You can’t have rap without the battles – Rapper

Ghanaian hip-hop artiste, Wan-O, has explained why rap artistes, both in Ghana and even outside, are almost always in rap battles with each other.
In a live studio interview with Kojo Manuel on the Dryve of Your Lyfe which airs on Y107.9FM, he noted that rap music is an egoistic sport, hence the battles are necessary for rappers to show their prowess and prove they are good enough.
“We cannot have rap without the battle because rap is an egoistic sport and everybody thinks they’re the best. Even the ‘whackest’ rapper will tell you that he is the best but it’s not always a shot at someone. I have a song with Obibini and on the song, both of us were saying we’re the best. It wasn’t a shot at each other but that’s how he feels and that is how I also feel”, the rapper further explained.
Further expressing his thoughts on Ghanaians’ habit of looking at certain hip-hop songs as attacks on other rappers, Wan-O stated that most Ghanaians do not understand the culture of hip-hop music. According to him, there are only a few people who really understand hip-hop music but the majority only listen to it because the genre has become popular now or the artiste is popular.
“Most of them don’t really understand the essence. Sometimes, when Sarkodie or M.anifest puts out a song and I go on the internet to see the comments on the song, I get sad because they don’t understand what they’re saying. They just say it because they think it’s funny or they’re trolling but they don’t understand the essence of hip-hop”, the rapper further opined.
By: Maureen Dedei Quaye