Yaa Pono
Rapper, Yaa Pono, born Solomon Antwi, has been speaking about the use of offensive words in his music and its possible effects.
According to him, using offensive or profane words in music is a common practice but he does not explore that in his songs for radio consumption.
Speaking on Hitz FM with Merqury Quaye on Thursday morning, he disclosed that he only does that in songs for his playlist.
“It happens everywhere, most of the music that we listen to have ‘swear-words’. I don’t normally put ‘swear-words’ in my music. All my big records on radio don’t have ‘swear-words’,” he indicated.
“But the thing is that most of the songs I do are for my playlist, that I release on the internet, which is not a radio playlist… but because it becomes a hit, the radio stations play it,” he added, to explain why some of his songs with ‘swear-words’ end up on radio.
Pono is currently one of Ghana’s most loved rappers known for his fast wit and interesting punch lines. He first appeared on local radio and competitions and made his first move in the studio in the 1995. He also did a mix tape in 2007, and has since not looked back.
In 2017, Pono made a lot of headlines as a result of a beef between him and controversial dancehall artiste, Shatta Wale. Pono was reportedly denied an opportunity to perform at a concert headlined by Shatta Wale in Cape Coast, in the Central Region, hence the beef.
The organizers of the concert later explained that Yaa Pono was unable to perform because they were running out of time and therefore had to cut down on the performances.
Things got ugly when the two released ‘diss-tracks’ to attack each other. The rapper and dancehall artiste have since not smoked the peace-pipe publicly.
Reacting to his current relationship with Shatta Wale, Yaa Pono told Quaye that the Kaikai crooner had never been his friend.
However he added that he could consider them becoming friends but only “friends in the name of God.”
By Francis Addo