Interview: Inside M.anifest’s Rap Philosophy and His New Album, “NEW ROAD AND GUAVA TREES”

M.anifest’s new album, NEW ROAD AND GUAVA TREES, has a cover that satirizes the ribbon cutting spectacle government officials love, apparently another of the many Ghana-Nigerian experiences. “It’s a bit of a caricature of our leaders, most of them trying to be commissioner-generals and commissioner-in-chief. It’s a very African occurrence,” M.anifest says to Culture Custodian. Real name Kwame Ametepee Tsikata, the rapper is famed, in addition to social and political commentary, for the studied, word-bending and commanding edge he brings to every verse. 

Nearly two decades ago, M.anifest’s first musical output was his debut album Manifestations, a solid, well-scripted affair that posited Hip-Hop first but made some room for Reggae and Palmwine music in a cosmopolitan genre blend. He was then just fresh out of university in Minnesota, in faraway America, but his brilliance shone brightly enough for local recognition: in 2008 he was honoured with City Pages’ Best Songwriter in Minneapolis. It wasn’t until 2012, though, and his return to Ghana, that he could draw from source the essence of what makes his rap lines so powerful. 

Each subsequent album put M.anifest one step closer to global stardom. In 2013, a year after his return, he snagged Ghana Music Award’s Best rapper and Hip-Hop song of the year titles, a feat he would repeat in 2017. The music reveals why: M.anifest has matured to become the quintessential modern day African rapper, at once critiquing corruption in government officials, commenting on the general society, and exalting himself above it all by his talent and wealth. The self-aggrandizing can get heavy at times—he proclaimed himself the “god mc” as part of his beef with Sarkodie in 2016, and the nickname has stuck; he regularly states that there are only two rappers in Africa, himself and no one in particular (Damn You Rafiki, Scorpio Flow)—but he possesses such a great skillset for a rapper, in his booming vocals and slick wordplay, that the sonic side of his artistry can mostly match his boasts. 

On NEW ROAD AND GUAVA TREES, M.anifest expands on the musical, genre-shifting nature of 2021’s Madina To The Universe. There’s more singing, longer hooks, more guests (than any of his previous projects), and M.anifest is more laid-back than ever, emerging around choruses to stamp his signature punchy rap lines on short verses. While he isn’t quite the assertive rapper we grew up loving, this album is named after new beginnings and a different approach to artistry. In this interview with Culture Custodian, M.anifest discusses his new album, the status of African rap, Ghana and Nigeria’s shared musical history, and more.

How do you do it? How do you manage to stay consistent and maintain this level of quality after so many years? 

I appreciate that. I think it’s really about staying inspired. Part of it is good fortune which is that I can’t even tell you why I am still so inspired but I really love this shit. I really love what I do and I am also really inspired by a lot of innovation and a lot of dopeness that has happened. I think that is the first thing for me which is that I stay inspired. And the second thing which is probably the most important is that I steadily challenge myself. 

I think it is important to do that. Any time I feel like I am on autopilot I definitely have to shake things up because no great art can be made when you are  on autopilot. I can’t operate on autopilot so if I have to physically move location, if I have to dive deep into something that intrigues me, [I’ll do it]. I just have to live life like a student. One thing that you do as a student is challenge yourself because learning is a challenge. Because of that I think it’s probably helped me to stay inspired. 

What would you say is your primary motivation right now?

My primary motivation… That’s a very interesting question. I do think that to whom much is given much is expected. Beyond the gift I have also been able to crack some creative codes and also just been in the position of having some kind of creative and cultural currency in Ghana and Africa as a whole that I think is a privilege to have at least for this long. And I think that also means that there are certain levels to scale that will be really super dope. I mean not just as a  personal achievement but just to break certain bounds. 

