MEMBER of Parliament for North Tongu and former Deputy Minister of Education, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has urged Ghanaian musicians to be decent and focus on their God-given talent and still make an impact as Hiplife artiste Obrafour has done.

He was speaking at the launch of Pae Mu Ka @ 20 anniversary celebration to celebrate Obrafour’s journey in the music industry since he came out with his life changing Pae Mu Ka album some two decades ago. The launch came off at the Tang Palace Hotel Events Centre in Accra.

“What an honour it is to be here to celebrate a legend, I consider myself the number one fan of Obrafour, I love him to bits. He is everything you want to see in a legend. He hasn’t been involved in any controversy all these years.

“Obrafour has shown that you can be a decent artiste and focus on your God-given talent and still make an impact and I urge all Ghanaian musicians to learn from him. So many artistes use drugs but Obrafour doesn’t drink or smoke, we salute him, we celebrate Obrafour and we are very proud of what he has achieved,” he said.

Hon Okudzeto Ablakwa added that he had agreed to serve on the board of Obrafour’s Obrafofro Nti Foundation which seeks to support rural education. “I support him wholeheartedly and I pledge Ghs10,000 for the Obrafofro Nti Foundation,” he stated.

MC for the night, Kofi Okyere Darko (KOD) had a chit-chat with Obrafour on stage and the latter threw more light on how it all started for him.

“To me, it was just some music, we used to follow Hip hop a lot. We were lucky with Reggie coming in and naming our genre Hiplife.

“I had a plan, I actually knew what I wanted to do with the genre at the time. The elderly thought it was noise so I decided to bring in some positive lyrics to bring it home. Pae Mu Ka brought rap home, it made everyone realise that we had made it our own,” he said.

Asked if he thought Hiplife was dead, this is what the Yaanom hitmaker had to say. “Hiplife is not dead, we are here. It’s not sounding like it used to be, it’s changed. Even the lyrics have changed but we are still here,” he concluded.

On his part, Abraham Ohene-Djan of OM Studios who shot Obrafour’s Kwame Nkrumah music video as well as videos for some of his other songs said the artiste has had a fulfilling career.

“It seems like just yesterday but it’s been 20 years already, Obrafour is a big brand and we celebrate him.”

It was very emotional as artiste after artiste paid glowing tribute to Obrafour as they joined him on stage. “The first time I heard you, I just knew this is what I want to do for the rest of my life, thank you for showing the way, you know the love is deep,” were the words of Pappy Kojo.

“God bless you my Godfather Obrafour for making me who I am today,” Sarkodie said.

“When I was at Martin De Porres JSS Two, I saved for a week to buy Obrafour’s cassette, I love you so much,” Actress Yvonne Nelson said.

EL and D-Black also had some nice things to say about Obrafour who seemed genuinely grateful to everyone for their words of encouragement.

Obrafour delighted everyone with some great performances supported by the likes of Manifest, Sarkodie and Pappy Kojo.

Activities to mark the anniversary include a Hiplife Symposium, Pae Mu Ka Docuseries, The Pae Mu Ka Cypher and The Pae Mu Ka Concert Tour.

Tour locations incluce Techiman, Takoradi, Kumasi, Koforidua and Accra. The Accra concert will be held on November 9, 2019.