Busta Rhymes Rocks GH

Having collaborated over the years to bring international artistes—Jay –Z, Shaggy, Kevin Little, Wayne Wonder amongst others—to mesmerize party raves in Ghana, events powerhouse Charterhouse and telecommunications giants MTN did it again by flying Brooklyn born MC, Busta Rhymes, to do a concert in commemoration of MTN’s 2nd Anniversary.
Starting two hours late albeit the 8pm stipulated, the concert at the Accra International Conference Centre was also used to celebrate Ghana’s second World Cup qualification of which MTN are the lead sponsors. Introduced by the master of ceremonies, Eddie Blay Jnr as the dynamic duo, Kwaku-T and D Black kick started the performances on the night with their two singles, “Move” and “Breathe” off their “Target Practice” album.
Backed by the dexterous Andy Dosty on the turn tables, the self titled best rapper alive, Okyeame Kwame had the half filled auditorium on their feet throughout his military choreographed performance. With arguably the hottest song in GH currently belonging to them, different kinds of cell phones and cameras were on display in the auditorium to capture the moment when 4X4 mounted the stage. Led by the silky voiced Fresh Prince, the group, clad in matching yellow jackets and sagged denims wowed the crowd throughout their performance.
The ladies turned on the fashion style on the night. The bevy of beautiful girls who thronged the Conference Centre to watch Busta Rhymes live displayed some real exotic fashion sense by wearing off the hook apparels. He started by performing renditions of various hip hop classics before coming to his tunes, however, MTN Music Icon Samini didn’t impress. With DJ Pepsi churning hits after hits from his discography, it was apparent that Samini has lost his flavour as the crowd was totally unfazed throughout his performance.
There couldn’t be a better prelude performance to Busta’s than that of his GH version, Sarkodie Obidi. Walking on stage with a buddy who was holding a wall clock to prove Sarkodie’s lyrical pace, he received the loudest applause of all the local artistes on the night. Tongue-twisting rapper Sarkodie proved why he is fast becoming fans favourite with an intense energy filled performance.
With the indefatigable DJ Black whetting the appetite of the now near filled auditorium with hits across the globe for some minutes, tattooed Busta Rhymes made a grand appearance on stage with his Flip Mode Entertainment protégé, Spliff Star and a hefty bodyguard. At exactly 40 minutes past midnight, Busta Rhymes alongside Spliff Star turned the auditorium on ‘fire’.
Born Trevor Taheim Smith Jr, Busta categorized his performances into three sections on the night—the retro classics, love duets and songs from the current album titled “Back on my BS”. Most popular in GH in the mid 90’s, the song ‘Dangerous’ from his second album “When Disaster Strikes” went down well with crowd. They sang lyric after lyric with the energized Busta Rhymes who couldn’t help but keep thanking the fans for coming out to watch him in his maiden performance in Accra.
Reveling in the frenzy and ecstatic atmosphere at the auditorium, many of the attendants were engaged in a battle of strength in front of the stage with their various digital cameras and cell phones to film Busta’s performance. Some even went to the extent of climbing the stage just to have a feel of the “Just Make It Clap” star.
After an intense one hour of performances of hits after hits, Busta finally brought the curtains down on the memorable night by proposing imaginary toasts to the organizers, his fans who came to see him live and the sitting first African American President of the United States, Barack Obama. He promised the insatiable crowd in the auditorium one thing before he bowed out: “I will be back”.