Ghanaian rapper Kofi Kinaata has spoken on the inspiration behind his 2019 giant hit ‘Things Fall Apart’.
On Friday, 2 September 2022, the multiple award-winning Highlife music act addressed an audience at the University of Texas at El Paso in Texas, USA.
It was the university-required first-year persuasive writing and composition class with 23 students present.
Ms Efe Plange, the instructor whose class Kinaata spoke to, in an exclusive interview, revealed to Class News’ Prince Benjamin that the singer “was laid back and brought his usual Fante humor to the class, except in standard English. He was confident and spoke passionately about his work, where he grew up in Ghana and how he got into his rap and music career.
“He transitioned into his creative process, beginning with how some of his songs come to him. He says he works in solitude. He needs to be alone and listen to instrumentals and that’s one of his major sources of inspiration,” she shared.
The Ghanaian PhD candidate at the University of Texas at El Paso, revealed during the engagement, a student asked about the inspiration behind the song ‘Things Fall Apart’ and “how the Ghanaian public received the song.”
“Kofi explained that the majority of Ghanaians claim to be religious, including our leaders and so he didn’t understand why there was so much greed, corruption, and hypocrisy among Ghanaians, so he used the song to call out problematic attitudes and mindsets and wanted all of us to do better for each other,” she recalled.
Ms Plange indicated ahead of Kinaata’s virtual visit, the class had viewed his ‘Things Fall Apart’ and ‘Susuka’ music videos.
In addition, the ‘Confessions’ hitmaker shared “his art is mainly informed by his goal to be a positive role model. So that shapes things like: one, his choice of words, and two, the timing of his releases.”
