Lyrical War: Strongman, Medikal Show Rap Prowess

Hip hop beef ain’t nothing new. Rappers have been battling with the braggadocio lyrical warfare on and off wax since the birth of boom bap. Even before the dawn of the golden era, back in ‘79, Sugar Hill Gang was making shady moves, biting Grandmaster Caz’s lyrics for ‘Rapper’s Delight’.

Interestingly, the Ghanaian rap industry is following the same trend as Strongman-Medikal lyrical feud is getting hotter and hotter over Medikal’s release of  ‘To Whom It May Concern’ which was a diss song to Strongman, Kwesi Arthur and Pappy Kojo.

The industry was somewhat dead until Medikal tweeted recently that he was the one who saved the rap genre from dying four years ago.

This didn’t go down well with most rappers, including some pundits and artists who claimed Medikal’s assertion had no bases.

Industry players say Strongman’s “DONT TRY” was supposed to teach Medikal a lesson. This was rebutted by Medikal’s ‘LAST BURIAL’.

Sunday morning saw Strongman’s latest, ‘IMMORTAL’, which descended real hard on his arch opponent. Both LAST BURIAL and IMMORTAL are trending and fans are discussing who delivered the ‘dopest’ punchlines.

What The Ongoing Beef Can Do For Ghanaian Music

However, one thing that has kept the industry going is undoubtedly the high level of competition between artistes. Fortunately or unfortunately, excessive competition may sometimes bring about friction, and that is exactly what has been happening in the Ghana music industry.

Right from the days of Obrafour and Lord Kenya, Chicago and Ex-Doe, Obrafour and Okyeame Kwame, Kontihene & Kwaw Kese, Samini and Shatta Wale to the recent Sarkodie and M.anifest, Ghanaians have been served a taste of each music star having a go at another.

Even though each beef had come with its own characteristics, The New Publisher thinks the one currently between Strongman and Medikal might be healthy for the music scene but deadly for their careers.

What we’ve clearly seen since the ongoing beef erupted is massive publicity, massive headlines and discussions on social media.

Another healthy factor is that fans and music enthusiasts in general are gradually getting familiar with rap music. With how the discussion is going, one is bound to learn something about rap by just following the whole beef saga.

However, one career threatening aspect of this beef is that the rappers are expected to up their game in the shortest possible time as no fan would like to see his favorite rapper tagged wack. This, if not carefully managed, might put pressure on rappers, and the danger here is that a single mistake can be damaging to the artists’ career.