Nana (rapper)
Encyclopedia
Nana Kwame Abrokwa is a German
rapper
and DJ
, performing under the pseudonyms Nana or Darkman / Nana. Nana is not an actual first name, but a Ghanaian title of nobility. His most important achievement came in the second half of the 1990s, when his style was characterized as "euro-rap" and his lyrics focused on the relationship with God, with his family, or on topics like racism
and Holocaust.
with his mother and his brothers at the age of 10. At the beginning of the 90's, his debut consists of DJ-ing in hip-hop clubs. he also co-produces and raps in some songs of DJ David Fascher ("Here We Go", "Make The Crowd Go Wild"), under the alias MC Africa True.
In 1995 he joins as a rapper the Eurodance project Darkness, which was produced by Bülent Aris and Toni Cottura
. The song "In My Dreams" becomes a club hit, but Nana didn't feel very comfortable with the style Darkness adopted and the group separates. However, his current scene name, Darkman, originates from this time.
In 1996 Aris and Cottura founded the Black Music
label Booya Music, which Nana joined as the first artist. The first single, "Darkman" reached the top 10 of Germany
's official single-chart by Media Control. The following single, "Lonely", became the most successful euro-rap song, being No. 1 for several weeks. The album, Nana, released in 1997, is more on the mainstream, US style of rapping. It features numerous other members of the Booya Family, such as Jan van der Toorn and Alex Prince.
The second album, Father, was released in May 1998 and contains rather slow pieces with very personal lyrics. The songs "Too Much Heaven" and "War" were also featured on the tribute albums Love The Bee Gees and Hands on Motown.
At the end of 1999, Nana's released the single "I Wanna Fly", which flopped, due to a decrease in euro-rap's popularity and the growing importance of hip-hop played in German
. Nevertheless Nana still recorded two further albums with Booya Music, which were not released due to legal problems.
At the beginning of 2001 Nana released the German-language song Du wirst sehen, a gesture which was not appreciated by international fans. The single flopped, and the planned bilingual album Global Playa was canceled at the request of the record company.
After a long break, in the summer of 2004, Nana finally released the album All Doors In Flight No. 7, featuring Jan van der Toorn and Manuell, on his own label, Darkman Records. The album was distributed exclusively over the Internet, through Nana's website.
As of 2005, Nana is purportedly featured on a tape compilation of an underground DJ, Essenz Finezt .
Further songs that did not chart:
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
rapper
Rapping
Rapping refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The art form can be broken down into different components, as in the book How to Rap where it is separated into “content”, “flow” , and “delivery”...
and DJ
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
, performing under the pseudonyms Nana or Darkman / Nana. Nana is not an actual first name, but a Ghanaian title of nobility. His most important achievement came in the second half of the 1990s, when his style was characterized as "euro-rap" and his lyrics focused on the relationship with God, with his family, or on topics like racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
and Holocaust.
Biography
Nana arrived in HamburgHamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
with his mother and his brothers at the age of 10. At the beginning of the 90's, his debut consists of DJ-ing in hip-hop clubs. he also co-produces and raps in some songs of DJ David Fascher ("Here We Go", "Make The Crowd Go Wild"), under the alias MC Africa True.
In 1995 he joins as a rapper the Eurodance project Darkness, which was produced by Bülent Aris and Toni Cottura
Toni Cottura
Toni Cottura is a eurodance and hip-hop producer and rapper from Germany. He started his career in 1988 as a hip-hop producer with David Fascher and later worked with DJ Shahin....
. The song "In My Dreams" becomes a club hit, but Nana didn't feel very comfortable with the style Darkness adopted and the group separates. However, his current scene name, Darkman, originates from this time.
In 1996 Aris and Cottura founded the Black Music
Black music
Black music is a term encompassing music produced or inspired by black people. In the 20th century, this term has come to usually refer to the many music genres of African American music, especially in the United States and Brazil.-See also:* African music...
label Booya Music, which Nana joined as the first artist. The first single, "Darkman" reached the top 10 of Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
's official single-chart by Media Control. The following single, "Lonely", became the most successful euro-rap song, being No. 1 for several weeks. The album, Nana, released in 1997, is more on the mainstream, US style of rapping. It features numerous other members of the Booya Family, such as Jan van der Toorn and Alex Prince.
