Samini declares he’s the boss on new album, ‘CEO’

Ghana’s award winning music superstar, Samini has made a strong statement with his 4^th album titled ‘CEO’. He launched the album over the weekend with a listening session at the Golden Tulip Hotel followed by an album signing and retail tour across Osu Oxford Street, Melcom Plus shopping centre, Legon and the Accra Mall. The launch was closed with an after party at Aphrodisiac Nightclub, and at each stop, fans had the chance to interact with Samini.

After three successful albums back to back and several local and international awards to his name, it leaves very little to the imagination why the reggae/dancehall artist would want to title his album in a manner that suggests that he is the boss of Ghanaian music. On the title track which is in a typical rap battle freestyle tone, Samini gives reasons why he is the CEO, pointing out some flaws in the industry. On the track, he exclaims that he never flops in his shows unlike some of his counterparts who rush into the studio to record some rhymes and when they get on stage, they have no timing and so resort to miming.

He also pointed out that most of the Ghanaian artists now sound the same due to the over-use of computer synthesizing. He adds that when he is however able to rock live shows, some of his colleagues go about saying that he uses black magic or juju to stay on top. In one of the hooks, Samini remarks “…Tell them I be CEO, that be why I no dey play no CD shows, people travel to see live shows…” With spoken intercessions by none other than Kwaw Kesse, and a chorus that goes like “…I live in space, I am a star, you try to hate, you no go go far..”, the track ‘CEO’ will certainly be causing some controversies on the airwaves although the song may never get a commercial release.

On the subject of controversies, Samini may have cleared rumours in certain quarters that he isn’t on good terms with fellow artist, Sonnie Balli due to the striking similarities in their music styles. The two appear on ‘Still Burning’, the second cut on the album. There are other exciting collaborations on the album as well, including ‘Free’ featuring Obrafour; ‘CID’ featuring 2face; ‘Tempo’ featuring Mugeez; ‘Popping’ featuring Paedae; ‘Yensa’ featuring Kwaw Kesse; and a remix to the hit single, ‘Sweet Mistake’ featuring M.I.

The 18-track album also includes the hit songs, ‘Sweet Mistake’ and ‘Trigga’. Samini revealed at his album listening session that he produced the beat on ‘Yensa’ himself, to prove to the world that he can put to use what he studied in Sound Engineering, from the UK recently. According to Samini, the next song to be released from the album would be the hot collabo with Mugeez, ‘Tempo’; adding that a music video for the song would be out song. All songs were written and arranged by Samini with productions by JMJ Asasease, Coldeye, Eugene (UK), and Keywah.