This EP, his second solo project, revisits the latest hip-hop trends with flamboyance, proving that Ghana remains a land of rap.
$pacely is no longer at his first try. After nearly 5 years in the collective La Même Gang and his solo project Fine$$e Or Be Fine$$ed released in 2019, the rapper has found his place in the Ghanaian rap scene, particularly abundant. With Keanu, whose title is inspired by one of his many aliases, he adds a stone to the edifice of his solo career and remains faithful to the guiding principle of his group: to propose the freshest music possible, and represent Accra’s creativity.
On Keanu, the day one fans will thus find what made the success of the group and the artist. On tracks like “Rio de Janeiro” or “Paradise”, $pacely masters brilliantly the summery sounds, the bumpy rhythms and the nonchalant flow that he has often proposed to his audience. However, on other tracks, we can see a clear artistic turn towards a darker musicality, inspired by the asakaa sound, the local drill music phenomenon. “Ofr3”, which features the pioneers of the genre Kawabanga and Kwaku DMC, is a good example, or “Easy Come”, whose dark and saturated basses are characteristic of drill music. In terms of bars, the track “Va Bene” should also be pointed out: in addition to $pacely’s verse, it lets us hear a French verse from Togolese artist Green.Nagasaki. With less Afrobeats and more hip-hop, Keanu proves that $pacely is a fierce rapper, before being a singer, a musician or an influencer. A reminder for his public, which he dedicates in the video of “Roll Call”.
Keanu by $pacely, out now.
Listen to Keanu in our Pan African Rap playlist on Spotify and Deezer.
