Award-winning Ghanaian rapper Elom Adablah, also known as EL, has listed his top five lyricists in Ghana.
Explaining who a lyricist is in an interview with DJ Slim, EL said that unlike rappers, who are able to produce and recite words to a rhythm and a beat, a lyricist is able to convey a message in a very artistic and complex manner, such that listeners must listen a couple of times to understand the message being communicated.
“Let me list five of my most respected lyricists, not rappers. This is because anybody can rap. Rap is just putting words together, making them rhyme, and making them work, and that is rap.
“People might love that, but when it comes to lyricism, it is a different conversation; it is an art. These are songs you have to listen to a couple of times to get the message. Sometimes you get the meaning of one line, wait, and then unconsciously get the meaning of the next line another time,” EL told DJ Slim.
According to the rapper, Kojo Cue, King Tradey, Kev the Topic, M.anifest, Omar Sterling, formerly known as Paedae, and Obibini are his top five lyricists in Ghana.
EL maintains that his list is not ordered and that the list of his top five lyricists in Ghana was generated from rappers who are still active and relevant in the music industry.
He said he could make a different list of the top five lyricists from the rappers of old.
EL’s list of the top five lyricists in Ghana sparked conversations as most netizens questioned why the likes of Sarkodie, Strongman, and Lyrical Joe were missing from his list.
While others agreed with him on his list, there was a section of netizens who said they believed that EL was just mentioning the names of his friends who are rappers or rappers who rap using the English language.
