I am building a legacy —Kofi Kinaata

LAST Saturday at the EMY Awards Africa held at the Grand Arena of the Accra International Conference Centre, Kofi Kinaata added another award to the tall list of honours he has won over the years and the Susuka hitmaker is besides himself with joy.

The Highlife artiste was adjudged Man of the Year Music which means a lot to him and he describes his win as a big deal.

“Winning Man of the Year Music at the EMY Africa Awards is a big deal considering the fact that the scheme is not a music award.

It honours great achievers and to be a part of these huge personalities is such a big deal for me. It means I am doing something good”, he told the Daily Graphic.

According to Kofi Kinaata who couldn’t make it to the event because he was out of the country, winning Man of the Year Music also challenges him to worker harder and not be complacent.

Kofi Kinaata real name Martin King Arthur is associated with beautiful music which appeals to both young and old.

It is not surprising he has many awards to his credit including winning Vodafone Ghana Music Awards(VGMA) Best Songwriter of The Year for four consecutive times.

The 32-year-old born at Effiakuma, Takoradi in the Western Region, initially wanted to be a footballer but he is happy he chose music instead and he is doing everything he can to always release quality songs.

Being consistent in doing quality music and being rewarded for it comes with a lot of sacrifice and Kofi Kinaata tells the Daily Graphic that it is a legacy he is building so that he will always be remembered for it.

“I just don’t release songs because I want to but because I want my works to make that impact and I am glad I have been able to do so till now. I am very grateful that both the young and the old enjoy my songs.

“When coming out with a song, I always want to touch on a topic. For instance with Confession, I was only trying to raise awareness of the consequences of drunk driving but it turned out to be one of the biggest songs in Ghana and beyond.

“I don’t release songs with the expectation that it will be a hit but they all turn out to be successful. When you check the kind of songs I do, they shouldn’t even be hit songs because they are not danceable ones but to my surprise, they always top the charts” he added.

Touching on using controversy such as beefs to hype one’s music, Kofi Kinaata said although he was not against  it, he would rather let his work speak for him.

“I don’t believe in creating controversial stuff to hype a song even though I am not against it, I prefer to rather do a quality song and let it do the talking for me.

How long can you continue creating unnecessary hype to promote a song? Although I will not blame any musician who does that because there is no bad publicity, I wouldn’t do that for anything”, he said

Known for songs such as Single and Free, Adam and Eve, Sweetie Pie, Thy Grace, Wo Pre, Behind The Scenes among others, Kofi Kinaata, an old student of Takoradi Technical Institute shot to fame when he featured on Castro’s Odo Pa.

He is the brain behind Made in Taadi Concert an annual concert in the Western and Central regions of Ghana.