Welcome to Rahm Nation Baptist Church. As you cross the threshold of this divine institution please, close your mouth and open your mind. I am trying to find the spirit behind the choir of Hip Hop music, because it seems to be missing its boisterous voice. The recipe of Hip Hop has marinated for far too long, without the appropriate array of ingredients. Emcee/producer and RAHM Nation’s (Reform And Healing Movement) founder, Ohene, feels the game needs to acknowledge the humanist dimension of the music. “The reality that we live in, you have merchants that say, okay… we can take the music and we can package it, but you can’t package emotions and feelings. I don’t think you can. I definitely don’t think you can put a price on it.” True indeed, God’s greatest gifts should be free of charge. As the invocation ends the sermon shall begin, led by pastor Ohene,the Reverend of Renaissance Rahm.

Despite preconceived notions of what defines wealth, Ohene is affluent in his influences. Originally from Philly, the “Begotten Son of Rhyme” found his passion for music at age 12, upon moving to Ghana. This was the essence of Ohene’s lyrical ambitions. His lucid conceptions assist him in remembering when Ghanians used to ask him, “Are you from the States, you from the U.S. can you rap..I kind of felt like I had something to prove.” Thus the dawning of Ohene’s own personal renaissance.
Hip Hop music flounders when artists don’t know their place. Ohene suggests that Hip Hop needs to broaden its horizons, and incorporate all human issues. He professes that, “When there was a war back in the days for any culture, some people would play the trumpet (to inspire emotions of war). In Africa, they would play the drums and everyone would assemble, and they would use that, and I think my music addresses that part of humanity, not entertainment.” Perhaps our pisces professor symbolizes the poor righteous teacher, which represents 5% of all emcees sent to enlighten other rappers as well as the masses (see 5% Nation).

Musically, the masses are oblivious to what Hip Hop is missing. I guess heads were not really listening when Big Daddy Kane said, “Ain’t No Half Steppin.” I knew Ohene’s notions were a full step in a righteous direction when he schooled me to the fact that “What a lot of people are not experiencing in music, especially in the Hip Hop culture, is a spiritual experience and euphoria.” A wise man once told me that experience euphoria has the ability to conquer all. Many philosophers, including Ohene, believe that less wars would ravage our nations if everyone felt a fortified feeling of euphoria. Question: Is modern Hip Hop truly ineffective in providing a spiritual experience? Ohene testifies: “All Hip Hop tracks are three minutes and four minutes. How can you have a spiritual experience in just three minutes? [What] If someone said to you… you gotta have an orgasm in three mintues!?” That’s real rap, never quite thought of it like that. In essence the feeling of nothingness, serenity and liberation is meant to emanate from an over-arching experience of hours, rather than minutes. This is why Hip Hop falls short of the efficacy necessary to uplift its listeners, according to Ohene.

Professing the profound to his listeners is Ohene’s modus operandi. “If you [are] listening to a track that’s giving you a headache ’cause it’s so complicated, what it’s doing is training your brain. That’s like having a brain exercise…and you feel it,” says Ohene in reference to the Hip Hop community’s response to “3rd Bar Invention,” a track off his debut album, The Rapademics. This perspective is invaluable because conscious music is frequently ignored for less significant club anthems. A (Hip Hop)culture from which we find our vitality and livelihood should appropriate our music to the utmost. If not, it’s definitely doing us a disservice.

Please bow your head for Ohene’s benediction: “When we address these little issues like death, birth, life…people are thinking about committing suicide and there’s no song on the radio that addresses that, that’s what I write about. That’s where I come in. I feel like as long as I continue to write those type of songs, then my job is done.” Amen.

Thursday says:

“Intelligence is your shield from the ills, evils and ailments of ignorance.”

Ohene’s sophisticated and highly anticipated sophomore album, Inner City Soul is slated to release April 25th. If you hunger to know more about a label with a profound, prudent and progressive approach to Hip Hop, peep www.rahmnation.org/artists.htm, its the best of what cat’s sleep on.

BIG UPS to Chris Anderson on the Ohene Interview

3 Responses to “Ohene: The Reverend of Renaissance Rahm”

1. Chris A. Says:
   April 12th, 2006 at 5:47 pm

   “I can spit forward or backwards, and switch my hands…which means that my elasticity is advanced.”

   That ish is for real…I seen his rhyme book. Don’t sleep on Ohene, he’s ahead of his rhyme for sure!

2. JR Says:
   April 18th, 2006 at 1:41 pm

   the dude is the truth.

3. G. Says:
   May 6th, 2006 at 4:40 pm

   Nice job with the article. Good lookin’ out. Peace.

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