Celebrated Ghanaian musician, Okyeame Kwame, may be ditching rap in his old age and rather grab the bamboo flute, popularly known as atentenben in Ghana. Realising the fact that rap requires more energy, Okyeame Kwame fears he might not be able to actively do rap when he is older, so he is currently learning how to play the flute.
Speaking to Quophi Okyeame on his ’30 Questions’ show, Okyeame Kwame revealed that he has been learning this new skill for the past four months.
“Currently, I picked up a flute – atentenben, and I have been playing it for maybe four months and I am learning to play atentenben because very soon I will be old and weak and I still want to do music. Rap is tough on the bones. I want to be able to sit down and collect money from the Europeans and play it to them.
I will add a little drama, women with big ‘nyash’ in rafias and kente and create a certain persona and all that I am doing is to play the atentenben to them,” he quipped.
Okyeame Kwame, has matured in the music space over the years. He has grown from being a rapper to a musician who understands the rudiments of music and applies them in his compositions. After going solo, he has become more melodic even in his rap delivery, merging singing with spoken word.