We bring you the final installment of our sit-down with Wanlov da Kuborlor. Check out the first part at this link.

Museke: Do you consider yourself as a hiplife artiste?
Wanlov: Yeah, my music is Kuborlor music but hiplife, hip hop, Afrobeat dey inside.

Museke: What is your take on hiplife lyrics and content?
Wanlov: I think it’s one-way. Someone makes a hit song and someone copies it. I feel Sidney’s Africa money is hiplife to me because it is spreading a message. That’s how you get across to those you need to listen to you – telling someone a message but it’s fun. All the Oga and bosses would dance and listen to ‘Africa money’. Hip-life should be social and uplifting.

Museke: Do you think Hip-life has come to a standstill? It is not enjoying the same popularity of yesteryears?
Wanlov: Hiplife artistes are following the same formula, and it has become redundant. As this happens, fans use a rotational basis to give prominence to other sounds. That’s why King Ayisoba won the (most popular song) award last year.

Museke: What is the inspiration for the songs you write?
Wanlov: Life experiences. Concerning ‘Kokonsa’, there was a phase where people were saying that I would be deported, etc. For ‘Sagaa’, someone had asked to bring him money when I was coming to Ghana. For ‘Supa chompia’, I imagined ‘Kofi Babone’ from listening to an ‘action beat’. I imagined an African boy travelling around Africa like a superhero, righting wrongs and saving people. We don’t need Superman or Captain Planet. Superheroes for comot (should come) from Bukom.

Museke: What’s up with the Green card, why that title?
Wanlov: It’s mostly symbolism; a market ploy. 80% of people in the US are immigrants, everyone knows about the green card. The story I rap about in the ‘Green card’ song is my friend’s story and lives in New York. The guy went through a lot before he got his green card.

Museke: Tell us about Anjolee
Wanlov: She went to school with my wife who had suggested we hook up. I finally met her in DC, and she used to do a lot of talent shows. She started doing backing vocals for me and doing songs in my set. She’s recording her album now. It is not very difficult performing without her because I can even perform alone.

Museke: What will you be studying at Legon and why?
Wanlov: I wanted to do African studies and (music) theatre arts. I was advised that I wouldn’t have time to do my work. I plan to choose specific classes and pay for them privately. I want to enrich myself musically. The No.1 fortress of information on African music is Professor John Collins. I want to set up a traditional music school – one in Nima (concentrates on calabash, gonje music), and one in Osu. It will enroll small kids who in 10, 20 years time would have a level of music unmatched anywhere.
I don’t hear a single live instrument in Accra. A lot of kids are begging on the streets when they can easily pick up an instrument and play. They could even stand on the streets and cheer – ‘shii jama’. It’s more dignified. I met a kid from Niger who sang in Tuareg, and his melodies were so sweet. Africa has talent, everyone can sing and dance. Music enriches your spirit, the ‘seprewa’ gives you some feeling, and music dey increase productivity.
Atongo Zimba was playing at Labadi beach and is now an international star in Europe. We need live music. That is the only thing they (Europeans, foreigners) can’t take away from us. The more we do English type music, we will lose our language. Instead of our rhythms, we’ll have more hip hop style beats.

Museke: What is your take on Kwaw Kese?
Wanlov: Kwaw Kese’s rapping is more localized. Kwaw Kese made his fame in the streets, he doesn’t do payola. Deejays had to play to his music because it was very popular. He pushes his own music and does a lot of the groundwork. His signature, moniker, and attitude are straight hip hop. He’s like Biggie Smalls and Tupac in one. He’s African hip hop.

Museke: You’ve been mentioned as a top hiplife artiste by Mensa, do you have any working relationship with him?
Wanlov: Yeah, we are shooting a video for a song called ‘Only your walkin’. It’s a song on a compilation album by one DJ Richy Pitch from the UK. It features myself, Mensah, Reggie, Sena, Kochoko, etc.
I am also working on a mixtape movie with Mensa. It’s a short feature film – 45 minutes. The timeline is over one day; every scene is a different song and every dialogue is rapped. The style in which ‘Only your walkin’ is shot is how the movie is going to flow. We will use the video clip to advertise the movie and the compilation album.

Museke: What are the challenges in the Ghanaian music industry?
Wanlov: The artistes don’t have an agenda and the industry hasn’t mastered promotion. We may become robotic in our ways if we follow the Western style too closely. We don’t need to lock ourselves in a certain way.
About payola, musicians should pay royalties to get their music played – promote. You’ll make the payola money back, but what about those who don’t have the money and the talent? You can also make your music so popular that the DJ would have no choice but to play it.

Museke: What is in the future of your (Ghanaian) music?
Wanlov: I want to perform around the world live, with DJs, etc. I want to tour with the children from my school and also study African traditional music. I want to learn how to make the instruments.

Museke: Tell us about Romanian music
Wanlov: The best music from Eastern Europe comes from the Gypsies. I want to mix kpanlogo with their music. I want to create a blend where I represent every aspect of my culture and background. I want to present myself as a hybrid, pro-human instead of pro-African. Romanians, like the Jews, were put in concentration camps so they have their own struggles to tell, just like Blacks.

Museke: You have won some songwriting awards, are you looking forward to any music awards like the Grammys? What about poetry?
Wanlov: I am not interested in awards as much. You can’t fit my music in a box.
I write poems seasonally and my songs don’t really come from my poems. I have written books (Esi the cookie seller), and movie scripts.

Museke: Do you have any present engagements and works?
Wanlov: Video editing, that’s my 9 to 5. Work with Atta Productions. A full film company, it’s the only private company in Ghana with a Super-16. We edit documentaries and work on full length features. People can also rent equipment for shooting. They are also producing me and Mensa’s movie. I am interested in shooting short films. Working on one called ‘Pia’s killer’. It’s about a comedic superhero from Bukom.

Museke: What are your hobbies and pastimes?
Wanlov: I like squeezing bontos. (laughter) I like playing instruments, basketball and chaskele. I used to love computer and video games a lot (Game gbee).

Museke: Do you have a website?
Wanlov: Wanlov.com

Museke: Give us your Parthian shot.
Wanlov: Shout-out to all my fans.