Interview With Asumadu; Ghana's fastest rising rapper
Solomon Asumadu Mensah, well known as Asumadu then called Young So, is a Ghanaian rapper, blogger, and Disc jockey. He also writes for Ghana's portal news website News Ghana. He is well known in most African countries by his single song "Tentelebuteele".
Here is unedited interview with this talented youth.
Q: Tell us a bit about you. Where did you start? What was your journey like to get where you are?
A: I was born Solomon Asumadu Mensah on 13th September 1993. A Ghanaian rap act, radio personality / disc jockey and brand ambassador for fashion mogul U&a Kloddin. I was born to a Second World War military man and the youngest child out of my mother’s kids. I have two brothers from my mother
I started to develop my music career from 2012 after supporting a performance by Abusuapanin Chiki, a Ghanaian musician and song writer and contestant in the MTN Hitmaker maiden edition. I was then called Young So and was the first Ghanaian artiste to be signed unto American based record label Gentlemen Radio Records and a year after I parted ways with them.
After a sober reflection from 2012 to later 2015, I decided to go back to my ‘roots’ to adopt my family name to seek blessings behind my family name Asumadu in other to leave a bigger mark on my rap fraternity.
Opting for Asumadu as my stage name has help reflecting on my current state of mind, as I have been rated as one of the top five emerging musicians with the most interactive fan base with over 116,000 verified organic facebook fan page.
It wasn’t easy as new rap act, my timing was poor, punch lines were weak but with the help of Youtube, Google, Mr Herry, Abusuapanin Chiki, just to mention few I was able to overcome these challenges.
Q: In life everything is changing very quickly. In what ways has your newest music changed from when you first started?
A: My newest music changed from when I started after I decided to record different genre aside the R&B type of music that I was used to at my early stage. I realised dynamism is the majority puller so I began to record different genres like Hip hop, Afro Pop etc.
Q: Music expresses emotions. Which emotion more than any other, currently dominates your music? Joy, sadness, anger or passion etc. and why?
A: Emotionally, Sadness, Joy and passion dominates to my music. I must say all of them. My music expresses life of individuals who always wish to have their desires and keeps working hard towards it. I have about three songs when people listen they feel all of my passion and emotions.
Q: Which of your works is the most close to you as a human being, which one is the most personal and why?
A: As a human being, my song title ‘3b3t) Woso’ which literally means ‘Feeling Remorse For’ has been the most close to me and personally ‘She’s Feeling Me’ which I featured the African Entertainment Award Winner Ahkan, half of music duo Ruff n Smooth. I had one follower from South Africa who had interest in me but was difficult to tell me. So I decided to record that master piece to let her know my feelings as well.
Q: Which famous musicians do you admire? Why?
A: I admire New York based rapper Papoose and the late Philip Lucky Dube from South Africa. The reason had been that, Papoose raps in things which are more real in Hip Hop which has been my primary genre. The late Lucky Dube has been my all time admirer with his aim of preaching peace in the world through music. His music ‘Different Colors’ for instant preaches about discriminating which is very bad and causing more harm that good. Not only Lucky Dube preaching about peace, but depicting his identity. Lucky often had to work and help support his family instead of going to school. He once worked as a gardener or as a library assistant.
Q: There are people who inspire and motivate us. Who is your hero?
A: Micheal Jackson is my Hero. May his soul rest in perfect peace.
Q: What is your greatest weakness and greatness strength? What are your methods of improvement?
A: My greatest weakness is imitating. Sometimes I try to imitate Papoose and other artistes style of delivery but I can’t. And originality has been my method of improving.
Q: Life is full of challenges. What has been the most challenging moment you've experienced?
A: The most challenging moment I’ve experienced in my life was budgeting for promotion and marketing. It was very difficult for me to keep my exposure trending because everybody wanted to get paid before I get my content published on their platforms though some do for love and passion but with the advent of social media am able to make way for my promotions. My page post is able to reach over 5million organic people weekly and sometimes less which am able to market my brand.
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