Samuel Bazawale was born in Accra, Ghana in 1982. While growing up he won many awards for his skill as a visual artists, but it was hip hop that eventually captured his heart. He is known to today as Blitz the Ambassador, and has pursued a career as a Ghanian-American hip hop artist. Blitz was first discovered by Hammer of The Last Two a producer for the Ghanian Ace. Intrigued by blitz freestyle abilities, Hammer had him record a verse on the song Deeba, and that’s when Blitz began to make a name for himself. He even received the award for best new artist at the 2000 Ghana Music Awards. After graduating Kent State University Blitz moved to New York to continue his career has a rapper. Blitz started to push the envelope in the rap community. He created a new sound that was meant to change Hip Hop forever. He drew from his own experiences and most importantly his cultural background to create a new sound. Blitz released this new sound in his album Double Consciousness in 2005 under his own label Embassy MVMT. Blitz continues to push the envelope through his music as well as social media and public speaking. He doesn’t just make music for the sake of making it, but to invoke thought and start conversations that need to be had about the many issues that trouble our society. For example in his song Ghetto Plantation, Blitz immediately dives into his views on the prison system and its resemblance to a modern day slave plantation. His lyrics are very direct and he says how he feels right off hand leaving know room for question. The first line in the song says, “ Incarceration is the new plantation, a new kind of slavery, a new foundation”. Blitz doesn’t just stop at voicing his opinion through his music, he also uses social media. One of his latest tweets talks about what he describes as an unfortunate issue of the hip hop industry today. He says,”Hip-Hop has reached the point where only 5 voices matter and everything revolves around them. So much power in such few hands…bad idea”. Blitz goes even further to voice himself through public speaking and the cultivation of discussions on views about different issues that trouble our society. He is currently an artist-in-residence at Duke University and has discussions with other scholars and students at the University. He never shies away from addressing the issue. He says, “For me, I try to discuss as many things that are affecting poor, black and brown people”. Blitz seems to understand that he has been given a platform and he intends to use it to speak on behalf of his people to help them in anyway he can. Blitz wants to evoke change, and he has definitely planted that seed.
The Hip Hop African
A blog and podcast on Hip Hop in Africa