Mensa Ansah, known as M3NSA, is a Ghanaian producer, composer, rapper, singer, and filmmaker born in Accra, Ghana. M3NSA comes from quite the artistic family: his father, Tumi Ebo Ansah, was a member of the Afro pop group Osibisa; his uncles include Kwaw Ansah, the film director, and Kofi Ansah, the fashion designer; his cousin Joey Ansah is also an actor. He is a talented artist who has been in the industry since 15, with a large background in producing music from a number of artists, many Ghanaian. He has toured with the Wu-Tang Clan and The Roots.
Eyes But No Eyes is a track on M3NSA’s 2021 album BONDZIE. The beat for Eyes But No Eyes is slow and smooth. M3NSA’s lyrics softly ask questions about society and individualism, encouraging viewers to look in themselves. Combine that with a glossy video of M3NSA’s silhouette illuminated with golden light, and you get an intimate music video that matches the feel of an intimate song. The video for this song elegantly matches the song’s message. The video is composed of multiple close-up shots of M3NSA’s nose, lips, cheek, and silhouette. He wants you to see him, but not really see him. Rather, in this video M3NSA serves as a vessel through which we should look at humanity. This emphasizes ideas of universality: “Inside we all […] suffer / Something [they] cause me [they] cause [they] cause your son and daughter”. M3NSA blames an invisible Other, an Other that does not place human life at the center and values profit over people. This Other influences others to do the same: “You go turn around and sellt out just because of dollar / […] Dem get eyes, but dem no dey see / Dem get heart, but dem not dey feel / Some too dey get mind, but dem no dey think / That be why we all dey inside the boat we we dey sink”. M3NSA’s song talks about how because of a few people who have a lot of power but do not love or care for the rest of society and turn a blind eye to everyone else, all of us must suffer for their blindness. It is not until the end do we see M3NSA’s eyes, which blink open hesitantly, perhaps hoping to see a better world.
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