There seem to be a renewal or better still a refueling(because it never died) of the debate among lovers of Ghana music, specifically rap music on who between Flowking Stone and Sarkodie is a better rapper. The debate that rose to its peak when both artistes featured on Flowking’s Fire Burn Dem remix alongside Shatta Wale.
The debate got refueled when Flowking Stone released his latest song “STATE OF THE RAPPERS ADDRESS” on Friday February 24th and Sarkodie also releasing “S.H.O.U.T” two days after. Fans of both artistes have tried to compare both songs and some are drawing conclusions that the later is a direct reply to the former.
Fans of artiste are always at freedom to draw such conclusions when songs with similar themes are released close to each other in timing. But does the details of the song warrant such a comparison? I want to use the paragraphs that follow to compare the common traits between both songs so we can judge the comparison and quality.
ANALYSIS
1. PRECEDENCE/SIMILARITIES
When M.anifest dropped “god MC” which was a clear reply to Sarkodie’s “Bossy”, Sarkodie replied with “Kanta”. The stark fact between what happened there and what has happened now is that, Sarkodie replied on the popular beat of Desiigner’s Panda track and claimed he won’t spend money on production to reply. On S.H.O.U.T, he again used a beat more than a decade old used by Twista on his track “Overnight Celebrity”. Does something feel similar?
You may also remember that Flowking Stone said he recorded the track the night before it’s release. Meaning the release date came way before the song was recorded. Something quite risky to do. Possigee who mixed S.H.O.U.T also said Sarkodie came to the studio to do a lyrical exercise on the beat which is now out as a track.
Both songs also came with no chorus. They came with only something that in real music sense will only serve as a bridge or a traditional refrain and focused more on the rap to have enough time to deliver their message.
Again, the theme of both songs are the same. If Sarkodie themed his song on love or any other topic, fans wouldn’t be pushed into believing both songs are closely related. But both themed on “I’m the best” leaves fans with little room to disbelieve if any at all.
I’ve often asked what will bring out the twisting Sarkodie we knew? The latest development has given me an answer to that question. It’s obvious he doesn’t like it when someone claims the best rapper crown. This has made Sarkodie go back to what he terms “aggressive flow” to show he is still capable of going hard
Though we can still give anyone who doesn’t think both songs are related in competition, with all these similarities and precedence the benefit of the doubt, we can’t be fooled into believing all that is coincidence.
2. COMPARING BOTH SONGS
PUNCHLINES
As usual, it seems impossible to listen to Flowking rap without a punchline. This very song is one of those that is laden with punchlines. In all three verses of rap, Flowking punched about half of the time. He entered with a punchline and even his outro had a punchline.
On the other hand, Sarkodie hardly delivered a punchline in the entire song. Probably living true to his words that emotions are more important than punchlines.
WORDPLAY
Similar to punchlines, Flowking dominated the wordplay section as compared to Sarkodie’s content. Sarkodie delivered “raw-worded lyrics” except in very few lines where he cleverly rounded up a rhyme to begin the next line.
Flowking crafted his own words of wisdom as usual which are worthy of becoming an acceptable proverb anywhere, anytime. For example, using our usual words “good, better and best”, he said “in the absence of better and best, good is the best”. This is simple but smart.
DELIVERY
Sarkodie has this as one of his traits that will be hard for any artiste to overtake. He delivers like no other. And he wasn’t different on this song. He suffocated the beat in both verses of rap and made sure there was no gab anywhere and stayed constantly on beat.
Flowking for some reason unknown to me styled parts of his rap to allow the beat some space. Even though he does that once in a while, it’s not his trademarked type of delivery. That is left for Jay-Z and others but he seems to recently allow that in his delivery which gives variety to his fans. And that’s impressive. Both artistes twisted a lot in their songs but it was Sarkodie who surprised because we weren’t expecting that from him. We thought he was done with that.
GENERAL CONTENT
One of the main problems fans of Flowking Stone who like doing this comparison are usually unmerciful to Sarkodie is about some lines in his lyrics. They usually tag some lines as “nonfa”. And on this occasion, one such line is when Sarkodie alluded to Sodom and Gomorrah as a place where there was warfare in the Bible. But there is no such thing in the Bible that I know of. Similar to his “pro bono” line in “Kanta”. But this doesn’t take away fron the fact that throughout the song, Sark stuck to the theme.
From the beginning of Flowking’s rap to the very end, he had everything in there. His content is very rich in metaphors, self coined proverbs, and other literary devices. He made sure he took control of the whole song and delivered his address. But it is important to note that he still has a lot of work to do to cement his self acclaimed title B.R.A(Best Rapper Africa)
All in all, this claiming of Kingship in Ghana rap game is healthy for the industry if it’s handled with mutual respect between artiste who will be involved.
LISTEN TO FLOWKING STONE “STATE OF THE RAPPERS ADDRESS”
LISTEN TO SARKODIE S.H.O.U.T
SOURCE : www.Ghanasongs.com
Credit : Tebby-Hanson Thomas