A rap competition in Tema that R2Bees did not win became a defining moment in the group’s early music journey, convincing Omar Sterling and Mugeez that they had the potential to build a career in music.
Recounting the group’s early days, Omar Sterling said their second-place finish in the competition, which brought together rappers from across Tema, gave them the confidence to take their musical ambitions more seriously.
Omar Sterling traced part of his musical journey to his time at Tema Secondary School (Temasco), where he encountered a classmate who had already established himself as a talented rapper before joining the school.
“He started rapping in, like, primary school,” Omar Sterling recalled. “Before he came to our school, Temasco, he was like a superstar from where he was from. So we knew we had to work harder.”
According to him, the classmate’s passion for rap often turned ordinary classroom activities into opportunities to create rhymes.
“He would pick up a textbook and, instead of reading the comprehension, we would be rapping and making rhymes,” he said. “He was so good, and we were in the same class.”
The experience inspired Omar Sterling to begin writing rap lyrics regularly, a skill he would eventually turn into a source of income.
Mugeez, noted that Omar Sterling was studying General Arts, with Literature among his subjects back in school and that helped develop his writing ability.
“I wasn’t a rapper when I started, but I knew how to write,” Omar Sterling said. “Every day I was writing. Every day I could write like 10, 23 rap bars.”
He said his writing skills soon became commercially useful, as people in his neighbourhood began paying him to write lyrics for them.
“In my neighbourhood, I used to write raps for people and collect money,” he said. “It became a business for me.”
For Omar Sterling, the turning point came when the group entered a rap competition organised by a music studio.
Although they finished second, he believed they deserved to win. More importantly, the result convinced them that their talent could take them beyond their immediate surroundings.
“We came second. We were supposed to be first actually, but the judges…” he said. “That was when we actually felt like, ‘Yo, this is getting more serious than we thought.’”
He explained that the competition attracted participants from across Tema, making their second-place finish particularly significant.
“By coming second in the whole of Tema, we realised that we really had something,” he said.
The competition also opened the door to an important opportunity. Omar Sterling said the studio owner offered the group a deal that allowed them to record eight songs, effectively giving them free studio time to work on an album.
“It means we had free studio time,” he said.
He also acknowledged the contribution of producer Killbeatz, who, according to Omar Sterling, produced much of the group’s early music.
“It was me, Mugeez and Killbeatz in the studio 24/7, every day making music,” he recalled.
Omar Sterling added that the encouragement of their friends played an important role in keeping them motivated to pursue music.
“The boys around us kept putting batteries at our backs,” he said, reflecting on the support that helped sustain their early ambitions.
What began with writing lyrics, experimenting with rhymes and competing against other young rappers in Tema gradually became a more serious pursuit. For Omar Sterling, the competition’s second-place finish was an early indication that R2Bees had the talent and potential to pursue music beyond a hobby.
By: Mary Anna Cofie