For Korsah, the Ghanaian singer and songwriter otherwise known as Owusu Nkwantabisa, growing up in the Atonsu area of Kumasi was hardly a charm. Money didn’t come easily to his family, creating a workaholic out of young Korsah. In Atonsu’s dusty streets, he sold sachet water, mended shoes and rented bicycles, all to make ends meet. Korsah imports this childhood struggle to his new single, Daily Bread.
Written by him and produced by Leenington of Fourteen37sound, the song is demonstrably autobiographical. The opening line proves as much: “mama was hustling, yeah, for daily bread,” Korsah sings, highlighting the financial straits his family had to endure. By recalling his mother’s efforts, it also hints at the close-knit relationship he shared with her. Korsah had grown up seeing her resilience as she and his father strove to provide for him and his three siblings, even amid gruelling economic circumstances. He had witnessed that resilience up close as he helped his mother in her canteen. Such was their bond that in 2015 her death pushed Korsah to pursue his music career with more doggedness. He wanted to make her proud. And he did: the year she died, he kicked off his career with the single Snapchat.
Korsah’s penniless situation was made more forlorn by his friendless childhood, as evidenced by the line, “never had no friends.” Certainly, Korsah’s artistry derives in many ways from a well of struggle. And, with lines like “I’ve been dealing with things,” the struggle seems to be ongoing. Only now Korsah isn’t struggling with money—in June 2022, his talent landed him a record deal with Universal Music-affiliated 61D Music. Korsah not only has the kind of money he and his mother could only dream of earning as they labored those years ago in her humble canteen. The 28-year-old also has a global platform with which to propagate his blend of hip-hop and afropop.
Instead, Korsah seems now to be struggling with a problem that tugs at his self-esteem. As shown by the lines “they killing me” and “they wanna fun fool me,” the artist seems to be dealing with certain forces of negativity. But just as he overcame his erstwhile financial situation, so too is he bent on overcoming the new challenge. He faces it with grit, as he sings, “imma hustle hard for a win” and “imma win regardless.” Twice, Korsah references a gun: he tells us he owns a tec and a glock. You may take that literally or see that the artist is using the firearms as metaphor for his explosive grit.
His circumstances may have changed, but his ambition remains the same: he still wants money, lots of it. As he sings, “I need some bread/ I want more bread.” But he is also “sipping on the lean” and “sipping the rosé.” Korsah understands that ambition is healthy only when it is balanced with some kind of restful pleasure. For Korsah, that pleasure resides at the bottom of a bottle.
With sparse drums and pensive synths, Leenington matches Korsah’s desire to put us in a contemplative mood. Also complementing the song is a music video directed by Yinka Soda, which spotlights details from Korsah’s early years. One scene shows a young Korsah mocked by his classmates, confirming the social isolation he suffered as a kid which the song tells us about. In another scene, an adolescent Korsah applies himself to several trades: he sells sachets of water and works as a shoeshiner. The willingness to have his finger in every pie can also be seen in his music career, as the artist has a long record of lending himself to several genres: from afrobeats (Show Something) to afropop (Feed Me) to drill (Balling and Bloom).
Of the song’s inspiration, Korsah says, “I was reminiscing about what my mom and dad used to go through before they made sure me and my whole siblings could eat. Realizing they were no more was really hurting because I’m at a point in my life where I have all these responsibilities on me. I had to show appreciation for all the things God and my parents did for me to get to a place to be able to handle things myself.”
Listen to Daily Bread: