Edem Says ‘I Have Made Ewes Proud Of Their Language’ + Launches ‘Mass Production’ Album!

There is always a feeling of satisfaction when one hears a song done in his local language. The song doesn’t necessarily need to be your personal favourite but the mere fact that it’s sang in your language makes you appreciate the song; be it good or bad.

The Twi or Akan language is the most spoken language in Ghana. Though it is not the only language spoken in Ghana, when it comes to music, it rules the other languages.

The Ga language follows next and Hausa is not doing bad at all, but one language which has been relegated to the background over the years [and still] is the Ewe language. The language has not enjoyed its fair share of the national music cake.

A Twi or Akan rapper/singer can afford to rap or sing in the Ga language and vice versa but to do the same in Ewe will be an uphill task. If the person is able to do that, it’s because the person has lived with Ewes or in the Volta Region for many years.

Only a few artistes have done songs in Ewe and it appears they couldn’t hold the fort to make the Voltarians happy anymore until the introduction of Edem formerly called Ayigbe Edem. When his songs started getting rotations on radio and TV with subsequent release his  of his maiden album ‘Volta Regime’, many doubted and wondered if he could break the jinx and get Ewe rappers to emulate him.

Few years after the album, not much has been heard from Ewe rappers but Edem has made the language proud and claims Ewes now take pride in being tagged as ‘Ewe’.

Unlike his previous album where all the compositions for the songs were done and produced by Hammer of the Last Two who also doubles as the Executive Producer, ‘Mass Production’ … “has been produced by diverse producers; EL, Red Eye of 2Toff, Sammy Blacc, Lil Shaker of Skillions, Hammer, Gideon and Xavier, a Ghanaian based producer in Canada.”

The album is called ‘Mass Production’ because, “It’s very diverse and mass produced by various beat makers. It also diverse because of the scope that I’m trying to reach with creativity, so if I flip part of the album where we have a reggae song, which is in Jamaican patois that is unusual of the Edem that everybody, knows. I have a song with EL, which is in entirely English, which is unusual of Edem.” Edem told the media.

Hammer who was the Executive Producer of his maiden album was conspicuously missing at the launch. Edem explained:

“Hammer is not here for various reasons. Everyone knows that Hammer managed for the last time on my ‘Volta Regime’ album but as you grow and as you move together as a team, you have to take decisions that are going to help the team. We sat before this album will kick off and realised that because of his hands on my day to day activities, it took him out of the studio, so he wasn’t able to open room for us to record another classic album together like ‘Volta Regime’ because he had to be on the road to manage me. So we decided that, he should be relegated to the background so that he can have time for the team in the studio, so that we can get another team that will run Edem on day to day affairs.”

Explain the concept and inspiration for the album, he said, “Mass Production’ was inspired by the fact that, I asked a few questions around of why artistes don’t release two classic albums in their life time. For Michael Jackson, it was ‘Thriller’ or ‘Bad’, for 50 Cent it was ‘Get Rich or Die Tryin’, for Eminem it was ‘Marshall Mathers’, for Snoop Dog it was ‘Jane & Juice’, for Daddy Lumba it was ‘Aben Wo Ha’”.

The 13-track ‘Mass Production’ album has tracks like ‘The Legacy’ featuring Tinny, ‘Ghetto Arise’, ‘Wey Tin [Original]’, ‘Over Again’, ‘Medekuku’, ‘Kate’ featuring Joey B and ‘Megboma’.

The rest of the songs include ‘Believe’, ‘Go Getter [Gbevuvi]’ featuring Bertha, ‘Wey Tin [rap version]’ featuring Gemini, ‘Yessoolll’, ‘Too Much’ and ‘Girls Girls’ featuring Andy Dosty.