This is my Official single 'Blackstar' feat. M.anifest from my forthcoming LP Ye Fre Mi Richy Pitch out on BBE Records. The video was produced by the amazing Tom Jackson (Stringmouse / Ramjamuk). We both had a mutual admiration for the ZX Spectrum and decided to style the video with this in mind.

M.anifest is an MC from Minnestota in the US but spent all his early life in Accra, Ghana. He has 2 tracks on my new LP. M.anifest describes the track like this :-

'Blackstar is somewhere between an artistic autobiography and a collage of snapshots of life as a youngster in Ghana."it was all a dream, but i never had word up magazine." It's also an allusion to the name of Ghana's beloved soccer team, the "Black Stars." The entire country gets religious/fanatic when they play.

So being a black star to me, a diasporic Ghanaian, symbolizes doing things in my artistic journey to represent and thrill my people like the Essiens and Abedi Peles of our history. '

LYRICS BY M.ANIFEST

BLACKSTAR

VERSE 1

It was all a dream, but i never knew I would be seen
Eventually I might make the big screen
We rarely had access to magazines
But since a teen in Accra Ghana
Hopes to be that young bloke
Had a big stash of Tupac quotes
Now Im older, witness the growth
Fame keep spreading still Im broke
Traveled the seas with the red gold green
Now Im a black star caught in between
Intergalactic star it seems
Chris says knowledge reigns supreme
But we were raised living the high-life
Pilolo that was my life
Hide and seek, playing football in the streets
Tatale, kelewele and beans
Painting portraits of our culture
And the burdens on my shoulder
Embraced it now Im older
Moved to a climate thats colder
Still Im, heating up I told ya
And still going hard like a boner
They slept on me like coma
Now they cant see me glaucoma
Travel, considered a roamer
Considerably a loner
The smell of my odour, is a beautiful aroma
And Richy Pitch pitch up, let me get auto-
Biographical, this is my life in flow tho

Hook

I'm a black star, shining bright from afar
many miles from home, still, my heart is in Accra
i'm a black star, shining bright far from afar
in a world of my own, intergalactic star

VERSE 2

Lets play a game of hide seek
Lets find emotions buried deep
Just last week, a song made me weep
It reminded me I got promises to keep
Before I sleep I got miles to walk
I got to rep madina where I learnt this talk
Its far from new york, but theres concrete blocks
Uncompleted buildings where the weed heads talk
Rawlings circle, estate, to the old road
i.p.s., where the armed robbers law low
new road, akosombo junction, and zongo,
in the evening for strangers its a no-go
Allah Akbar, the imam in the morning
sound of the prayers before the crack of dawn and
everyone was geeked if you had music that was foreign
little did I know in the future I would be touring
little did I know when I first heard Reggie Rockstone
that less than a decade later, Id be penning mad poems
but this is destiny, definitely passed on by my grandpa
Sulley Muntari of vocabulary, Im a black star

HOOK

I'm a Black Star, shining bright from afar
many miles from home, still, my heart is in Accra
I'm a Black Star, shining bright far from afar
in a world of my own, intergalactic star

I'm a Black Star, shining bright from afar
many miles from home, still, my heart is in Accra
I'm a Black Star, shining bright far from afar
in a world of my own, intergalactic star
... (more info)
(less info)