The second album, Father, was released in May 1998 and contains rather slow pieces with very personal lyrics. The songs "Too Much Heaven" and "War" were also featured on the tribute albums Love The Bee Gees and Hands on Motown.
At the end of 1999, Nana's released the single "I Wanna Fly", which flopped, due to a decrease in euro-rap's popularity and the growing importance of hip-hop played in German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
. Nevertheless Nana still recorded two further albums with Booya Music, which were not released due to legal problems.
At the beginning of 2001 Nana released the German-language song Du wirst sehen, a gesture which was not appreciated by international fans. The single flopped, and the planned bilingual album Global Playa was canceled at the request of the record company.
After a long break, in the summer of 2004, Nana finally released the album All Doors In Flight No. 7, featuring Jan van der Toorn and Manuell, on his own label, Darkman Records. The album was distributed exclusively over the Internet, through Nana's website.
As of 2005, Nana is purportedly featured on a tape compilation of an underground DJ, Essenz Finezt .
Studio albums
| Year | Title | Chart Positions | Certifications | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AUT Ö3 Austria Top 40 Ö3 Austria Top 40 is the name of the official Austrian singles chart, as well as the radio show which presents it, aired Fridays on Hitradio Ö3. The show presents the Austrian singles, ringtones and downloads chart. It premiered on 26 November 1968 as Disc Parade and was presented by Ernst Grissemann... |
GER | SWI Swiss Music Charts The Swiss Music Charts are Switzerland's main music sales charts. The charts are a record of the highest-selling singles and albums in various genres in Switzerland.The Swiss Charts include:* Singles Top 75... |
|||
| 1997 | Nana | 22 | 4 | 6 | GER: Gold 250.000 SWI: Gold 15.000 |
| 1998 | Father | 17 | 4 | 8 | |
| 2004 | All Doors in Flight No. 7 | – | – | – | |
| 2008 | 12 Y.O. | – | – | – | |
| 2010 | Stand Up | – | – | – | |
Singles
| Year | Title | Chart Positions | Certifications | Album | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AUT Ö3 Austria Top 40 Ö3 Austria Top 40 is the name of the official Austrian singles chart, as well as the radio show which presents it, aired Fridays on Hitradio Ö3. The show presents the Austrian singles, ringtones and downloads chart. It premiered on 26 November 1968 as Disc Parade and was presented by Ernst Grissemann... |
NET Dutch Top 40 The Dutch Top 40 is a weekly music chart, which started as the "Veronica Top 40", because the offshore radio station Radio Veronica was the first to introduce it. It remained "The Veronica Top 40" until 1974, when the station was forced to stop broadcasting... |
GER | NOR Norway Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million... |
SWI Swiss Music Charts The Swiss Music Charts are Switzerland's main music sales charts. The charts are a record of the highest-selling singles and albums in various genres in Switzerland.The Swiss Charts include:* Singles Top 75... |
||||
| 1996/97 | Darkman | - | 71 | 9 | - | 20 | Nana | |
| 1997 | Lonely | 2 | - | 1 | 3 | 1 | GER: Platinum 500.000 | Nana |
| 1997 | Let It Rain | 22 | - | 12 | - | 48 | Nana | |
| 1997 | He's Comin | 14 | - | 4 | - | 11 | GER: Gold 250.000 | Nana |
| 1997 | Bible In My Hand (with U.B.F) | - | - | 54 | - | - | Non Album Track | |
| 1997/98 | Too Much Heaven | 6 | - | 2 | - | 7 | GER: Gold 250.000 | Father |
| 1998 | Remember The Time | 10 | - | 6 | - | 10 | GER: Gold 250.000 | Father |
| 1998 | Dreams | - | - | 18 | - | - | Father | |
| 1999 | I Wanna Fly (Like An Eagle) | - | - | 84 | - | - | Non Album Track | |
Further songs that did not chart:
- Du Wirst Sehen - 14.04.2001
- Butterfly/Ride With Me - 12.07.2004
- Ride With Me - 26.02.2005
- My Get Away - 2008
Awards
- 1997: Comet Award for "Best German debut"
- 1998: ECHO for "Most successful German debut"
- 1998: ECHO for "Most successful German artist"
- 1998: Comet Award for "Best German act"