Richardine Bartee
Recently, I talked to Selasi, the new Ghanaian Reggae fusion artist for MTV about what inspires him and more. In ‘Ups & Downs (Tie Masem)’, a new video from his ‘Shades of Grey EP’, the director shows Selasi in a rocky relationship with his girlfriend which causes him to run late for work and his friends to question their relationship. Clearly, he’s deeply in love. At the end of the video, they’re together. Seemingly, without the drama. In this song, you can also hear Selasi singing in Twi, a Ghanaian language in lines like:
- Girl I know we’ve had our ups and downs, tie masem, tie masem (tie masem meaning listen to what I have to say in Twi), I’m not trying to play around with your heart. Even though the loving was so right, so right, No lie. Ényé sé mempé w’a sém oh (translates into the lyrics), not saying I don’t love you, not saying I don’t love you.”
As I stated in my MTV article, “His Shades of Grey EP is a fluent blend of hiplife, pop and reggae and because of it, we’re betting he’ll be the first artist to truly and seamlessly merge all three styles — unless he plans to add more to the batch. Living in Africa and being exposed to different cultures has definitely had its advantages. It’s no wonder why Ghana-born, Atlanta-based multi-talent Selasi is a natural when composing. At a very young age, he fell in love with the drums, guitar and keyboard, soon after his father moved to Malawi and encouraged him to join the church choir where he taught himself how to play. (He’s lived in England and Cameroon too.) He even released a gospel rap album in Malawi. “The first of its kind,” he told us.”
Hiplife has arrived. Don’t ride the wave, be the ocean and get his ‘Shades of Grey EP‘ now.