The impact of being able to scale different levels of success in terms of who comes after us is so important. So I’m not trying to make it like it’s an altruistic thing but I think I do feel this weight of the fact that if I’m really able to scale certain levels doing what I do, it is going to really play an important role in terms of how Ghanaian music looks like [in the future]. I do think that beyond this personal success, it’s being able to break bounds for who’s coming after because some people did it before me. 

I’ve heard so much about your growing up, you’ve made “Madina to the universe” one of your mantras. I know you heard a lot of music blaring out from shops around you growing up in Madina and I know it influenced your love for music. But did that shape your love for Hip-Hop in particular, did it inspire you towards Hip-Hop? 

I suppose you could say that because Hip-Hop was more outside than it was in the house for me. So being in the neighborhood that was very alive with music means I was with the kids that were teenagers or four or five years ahead of me, who were outside were playing Hip-Hop. So it definitely gave me more access. So yeah, I definitely think it shaped me. 

And you didn’t start making this music until you were in the U.S. studying. So being in the US and wanting to make music that speaks back to home, did you find it difficult connecting with Ghanaian music from where you were? 

The thing is, for me, it was probably a great advantage that I began my music outside of Ghana. Because when you create for your people, and you aren’t there, sometimes there’s not much pressure to do exactly what’s already in existence or what is happening, what is the trend. And for an artist like me that always really valued trying to bring something new, I was willing to take that risk. 

I didn’t have to think so deeply about the audience I was speaking to, even though I was an African. It allowed me to create with a bit more peace of mind and worry about markets after. So, that freedom helped me develop as an artist before I became too hyper aware of everything that was the music industry. “Hey, they want to dance, they this, they that.” So before I became hyper aware, I just developed myself as an artist. For me, I think  it was an advantage in a strange way. For somebody trying to walk a different path, I had an opportunity in my early days, beginning in the U.S., to just mess around and develop my artistic voice. 

You mentioned just now about trying to find out what the people want. I know in recent years, Afrobeats as a genre has become more popular, and it seems most people want music to dance to. Have you ever felt pressure from yourself or from outside to create music that relates more with this? 

Not at all. It’s never happened. The closest to anything happening was, I think, early in my career when I moved back to Ghana, a few gatekeepers had some incredible suggestions of what they think I should do. Those were laughable to me. I think they meant well, but they were laughable because I didn’t think any of those people telling me what I should do, knew anything more than I did in terms of the world of music or the music business. They just had some prominence in the local economy. I just smile because some of those people, I don’t even know where they are right now. 

Now we have African rappers, especially here in Nigeria, trying to mix things into their music and maybe, let’s say, like you get an Afrobeats hook and then rap on the verses, trying to make some sort of fusion. Some people think it takes away from the rap of the music. What do you think about that? 

I think it is about being creative. Once it is not contrived, if it is creative and it is dope, people will like it and will not question it so much. I mean, what is pure? Nothing is pure. Hip-hop has had different sounds, keeps on having different sounds, you know. Purity is authenticity as far as I’m concerned. So of course, Ladipoe does “I like the way I’m feeling now” and it hits then ten other rappers want to copy that formula, it might sound contrived but when he made it, it sounded dope to us, right? So, you know, the responsibility is to do dope shit and let it be authentic and creative and the rest will follow. Music cannot be static. Any music that is static has a problem. 

Let’s get into your new album, NEW ROAD AND GUAVA TREES. What was the inspiration for that name? 

I think it’s two levels. Number one, it’s me wanting to take a new path and make a fruitful climb. And then obviously, for me, it’s always great when I have an idea and it’s taken by a personal memory, which is for me, growing up in New Road, Madina, remembering the guava tree that was in my house that I really loved climbing, to get fruits from. So it’s just both meanings, which is sort of in my professional, personal life. Wanting to take a new path, just feeling like I’m the palm wine that is fully matured into hardcore liquor right now. It’s  time to take a new path and make a fruitful plan, so that’s really the idea behind the name.

How many years was the album in the making? 

