The Ghanaian music scene has definitely come a long way. Now we have musicians topping not just local music charts but also international music charts.
While these musicians have graced our screens dropping solo albums and singles, some paired up either by birth or by agreement or by friendship and alignment of dreams.
It is none contestable that the Ghanaian music scene has produced some major exceptional music duos, who helped change, evolve and get the music scene to where it is today by delivering exceptional music over the last 3 decades.
While Ghanaians are at the edge of their seats expecting hit singles and albums from them, here are 5 greatest duos that ever graced the music scene;
VIP/VVIP
VVIP, formerly known as VIP (Vision In Progress) is a Ghanaian Hiplife music group made up of Zeal, formerly known as Lazzy (Abdul Hamid Ibrahim), Prodigal (Joseph Nana Ofori) and Reggie Rockstone (Reginald Ossei).
The hiplife group conquered the Ghana music charts with their 2003 album Ahomka Womu; their single also named “Ahomka Womu” was number one on the Ghanaian charts for over 20 weeks.
VIP won five awards at the Ghana Music Awards for the hit single and the group gained international exposure after this success. Since then, the group has been touring worldwide. They are now among the most famous artists in Ghana.
R2BEES
R2Bees is a Ghanaian hip-hop and hiplife duo from Tema made up of Faisal Hakeem (Paedae da Pralem/Omar Sterling) and Rashid Mugeez (Mugeez). They were nominated at the 2013 BET Awards and on March 2019, the duo released their third studio album Site 15.
R2BEES released their first single in August 2008 titled ‘Yawa Gal’, and became an instant hit. They then went on to release ‘I Dey Mad’, a chart-topper across Ghana. ‘I Dey Mad’ featured Unda Melodies. The song topped most Ghanaian Radio Music Charts for weeks. In 2010, R2Bees featured one of Nigeria’s biggest stars Wande Coal on their track ‘Kiss Your Hand’, as their third single.
4X4
4×4 is a Ghanaian hip-hop musical group formed in 2000 by Captain Planet (Sylvanus Dodji Jeoffrey) and Coded, formerly Abortion (Russell Edem Avornyo) with the help of Ronnie Coches and Bright Bling Sparkles (Buk Bak). They are reputed to have brought crunk to Ghana. In 2007, Captain Planet and Abortion were joined by a new artist named Fresh Prince (Prince Tamakloe).
4×4 released their second album Contestant No. 1 in 2007, with the single ‘HotGirls.com’ featuring a new artist, Fresh Prince (Prince Tamakloe). The song is reputed to have introduced crunk to Ghanaian culture and earned the group a Ghana Music Award nomination in 2008. “HotGirls.com” was a success, and Fresh Prince eventually joined the band.
In 2009, 4×4 released another album World Trade Center which went platinum. The title song went to number one on the singles chart in Ghana and is the first Ghanaian song to make the Urban Charts in Africa The single “Waist and Power” has also received over 600,000 hits on YouTube.
BRADEZ
A fast-spitting, tongue-twisting rap duo of blood brothers, Kunta Kinta and Flowking Stone. With the support of their big brother, Okyeame Kwame who featured now and then in their songs and vice-versa, they stamped their footprints on the Ghanaian hip-hop scene.
Over the years, the duo participated in and won several rap competitions which have enabled them to build the much-needed confidence for the job. It is somewhat challenging to define their kind of music but Bradez calls themselves rappers with deep poetic lyrics. Their great writing ability makes them synchronize their music with rhythms that best bring their lyrics to light. They employ various forms of African melodies and tunes.
They are thereby referred to as one of the ‘Most Talented Rappers in Africa’.
Coupled with multiple nominations, Bradez has won the Ghana Music Award for ‘Most Popular Song of the Year’ (2009 with Simple) and Museke Online Award for ‘West African Song of the Year’ (2009 with Simple ).
PRAYE
‘Praye’ which is translated from Akan to English as ‘broom’. Without any doubt, Praye thrilled Ghanaians in the ’90s and 2000s and was later named winner of the Nescafe Africa Revelation, Ghana Edition in 2004.
The trio continued dropping hits music until Cartel Big Jay and Eugene announced that their partner, Praye Tintin had left their team.
A few years later, Eugene, one of the remaining two got married to an actress by the name of Beverly Afaglo. After Eugene’s marriage to the actress, their group did not last a year before it collapsed.
