Sidney’s “Africa Money” can’t win elections

I may sound callous for posting a critique on Sidney when the gentleman is grieving the mum, but this article was written way before his mother’s passing and I still got to fill my column anyway. Batman said we should not spell out that name again but should be called Samini, his parental name. His explanation is that, in the foreign land the name Batman is very common, they have a Batman movie, Batman shirts, Batman video games and even Batman pens. He now wants some true identification so the name Samini, although quite annoyingly, he still refers to himself as Batman.

Sidney has been known as Sydney aka Hiplife Ninja ( Hiplife monikers like hiplife osofo, hiplife okomfuo, hiplife heavyweight champion and rap doctor are understandable but hiplife ninja?) since his days as the front man for Nananom. He is also seeking for a name-change from Sidney to Barima, because, apparently there are cities, towns and many other foreigners (both males and females) known as Sidney (Sydney), and so like Batman, he wants an indigenous name and Barima is what he settles for.

Many say he is controversial but I say he’s creative and knows what to put out at what time. From his ‘Tinanapapana’ days, the guy has been churning out critically-acclaimed bangers that end up in the Ghanaian dictionary like words like Apuskeleke, Scent No, and now Africa money. These have become popular sayings in our daily lives.

I truly doff my hat out to Sydney for the lyrical prowess he has exhibited over the years in all of his works but I am a little disappointed with the delivery I hear on the Africa Money song. In fact, he rates as one the best hiplife lyricists alongside the likes of Obour, Kwaw Kese, Obrafour, Lord Kenya and Okyeame Quame.

Sidney is gaining much publicity over the purported sale of his latest song African money to some political parties and I can not fathom the brouhaha over the issue. Publicity is essential for any artist be it  good publicity or bad publicity – so far as you hit the headlines in the newspapers and get mentioned regularly in the numerous shows on radio, and a clever artist like Sidney knows this and plays perfectly to the gallery and never lacks publicity. Personally, I see the frequent talk of what political party he sells the song to as a trivia, a complete frill.

According to many reports and also from the camp of Sidney, the acclaimed ‘Scent no’ was exclusively and supposedly sold to the ruling NPP, but I never got to hear the amount the song was sold for and I never heard any official from the party on record confirming that indeed, the NPP bought the rights to the song - so as far as I am concerned that story is a fib. Now I hear political parties are lobbying for the African money song and such news exacerbates my confusion over the matter. First of all, whoever said songs do win elections? Whoever said songs can persuade voters on whom and how to vote? Whoever said that songs can cause defection of members of a political party to the other?

Okay, the NPP did win the 2004 elections  which pre-supposes that the song ‘Scent No’ which people claim was bought, helped them win the elections and I simply can’t figure out how that works. Some people are of the opinion that Sidney should sell the rights of the Africa money song, which actually belongs to Goodies Music to the NDC –for the reason that he sold the ‘Scent no’ to the NPP so its only right if this one goes the other way. Thinking about it makes me laugh out loud and soliloquize if Sidney only makes songs he can sell to political parties.

Let’s just say the right to the Africa money is sold to the NDC. Is there a guarantee that the song would give NDC more votes? Will the song make NDC win the 2008 elections? Perhaps, it would change the minds of floating voters to vote for the NDC or probably change the minds of some NPP supporters to vote for the NDC.  The idea of a political party buying the exclusive rights to a song likes ‘Scent no’ or ‘African money’ is a fat, silly joke. The brazen truth is that ‘African money’ can’t alter somebody resolve of voting for a political party. All the song can do is make rallies interesting and lively whenever it is played at the rally grounds and that’s all it does.

I admit that the song is good, a catchy chorus and a sampled beat from Jeff Bogologo’s ‘Ei Alhaji’ song, but producer/singer Morris Babyface did most of the singing than Sydney. He had nothing much to offer apart from the repeated line “monkey dey work, bamboon dey chop, wa na money oga dey chop.”

Unlike ‘Scent no’ where he touched on various salient themes, African money has nothing special to it. I wonder why any political party would waste precious time to lobby for an ordinary song when there are other pertinent issues to grapple with.

My condolences to Sidney and the family. Stay strong, Barima.