Meet Sarkodie!

31st Mar 2020

Michael Owusu Addo, better known as Sarkodie, is a Ghanaian rapper and entrepreneur from Tema. His contributions to the Ghanaian music industry have earned him numerous accolades, including the Vodafone Ghana Music Award for Artiste Of The Decade. He was announced the very first winner of BET’s Best International Flow act at the 2019 BET Hip Hop Awards. He is also considered one of the major proponents of the Azonto genre and dance.

Sarkodie began his music career as an underground rapper, participating in Adom FM’s popular rap competition Kasahare Level. He met his manager Duncan Williams of Duncwills Entertainment while participating in the aforementioned competition. He also met musicians Edem and Castro, who introduced him to Hammer Of The Last Two, an established record producer who was impressed by his rap flows and allowed Sarkodie to record two tracks for his album Volta Regime.

Following his collaboration with Hammer, Sarkodie recorded his debut album Makye. Its production was primarily handled by Killbeatz and Jayso and features guest appearances from Kwaw Kese, J-Town, Sway and Paedae of R2Bees. Makye received positive reviews from critics and fans and was supported by a concert held at Holy City Gardens in Accra. In 2009, Sarkodie performed alongside Busta Rhymes at the Busta Rhymes Live in Ghana concert. In 2010, his songs “Push” and “Babe” were ranked ninth and thirteenth on Joy FM’s Top 50 songs of 2009, respectively. “Babe” became an instant hit and propelled Sarkodie to a new level of exposure.

From there, it was success after success for Sarkodie. In 2014, Sarkodie released his third studio album Sarkology, which features an immense roster of appearances from 2 Face, Davido, Banky W and many others. Following the album was the official remix of “Adonai”, which features vocals from Castro and appeared on Capital Xtra’s list of the Top 35 Afrobeats Songs. He also collaborated with Mi Casa, Lola Rae, Davido, Diamond Platnumz and Tiwa Savage to record “Africa Rising”, a song for DSTV’s campaign of the same name. The campaign was designed to inspire Africans to partake in community-based social investment projects. In 2015, Sarkodie released Mary, a live album named after his grandmother who died in three years prior. Nearly 4,000 copies of the album were sold on the first day of its release. The following year, he spoke to a group of Harvard Business School students with a speech titled “The Art of the Hustle”, which primarily dealt with the challenges associated with being an African musician. Later in the year, he held the fourth edition of his Rapperholic concert on Christmas Day, with tickets for the event selling out within 72 hours of its release. The concert featured additional performances from Fuse ODG, R2Bees, Wizkid, Samni, VVIP, Efya and Shatta Wale.

Sarkodie released his fourth studio album Highest in 2017, which was released through Sarkcess Music and Dice Recordings. The album features guest appearances from Jesse Jagz, Moelogo, Flavour, Korede Bello, Victoria Kimani and Big Narstie. Highest was primarily produced by Jayso.

2019 saw the release of Alpha, Sarkodie’s debut extended play, featuring appearances Joey B and the late Ebony Reigns, and his fifth studio album Black Love, which explores the themes of black love and relationships.

All of these stories tell of an artist who deserves respect – and Ordior is here to deliver. Ordior is now working with Sarkodie to manage his copyrights and seek out unpaid and unclaimed royalties. We’re protecting the rights and managing the royalties of Sarkodie’s entire catalogue, so he can rest assured knowing that the quality music he creates is getting the treatment and respect that it deserves! Even now, lost royalties have been recovered by the Ordior team, and are moving into Sarkodie’s hands where they rightfully belong. Music of this caliber deserves every ounce of that consideration, and Ordior and our partner company Blue Pie are here to deliver!

There are plenty more stories of Sarkodie to be told, as he has had quite the interesting musical career, and an interesting life in general… and of course, plenty of amazing stories are sure to come from his future endeavours. They will have to wait for another time, however… or you could rush ahead, and explore him for yourself through his social media and Spotify playlists!

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