The Ghanaian hip hop artist, Michael Kwesi Owusu Addo, more popularly known for his stage name Sarkodie was born in Koforidua, Ghana the summer of 1988 before moving to Tema, Ghana where his family settled down during his adolescent years. Sarkodie began his hip music career as an underground rapper after highschool and rose to fame shortly as in 2009 he was performing with 5 time platinum selling artist Busta Rhymes at the Busta Rhymes Live in Ghana concert.
Sarkodie has been named one of the greatest Ghanaian hip hop artists as his lyrics have touched millions and his flow dominates the charts. Not only does his sound represent that authenticity of the Azonto genre, but his beats help propel his songs across the Hip Hop charts. After winning 106 awards throughout the duration of his career, including the Vodafone Ghana Music Award for “Artiste of the Decade”, Sarkodie uses his platform to speak on personal and political challenges faced in the Black and Ghanaian communities. In June of 2020 Sarkodie released his song “Brown Paper Bag” featuring Manifest.
In the video, he features clips that focus on the struggles of the black community that showcase peaceful protests, slavery, discrimination, and the beauty of Ghanaian culture as people in politics, and the police force continue to strip black people of their freedoms and human rights in the 21st century. The message of “Brown Paper Bag” has been directed to the leaders, politicians and lawmakers since they are the country’s decision-makers. The cover art for this song has political figures like Donald Trump, Emmanuel Macron and Nana-Akufo Addo, who have political power within the government as Sarkodie is urging them to stop selling the country out for small paper bags that represent monetary gain. Brown Paper Bags symbolize money exchanges as it narrates how Africans are short-changed while dealing with the western countries. Sarkodie is active in his community to address the mistreatment of black people from a political perspective and with his success and platform he has continued to shine a light on issues within the black community.
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