VOCAL PORTRAITS-REVIEW

At a time when spoken word/ poetry is endeavouring to make a claim within Ghana’s entertainment scene, it is just apt for artistes to project their craft and genre. And that’s what Kwame Write is doing with his debut album Vocal Portraits.

Some people keep hidden speeches,
gestures and codes,
Embedded secrets deep inside vaults of their soul
Some have tongues stained

with dried words……

An attempt at transporting the art of spoken word poetry from the ambience of the stage (or a select few) to a multitude has culminated in the birth of Vocal Portrait-a 20 track album put together by Kwame Write (Kwame Aidoo) featuring 15 of Ghana’s dynamic poets.

The album spans the compelling themes of love, politics, salvation, womanhood (beauty) and sexuality expressed in different shades of styles.

The reason for the album is captured in this succinct opening:

 

 Some people keep hidden speeches,
gestures and codes,
Embedded secrets deep inside vaults of their souls
Some have tongues stained
with dried words
The rhythm of their voiceless intentions
Vibrate from the walls in which they submerge
Some people lose their names
Instead of their chains
Let their passion
Run through
The soul of our ink

Vocal Portraits!!

The album opens with Chieff Moomen’s Savannah Love, an ode to Northern Ghana. Aided by a kora and calabash thumping rhythm, the poem transports the listener into the realm of history and cultural traditions. Words like ‘… let us visit the Salaga market and shed a tear or two to tribesmen who were sold in bondage…’ and Let me take you home/circle your arms around my waist/Place your head gently on my back and hear how my heartbeats for you/As we ride into our distant dream encapsulates the pleasure of love.

The contentious notion of beauty as defined by Western standards is addressed on Mariska Taylor-Darko’s Black Woman. In her smooth and texturized voice over a soulful keyboard beat, she laments ‘Now I hardly see an original black woman/ They all seem to have become Chinese, Indian or European/ Flicking about hairs that is not their own/ … Afraid because their mind have been conditioned to think that a perfect woman has straight hair and fair skin!

And she asks: ‘Have you ever really looked at the beauty of a black woman? All natural and dark/ The way her eyes and teeth sparkled in contrast to her skin’. It makes you wish to take a deep look at a black woman the next time you encounter one.

One of the unique poems on Vocal Portraits is Yom Nfodjoh’s Ny3br) (Friend). It uniqueness lies in the fact that it is recited in pidgin English. The ‘supposed’ skit is raw, rugged and laden in content and delivery. Ny3br) is an accolade to good friendship; for he speaks ‘Ny3br) dey hold me down/ like telling me to up my head when I wan drop am and frown/ See pressure dey, Ny3br) dey help me see better days/…Isolation is deadlier than HIV/So even when on a hospital bed with HIV/Ny3br) dey my side dey love me’’.

In my opinion, this shouldn’t have been a skit. It should have been recorded as a full track rather the 1:37 time allotted it.

On The Wait, Edith Ndabi’s powerful opening lines ‘Today,I realize I have two things in common with a nun/devotion to God and not getting some/and am not really picky. I like tall. I like them good/but sex before you marry me the answer is not at all/ enraptures and makes you listen more closely.

She chides the concept of sex before marriage (or within relationships) and compares virginity to leprosy ‘Cos no one wants it to happen to them. No one wants to catch it’.
For those on the verge of giving up Kwame Write’s ‘Keep Moving On’ is a reminder to keep moving. It’s deep and motivational, empowering the listener(s) to surmount obstacles of life. Words like ‘Keep moving on/Even when echoes become walls and rebound efforts into codes/ Even in a free fall, Floored/ Flee all for fortune/ Find freedom/Don’t fade into future… Keep moving on is enough motivation to steer ahead to better days.

The Dance In our Speech exposes the versatility of Kwame Write. His delivery switches from a machine gun, rapid fire delivery to a calm style preaching. He easily rides on the beats, helming the words on them with incredible ease, something many rappers will envy.

The strength of the album lies in the passion and enthusiasm guest poets exuded as much as its structure, the themes and beats, which perfectly complement each other on Vocal Portraits, giving the album its hip outlook. The album undoubtedly seeks to project the art of spoken word/poetry whiles leaving the listener with a didactic element.

Featured poets are Laud DePoet, Rhyme Sonny, Tiffany Howard, Aqua Stuntizenaite, Anastasia Karklina, Michael Somuah Kesse and Yaw Twum Barima, Kweku Rap, Jude Edze.

In as much as the album is worth applauding for its beautiful compositions, the scope of themes on the album could have been broadened. Featured poets could have been daring enough to explore such ‘in-your-face’ subjects as did Mariska Taylor-Darko, Edith Ndabi, SharkMellon and KwameWrite himself.

Again, Kwame’s love for wordplay and punch lines sometimes get the listener losing out on the message in his recitations. But as a first album he could be forgiven.

In sum Vocal Portrait is an album worth having by every poetry/ spoken word enthusiasts. The output of featured guests is phenomenal and again the price is just right for such a good work.

This is for those who were schooled as well as the educated..
This goes out to those who were fooled, the miseducated,
The unschooled, the uneducated
The educated with not enough education,
covered like a lamp shade over burning wick by
the acclaimed over-educated trampling other people's education
This goes out to you you you you

Vocal Portraits!!

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Order copies here inkfluencemulti@gmail.com