enewsgh.com  Guest Contributor, M.anifest, returns with a brilliant piece. This time, Kwame Amet gives us a compelling pen narrative of the making of Apae, his most recent effort, and all that went into it.

Tackling the calender year 2014, doing music for people and not radio, personal gratification, and the frustrations of Accra and the blessings embedded in this beautiful city among other interesting let-ins, he comes perfectly good on this.

And to cap what is a fitting end-of-year-present to us, and you and you, is a free copy of ‘Big Sixes’, a song off Apae, which he prefers to call  a bridge between where he came from and where he is going as a mainstream act.

Listen and download Big Sixes below.

Read full piece below.

A Year Later…

A year later…I still believe. Be fearless. Write songs for people not for radio.  I wrote Apae clinging on to this mantra. Knowing I would fail sometimes. I was fine with it. Apae is not an album. It is a bridge between where I came from and where I’m going. So many crossed that bridge with me. Some bought, some bootlegged, some spotify’d, some showed up at shows, some troll’d, and most saw the videos.

A year later I find some gratification in the calibre of videos we put out this year. No shortcut to heaven with Obrafour –  an audacious film, Someway Bi – a  documentary  cinéma vérité style, Jigah – a mock campaign trail adventure. We’ve finally reached a point where our ideas, collaborators, and navigation around this tedious creative environment collide in a favorable manner. In a time where being trendy is preferred to originality and being agreeable is preferred to being truthful, videos remain a very powerful vehicle to make statements and let quality rise from the margins to the center.  I stand by these three videos… knowing very well we must top them next year.

A year later I’m grateful.  So here goes two things I want to share with you to give thanks. First is a song off Apae called “Big Sixes.” Possibly the most conceptual and proverb-ridden joint on the album. Produced by my sonic co-conspirator for Apae, Jayso, and about something we all concern ourselves with everyday: money. Second is what I wrote in the album liner notes as the postscripts.

Enjoy Both. Love is Love.

Kwame Amet a.k.a M.anifest

Postscripts

I’m eternally grateful to all people who generously contributed talent, faith, support, resources, love, prayers, critique, inspiration, madness and more to make this labor of love, Apae, possible.  The ingrate sleeps with forgetfulness and wakes up with excuses God forbid we ever do such.

Ghana is where I am physically and mentally. The frustrations of Accra living are a treasure trove for inspiration. Our daily realities are both absurd and incredulous. Monday to Friday we feed on hope and possibility. Debi Debi e be ye yie. Saturdays, the great escape, we embrace like a long lost relative. As for Sundays… the church bells ring, the crickets sing, and the Ashawos retire from doing their thing, for some of us it’s just another African morning – ripe for writing. A deeply satirical existence; someway bi.

The more things change the more they stay the same. Things have changed. I have changed. I would be foolish to have not. I won’t even pretend success doesn’t matter to me. It does. But I refuse to play the way I’m expected to. Dɛɛbi. This gift is a responsibility. Tainting it with dishonesty is of no interest to me. If it’s dishonest it’s not art. But a young Ghanaian like myself has bigger problems than art, so pontificating any further would be my silly artistic ego indulging itself.

A friend once told me beer always tastes better when someone else is buying. This sums up Apae.  Apae moments are what we’re all chasing.  Free! That’s all we want to hear. I’m not sure what the price of free is, but there’s one.  Kweku Ananse once tried to climb a tall tree with all the wisdom of the world in a sack on his back. What I’ve always found curious about this story is how he had all the wisdom of the world on his back and so little in his head. There’s no shortcut to heaven. Somewhere in Africa someone is looking for one.

I saw a beautiful woman once who I didn’t look at twice. The rest of this story I will tell you on the next project.

Love is love

M.anifest/ Kwame/Amet/…. Apae!