Rapper M.anifest believes the Hiplife/Hip-pop Artiste of the Year category of the Ghana Music Awards is outdated and needs a second look.
He said he finds it very difficult wrapping his head around the difference between the Best Rapper of the Year and Best Hiplife/Hiphop Artiste of the Year categories.
At this year’s awards at the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC) Saturday, M.anifest bagged two awards, Best Rapper of the Year and Hip-Hop Song of the Year.
He, however, lost the Hiplife/Hiphop Artiste of the Year award to his arch rival Sarkodie.
Confusing and outdated
Commenting on losing that award on the night in an interview with KMJ on Daybreak Hitz on Hitz FM, the ‘god MC’ rapper noted that the category is confusing.
“I don’t even understand what that category means. It’s very confusing. We all grew up on Hiplife but I think the evolution has happened so much that Hiplife is dead, essentially, …it has evolved into other things. That category seems like a bit outdated and it’s very hard for me to understand what it is because what is difference between the Best Rapper and Best Hiplife/Hiphop Artiste of the Year?” M.anifest asked.
The rapper, who says he doesn’t lose sleep over such issues, noted that things that really concern him are those he has control over.
“I worry about the things I can control. That is why you have never seen me fixated on the awards but I was more fixated on my performance because it is important that I work hard on the things I can control. The things I can control are the music, the performance and stuff and those things if I do it to the highest level of excellence, hopefully, it brings with it other things,” he explained.
Two awards, no show
One major concern after the awards event was M.anifest not showing up on stage to accept any of the awards he won especially when he had performed earlier on the night.
Reacting to the disappointment expressed by many, the ‘100%’ rapper explained that his failure to appear on stage to receive the awards was not deliberate although he was still at the venue.
“At that time, I needed a bit of breather to get myself together and so I missed the moment …fortunately one of the guys on our team was there at that moment,” to receive the award, he explained.
Scared to perform ‘god MC’?
M.anifest won the Best Rapper of the Year award after one of the biggest rap beefs the country has ever witnessed.
In his ‘godMC’ track, he took digs at Sarkodie after he released his ‘Bossy’ song. Sarkodie also quickly replied M.anifest in his ‘Kanta’ track.
Their beef trended on social media for several weeks generating a lot of public debate.
On the night of the Ghana Music Awards, he performed briefly his ‘god MC’ track prompting many to ask if he was scared to perform the complete song because Sarkodie was present at the awards.
“Are they joking, me scared?” he swiftly responded when the question was thrown at him.
“It was part of my act…I have a lot of songs. I don’t need to rely on this song to have a successful performance,” M.anifest, born Kwame Ametepe Tsikata, stressed.
To him, his performance on the night “was an innovative” one “even though there were difficulties with sound, I think we put together a pretty good showing of ourselves.”
Well-deserved award(s)
Did M.anifest deserve the awards he won on the night, particularly the Best Rapper of the Year award? He was asked.
“The response in the auditorium, response everywhere shows that people do believe that I deserved it,” he responded, insisting he did a lot last year and is “grateful” for winning.
A decade in music
M.anifest is marking his tenth year in music this year and he has a couple of activities to celebrate the milestone. He released his first album, ‘Manifestations’ in 2007.
He has four other albums – The Birds and the Beats (Free Mixtape, 2009), Immigrant Chronicles: Coming to America (2011), Apae: the price of free EP (2013), and Nowhere Cool (2016) – to his credit.
For 2017, the rapper revealed that he will be “doing some international and African ones. A few local ones,” and a lot of the collaborations are going to be quite surprising.
The ‘Forget Dem’ rapper, who says his price has now gone up, ruled out any collaboration with Sarkodie stating that, “It’s not in the plans.”
