Work hard

"The north-east of [Ghana], the ethnic centre of the Frafra people, is the heartland of kologo music; the kologo, as played by Ayisoba, being a simple, two-stringed calabash covered in goat skin. On this release, his uncompromising lyrics, stridently delivered in Frafra, Twi or his own idiosyncratic form of pidgin English, appear, in translation, to deal with contemporary social and political issues ... Work Hard presents as an often raw-sounding melding of kologo basslines, Ghanaian drums, repetitively infectious rhythms and beats, and heavy doses of electronica, with variation and variety provided by the many Ghanaian guest contributors lending, at times, a hip-hop dimension known locally as hiplife, a blend of highlife and hip-hop. Firmly to the fore, however, remains the uniquely rasping, harsh voice of the King himself as he delivers his lyrics with a profoundly single-minded intensity".

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