One of Ghana’s most promising reggae artists, Blak Mexxiah is set to release his album, ‘At Long Last’. Like the title suggests, his time to share his music with the masses in Ghana and beyond is long overdue. Blak Mexxiah was one of young poets/singers of the late 90’s debuting with a series of popular live performances with the Kete Warrior in UK, Europe and America.
He first adopted the approach to do reggae/ragga music when he was in primary school and later met a couple of young energetic reggae boys by name Vibration Boys at a reggae show. His introduction to doing music professionally began when his friend introduced him to the legendary Mac Tontoh and a member of Osibisa Band, who handpicked Blak Mexxiah to play Afro Jazz music with him. He had intensive indoor training and internal touring almost throughout Ghana with Mac Tontoh and later become a young member of the Kete Warriors.
Blak Mexxiah presented his first big show at the Pan African Festival (PANAFEST), the first African Home and Abroad Emancipation Day in 2000. They (Kete Warriors) played alongside with Sharon Karts from South Africa and the world acclaimed OSIBISA. In 2000, Kete Warriors began the Mac Tontoh Project UK Tour 2000 which was managed and funded by Amanas Music records, and local representatives like the North-Folk Council in the UK that ended up in USA (they toured almost all the states). Blak Mexxiah comments, “It was a nice and historic one for me because it was like a trail for me on the Mac Tontoh Project UK”.
During the tour, he attended workshops with their UK partners that he met there. They toured many theatres and had radio and TV interviews on BBC and World Net. Returning from the historic and booming tour, he changed from the Ghanaian-Nigerian highlife he did to modern reggae hiplife music.
His poetic nature led to the acquisition of the name -- “Blak Mexxiah “(a name given to him by a Jamaican woman who claimed he was very conscious when it comes to matters of consciousness). Blak Mexxiah is set to do a follow to his debut album, ‘Show Me Your Love’ which introduced his fusion of Afro jazz beats and hip-hop with live instrumentation. For the debut, he recorded with artistes like Abortion (4x4), Mad Commander and Harrison father.
Blak Mexxiah continues the journey on his upcoming album with his latest single, ‘Mi no friend dem’ featuring Siloguane and Street enjoying some airplay. The album is an expression of conscious and revolutionary lyrics to enlighten the youth on moral matters.
He comments: “We artistes stand as teachers, people listen to our songs and take advice from us, so our songs should always be positive and finally producers should do good listening so that our music can cross the borders”
