK: I don’t want to just leave a legacy, but I want to leave a mark. A mark that would let everybody say, “Look, you see where this boy is from? He’s actually from the slums. He wasn’t raised with a silver platter or a golden spoon or anything.” I grew up eating with my bare hands from the slum. I just want to leave that [idea] for others, that you can be also be global. You can be exactly like KOJO BLAK—or you can be more than [me]! I’m not in any competition or anything. I’m just an Afrobeats artist in Ghana doing my music and looking up to my journey, taking over the world.  

Source(s): Interview supplied