The first version of it was finished in July 2023. I thought it was finished. It could have come then, but you know, sometimes, it’s not ready. We started working on the roll out, exploring the business angles. And then obviously, I still had new ideas. We started tweaking the album, we started recording some new stuff. And then at some point late last year, is when this new version was ready. I think a good 80% is like how it was in July [2023]. But that 20% of tweaks is still just as important. Sometimes being able to sit with your work that long also gives you a chance to know how much it can live with people. I think I make my music in a way in which I have supreme confidence that it can live long with people and it’s not in a hurry to cash in on any current trend. 

A song I want to elaborate on in particular is, I think, one of my favorites, and that is Puff Puff with the Cavemen. How did that collaboration come about? 

Man, yeah, that’s a good one. Shout out to Efya, she first made the connection between me and the  Cavemen. I think I wanted them to come and play in my festival in Ghana, Manifestivities. In December 2022, they came down to play that, so that’s where we first connected and we were like, “yo chale, let’s do something, let’s do something.” So, somewhere along the line in 2023, Kingsley hit me up and he’s like, “yo, I think I’ve got the thing that we need to work on.” And he sent me the idea that they had for Puff Puff. I was in LA at the time with [executive producer] Budo and it was the perfect time, and I was like, “yo bro, send the stems” and we kind of reworked it, added 808s. Then I went to kick it with Flea, and I was playing the music and I just asked him, you want to hop on? And he hopped on.It was all about camaraderie and right timing. That’s how that came about. 

I know you’ve worked in the past with the other Nigerian artists, including Burna boy, Patoranking, Ladipoe and more. What do you think of the relationship between our two countries in music? 

I think in general we make dope music together. I think we have a long history of music interaction. I think there’s an organic thing, you would think that there’s no two countries between Ghana and Nigeria. Actually, the rest of the world really thinks we’re neighbours, it’s hilarious. I think even though we see how significantly different we are, to the rest of the world, we are probably the most alike. We can even understand each other’s pidgin. When the relationship is healthy is when it’s best. I think Naija is ahead of things currently, and that’s dope because whoever breaks down doors makes it better for everybody. I always enjoy Ghana-Nigerian collaborations, whether it’s R2Bees-Wizkid or M.anifest-Burna or Mr. Eazi who I guess is a dual citizen now. (laughs) 

You were mentioning some of those songs, and I think Another Story with Burna Boy was a fantastic one for the audience on both sides of the divide. We were able to see that some of these problems we face in our countries with our government and our politicians are actually nearly the same on the other side. It’s the same struggle. Do you think that music has the power to bring real change in politics and government? 

I mean, I don’t want to say it in a very grandiose way because I think as musicians we like to think that.  We like to have these grand ideas about what our music can do. But I’ll say it this way: music has such an influence on individuals and therefore on the collective society. How we see ourselves, how we think, how we process information and all of that. I do think music and art in general has a critical impact on how we see ourselves and our shape of who we are and who we should be. I’m glad you mentioned Another Story because in a crazy way, ten years from now, you’re going to have a whole generation of people who are like, “yo, I know the origin of Nigeria because there’s a song by a Burna Boy on African Giant which actually piqued my interest, you know?” You can never underestimate it.

In recent years, Asakaa (Kumasi Drill) has been making waves. Other young Ghanaian rappers like Black Sherif have been doing really amazing things too. What do you think about the next generation of Ghanaian rap? 

I think you mentioned some really brilliant examples, you know. And I think there’s definitely heat on the way, from both men and women. And some of them, like Black Sherif, I think I really like because they don’t fit neatly into one box and it’s beautiful. They’re becoming very experimental and kind of unique artists who are definitely Hip-Hop inspired at the core but have allowed themselves to experiment and become something unique. And I think there’s definitely a wave there that I hope flourishes. I hope people don’t conform to just Afrobeats and Amapiano, there’s a whole bunch of talented kids who are Hip-Hop inspired.