robertoluoch oluoch
April 23, 2019
Michael Owusu Addo, popularly known as Sarkodie is a Ghanaian recording artist and entrepreneur who was born on the 10th of July 1985 in Tema, Ghana. His style of music is mainly hip-hop and Afrobeat. He started rapping at a young age and later on began his career as an underground rapper. He appeared on Adom FM’s popular rap competition Kasahare Level which opened doors for him to meet his former manager, Duncan Williams of Duncwills Entertainment. He also met musicians Edem and Castro who introduced him to record producer, Hammer of The Last two. Hammer became impressed with Sarkodie’s rap flows and decided to feature him on two songs of the Volta Regime Album.
This marked the beginning of his musical journey as he signed a record deal with JM Entertainment and released his debut studio album dubbed Makye in 2009. He has since released other studio albums which are Rapperholic in 2012, Sarkology in 2014 and Highest in 2017 (Mawuli,2017). He also released a collaborative album in 2013 with Jayso called T.M.G and a live album in 2015 called Mary. His first single “Baby” featuring Mugeez of the R2Bees duo became an instant hit and made Sarkodie a household name in the Ghanaian Music Industry.
Music Career
He has released a number of hit singles including; “Bayla Trap”, “Gunshot”, “Pon Di Tin”, “Down on One”, “Special Someone”, “Adonai”, “New Guy”, “Cash Only”, “Hand to Mouth”, “Bossy”, “Take it Back”, “Tonight”, “Whine Fi Mi”, “Shots on Shots”, “Love Rocks”, “Preach”, “Bounce”, “Original”, “Lies” and “Azonto Fiesta”. He has worked with a couple of artists in Africa including Efya, Jayso, Fuse ODG, Ice Prince, Sway, DJ Mensah, Banky W, R2Bees, Victoria Kimani, Flavour, Korede Bello, Harmonize, EL, Stonebwoy and Kwaw Kese. He also worked with Davido, Diamond, Lola Rae, Mi Casa, and Tiwa Savage during the African Rising Campaign for DSTV (Andrew,2014). In 2012 Sarkodie joined Ludacris on stage at the 020 concerts to perform the remix of Ludacris’ single “How Low”.
A number of Sarkodie’s songs have made it to the top of music charts in Ghana. He has also been ranked as one of the top rappers in Ghana and the entire African continent. In 2015 e.tv Ghana ranked him the 19th most influential Ghanaian.
Awards and Nominations
He has won numerous awards including; BET Awards, EMY Awards, 3 Music Awards, Daf BAMA Awards, Ghana Events Awards, Ghana Entertainment Awards, MTV Africa Music Awards, All Africa Music Awards, YouTube Sub Sahara Africa Creator Awards, Ghana Music Honors, Africa Entertainment Legend Awards, Ovation Red Carol & Awards, HiPipo Music Awards, Ben Tv Awards, The Headies, Caribbean American and African Nations Music Awards, National Youth Achievement Award, Afrobeats Music Awards, Independent Music Awards, Ghana Music Awards UK, Museke Online African Music Awards, SoundCity Music Video Awards, Bass Awards, Ghana Music Awards, Nigeria Entertainment Awards, African Muzik Magazine Awards, MOGO Awards, 4Syte Music Video Awards and Ghana Kids Choice Awards. He has also been nominated for MTV Europe Music Awards, The Future Africa Awards, City People Entertainment Awards, MOBO Awards, World Music Awards and Channel O Music Video Awards.
Endorsements
Sarkodie has signed a couple of endorsement deals with Samsung, Obidi Chief Headphones, FanMilk Ghana, Tigo Telecommunications Ghana, and A1 Bread.
