Ghanaian rapper Joseph Gamor, popularly known as Lyrical Joe, has stated that artistes who rap in English often face pressure to include local languages, particularly Twi, in their music.
In an interview on 3Music TV, the “5th August” rapper shared his experience with this common expectation in the Ghanaian music industry.
When asked whether he feels pressured to include Ghanaian languages in his rap, Lyrical Joe responded by saying that it’s something that almost every artiste in Ghana faces.
According to him, there is no way to avoid that kind of pressure.
“Well, from the beginning, you can never dodge that thing in Ghana here,” he said.
He explained that right from the start of his career, many people advised him to rap in Twi or, at the very least, simplify his lyrics using pidgin English so more Ghanaians could relate to his music.
“From the beginning, I had many people push that on to me. People said to me ‘If you will not do the Twi, then you just break it down to pidgin. Let’s keep it pidgin and see because Ghanaians can cope with that,’” he shared.
Lyrical Joe further noted that he had his own goals and vision for his music. He emphasised that he has always had a clear idea of what he wants to achieve with his rap.
“I also had my mindset about what I was looking to achieve and everything,” he said.
The rapper went on to question why people often expect him to rap in Twi without considering where he was coming from. He pointed out that Ghana has many local languages, and forcing artistes to only use Twi is unfair.
“People ask me why I won’t speak Twi in my song, they don’t ask me where I am from, whether I am Asante or not. That’s not the only local language in Ghana, so if you are forcing me to go there, then there is a problem,” he added.
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