EL Does It Better Than Every Musician in Ghana

I know most musicians might not like this piece or better still might not agree with me for saying EL does it better than every musician in Ghana. Before I continue to put my facts down, I would want to go back into time and say a little about EL’s music so far as I’ve been paying attention to his career for some time now.

Before rapper Elorm Adablah, popularly known as EL became this big (actually he’s on Wikipedia), he was like every other upcoming musician with dreams of becoming big, let’s just say that is what every upcoming musician’s dream is. He did the mixtapes, the cover versions, the singles that didn’t get radio play and did all the songs, at a point in time, he did a song titled ‘Letter To Reggie Rockstone’ which I doubt Reggie Rockstone even listened to it.

Before ‘Obuu Mo’ and ‘One Ghana (For Your Pocket)’, the first thing I saw was a big billboard on the Tetteh Quashie highway in Accra with EL’s face on it. That was a sign of success. From what I know and have heard EL has got the best team behind him called ‘BBnZ Live’. But as much as the team is part of the success, let us look at EL’s accomplishments these past few months.

EL’s first official video was ‘Obuu Mo’, who said Ghanaian directors lack ideas and that one need a bigger budget to shoot a classy video? I might not know the cost involved but I did a little investigations and the video actually went through more than one production house to bring out the classy, simple, exciting and funny ‘Obuu Mo’ music video. Who didn’t enjoy watching that video? It went viral straight up after its release. The video has everything, the exciting concept, the usual azonto dance and battle, the funny introduction, the cameo by Papa Nii, the girls passing through, the music stars who cameo-d in in it, the drinks, the party.

After all it wasn’t like the usual Ghanaian music videos shot behind green backdrops and chromas, with the cliched night club scenes, and boring azonto dances. The video was rated 10/10 by me. The video currently has 838,000 on YouTube so far which is quite unusual for a Ghanaian music video. The video was worth a big premier than the hyped-up trashy music videos they premier these days.

Watch Obuu Mo by EL:

EL’s second video which was much more of a promo for his album ‘Check My Swagger’, just put EL on everyone’s heart. Once again the director Pascal AKA proved to Ghanaians that we don’t need $100,000 to shoot a classy video. Nice storyline/concept and exciting music video was produced. EL also shot an awesome video for his ‘Turn The Lights Down’ song which was directed by same director Pascal AKA.

Let’s skip the videos part, let’s check out EL’s cover arts to his songs. The making of an artist involve a lot and more than the music and videos but how a person present their records also play an important role. Whenever EL release a single, a nice and beautiful album art is released alongside it, which is one thing I barely see out there. His first album ‘Something ELse’ was released digitally, we are in the technology world and currently the internet speak more than the local stores, the radios and even the TV as it’s limited to location. EL’s album was released the exact date as foretold, no delays, no setbacks and YES! that is how a serious folk does it. The big names out there don’t even do it like that.

Promotion is also a big deal where a musician is concerned, there are lots of ways to promote your songs and videos these days. EL also does that exceptionally, I remember one day I was watching a movie at the Silverbird Cinema and before the movie started a few of the commercials that was shown had EL’s album release promo, YES! At the theater, so now tell me who else does that in Ghana? Winning don’t come by chance but rather by putting in work.

Business-minded people call it branding and it mostly work and yes, it works in Music too. The music business in Africa is booming now, if it’s not, it will start booming soon. Therefore I would like to tell all upcoming artists, follow the right people, learning from EL can help you get though to your dreams as the biggest thing in Ghana music. Don’t forget after you get all this in place, good music is the key. And always remember the saying ‘If you take yourself serious, that is when people will take you serious’. I will bring you my next article shortly, when I’m bored and can’t sleep.**