The first time I chanced upon Kwaku DMC’s music, I was immediately impressed, which was rather significant because I tend to take time to warm up to new artistes, especially if they are championing a whole genre of music by themselves.
The Bantama emcee is a pillar in the burgeoning trap music scene currently taking over both the indie and mainstream music circles in Ghana.DMC is a founding member of Life Living Records, the machine behind the success of drill collective Asakaa boys (comprising Kwaku DMC, Jay Bahd,Braa Benk, Sean Lifer, Reggie, Kawabanga and O’Kenneth )
DMC’s groovy, slow tempo, casually worded bars are easy to listen and relate to. DMC had me in a spell when I listened to his ‘Road to Traphouse II’ mixtape because whiles I mostly disagreed with his content, I no doubt was impressed by his lyrical abilities. He weaves his rhymes to shock, engage and open your eyes to his way of life, his reality and his truths.
Taking a careful listening of his works one realizes DMC has about 3 main subject matter that permeates most of his work: 1) scamming/online fraud 2)women/drugs/sex 3)his philosophy of living life -carefree
As you would have no doubt discerned from my title, I’m going to train my analytic penmanship to write about the first subject matter -Scamming/online fraud
I understand Nigerian scammers have a mantra that online fraud/scamming is simply modern day African youth taking back all the gold/wealth/resources that the colonial masters stole from Africa. When you listen to Kwaku DMC, his non-chalant way of detailing his scamming activities without saying too much to compromise himself makes you feel he feels no remorse for resulting to a life engaged in stealing money from white people.
This is how much embedded in his scam lifestyle Kwaku is, on ‘Inside life’, he brags/raps
‘…yagye Oyibo sika atena so//
Enti f.uck EOCO and fuck SARS//
To wit ‘we’ve conned/scammed the white man of his money so fu.ck EOCO and fu,ck SARS’.
EOCO by the way is short for Ghana’s Economic and Organised Crime Office whiles SARS stand for Nigeria’s Special Anti-Robbery Squad.
The conviction with which DMC details his scam life is unmatched by any other scam artistes in Ghana (and by scam artist I am referring to musicians-rappers mainly who also glamorize online fraud in their music). He consistently name drops his accomplices and partners in his scam activities, regularly naming Raby Jones (co-founder of Life Living Records) as his main partner.
I feel compelled to add quickly that Kwaku DMC is not the first nor only rapper to detail scamming activities in his music in Ghana. In the buzzing rap scene of Ghana,Hiplife, there have been other musicians who brag about making money off scamming.
It can be recalled that when R2Bees emerged from Tema in early 2008, there was hushed gossip among hiplife fans of they being involved in fraud due to the opulence they flaunted in their fancy music videos, they never rapped or bragged about scamming in any of their music though.
The earliest known scam artiste in Ghana is rapper turned real estate operator Criss Waddle, who runs AMG business records. It is no wonder then that after Criss Waddle the next biggest scam artiste is Medikal, who was brought to the limelight by none other than Criss Waddle.
Okese1 is the next scam artiste rapper, who co-incidentally was introduced on the hip life scene by former partner turned frenemy Medikal. Go figure.
Kweku Smoke is another artiste who probably is the most vocal advocate of scamming aside Kweku DMC. his propensity to brag about scamming, high end fashion, cars, mansions gives credence to the notion that his money does not come from his music efforts.
Whiles Kwaku DMC in no part of his music condemns his scamming activities or warn other young people off that lifestyle, he is careful enough to detail the repercussions and risks associated with scamming. On ‘big cake’ off Road to Traphouse II, the Gyakye emcee raps
‘…central police in my hood made a raid//
Gye y3n laptops ne y3n phones//
And we made a trade…//
To with ‘we were raided by the central police unit, who seized our phones and laptops, but we made a trade with them…’meaning constant brushes with the cops is to be expected in the scam life.
There is a clear case to be made of young people engaging in fraud and online scam due to a lack of opportunities, as far as DMC is concerned, nothing in his music suggests that he engages in fraud due to a lack of proper channels to make legal income, in the first place he is a musician. So, one say that his engagement in online scam and preaching it in his music is solely a choice he made because he wants to.
They say hurt people hurt people, but nothing in DMC’s catalogue details him being denied opportunities to succeed in Kumasi or any part of Ghana hence his decision to steal from white people under false pretenses, he seems to do it simply because he can.
I am the first person to admit that this vicious cycle of hurt did not begin with Kwaku DMC or any young African person engaged in online scam, the first people to perpetrate actions of hurt, con and deception were the North Americans and Europeans who looted Africa’s mineral resources since the 18th century when they traded alcohol and mirrors for our gold/diamonds/timber etc. They did not stop there, they progressed from looting mineral resources to taking Africans as slaves to help develop their countries.
There is a clear case to be made of young people engaging in fraud and online scam due to a lack of opportunities, as far as DMC is concerned, nothing in his music suggests that he engages in fraud due to a lack of proper channels to make legal income, in the first place he is a musician. So, one say that his engagement in online scam and preaching it in his music is solely a choice he made because he wants to.
There is a clear case to be made of young people engaging in fraud and online scam due to a lack of opportunities, as far as DMC is concerned, nothing in his music suggests that he engages in fraud due to a lack of proper channels to make legal income, in the first place he is a musician. So, one say that his engagement in online scam and preaching it in his music is solely a choice he made because he wants to.
I take comfort in the fact that the authorities in Ghana are cracking down the practice of online scam, because the more young people succeed in scamming and make music about it, the more likely we as a Ghanaian society are going be de-sensitized to what this whole ‘business’ is-ROBBERY.
Because it is hypocritical of the youth to accuse their leaders of corruption and theft from the public purse if they themselves are going to be engaging on online scamming, because then the pot cannot call the kettle black.
To find out more about what I think about Kwaku DMC’s music, watch the album review below:
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So thefffffse young africans scamming white people online are just returning the hurt they and their ancestors have been subjected to by the ancestors of their victims or marks, Nigerians call them ‘Mugus’, Ghanaians call them clients, but the truth is these uncanny people falling victim to online scam are just marks.
urbanlifegh 