“To me songs I dey make like 2 years ago, they no be different compared to the songs I dey make right now,” Black Sherif says; this is his opening statement for the Spotify RADAR documentary. Within the last two years Black Sherif has come from the grassroots of the industry and has cemented his position as one of the artists redefining the soundscape in both Ghana and the whole of Africa. In 2021, Blacko put out First Sermon, Second Sermon, and a Burna Boy-assisted remix to Second Sermon which thrusted him onto the Nigerian mainstream.
Following that breakthrough, Black Sherif came ready to dominate 2022: and that he did. He started off the year with Darkoo on Always, before releasing his first single of the year Kwaku The Traveler, which served as a continuation of the partnership he started with EMPIRE with the Second Sermon remix. He got tapped by the UK’s very own ArrDee for a Come & Go remix, hopped on GIDI GIDI with Smallgod and Tory Lanez, then released his second single of the year, Soja. Less than a month after releasing Soja, Black Sherif finally put out his debut album The Villain I Never Was.
In the Spotify RADAR documentary Black Sherif exhibits a laid back energy showing how self aware he’s become and how comfortable he’s gotten with his sound and journey. The almost 6-minute video is broken down into 3 chapters: Kwaku Frimpong, Blacko, and Black Sherif. These aren’t just chapters, they also serve as identities and phases that encapsulate the entirety of Black Sherif.
In the ‘Kwaku Frimpong’ chapter Black Sherif walks us through how he was bullied because of the name Kwaku Frimpong and how that made him dislike it. He recounts going to high school and becoming more comfortable with the name and how it became his identity. In ‘Blacko’ he talks about his time on the streets and how “life happened to him.” He explains how he came to the realisation that music was bigger than himself and how it was about the message he was carrying. In the longest chapter ‘Black Sherif’, he doubles down on the importance of carrying a message and telling he and his people’s stories.
“You see Blacko and Black Sherif, they no be two people. I be Blacko. I be Black Sherif. I be Kwaku Frimpong,” Black Sherif says as he detonates any ideas that Blacko, Black Sherif, and Kwaku Frimpong are different people. He goes on to explain how there’s things Kwaku Frimpong wouldn’t tell you so Black Sherif has to be the to pass the message.
Check out the full Spotify RADAR mini-doc on Black Sherif below: