Ohene
Encyclopedia
Ohene is an American Hip-Hop and Jazz Fusion musician, and founder/co-owner of Soul Model Recordings, LLC.
, the capital of the Republic of Ghana
, West Africa, where he spent his teenage years. He recorded his first demo tape at the age of 13, which lead to his first television appearance in 1997 on Smash T.V., a national television show in Ghana.
A year later, Ohene made his first major concert appearance at The Vibrant Street Carnival in Accra, with approximately 50,000 in attendance. 1998 also brought his first professional production, a Native Funk Lords track entitled "Amfuo", which received frequent airplay in Ghana.
group "Exit-Us". From 2002 - 2004, he taught a course entitled "The Art of Rap: How to Emcee" at Temple University
through the Pan African Studies Community Education Program.
While teaching at Temple University, Ohene wrote his first full-length album, The Rapademics, which was released in November 2004 and rereleased in January 2006. The majority of The Rapademics tracks produced by DJ DN3, with a few cuts produced by Mr. Throwdown, Greg Soundz, Jee-Eye-Zee, and Ohene himself. On this album, Ohene introduced the concept of "neo cubism," in part inspired by Picasso's Cubism
, in which stereo panning creates alternate endings to the story. The Rapademics also fuses classical music with hip-hop and is the first hip-hop album to use the Waltz time signature
3/4 (nearly all hip-hop songs are in 4/4 time signature).
In addition to Temple University, Ohene has lectured at Rowan University
, University of Delaware
, and Virginia Tech. He is referenced in songwriter and author Cynthia Bigg's "The Poetic Cries of the Impoverished", which was published in 2009. Ohene also met rap artist Christopher "Play" Martin of the rap duo Kid 'n Play
. Martin still aids him as a career consultant since their initial meeting in 2004.
and rap, with the lyrical focus being more spiritual and political. Surpassing the critical acclaim of The Rapademics, Inner City Soul was touted as one of 2007's best albums by Hip Hop Linguistics. In 2006 he met musician and producer Dexter Wansel
as well as R & B/Soul singer-songwriter William Hart of the Philadelphia singing group The Delfonics
. Both of these musicians currently serve as mentors and advisers for Ohene.
of the number seven.
2007 also saw Ohene's third full-length studio album, Nina Simone by ... Ohene. A tribute to the works and life of Nina Simone
, written and produced solely by Ohene, each song represents a hip-hop reimagination of a Nina Simone's originals with slight variations in subject matter. The album ends with the track "Nina Simone By O (Bio)," an audio biography of Simone, including her discography.
After being urged to review Mysterion 7 and Nina Simone by ... Ohene by his students, Princeton University
professor and social commentator Dr. Cornel West
referred to Ohene's work as "genius."
, who now serves as Ohene's manager and mentor. That same year, Ohene began working on a new album, to be executively produced by Mtume, that promised another reinvention of Ohene's production and songwriting. This highly anticipated album will feature such greats as Tawatha Agee (lead singer of the legendary R & B group "Mtume") and Miles Davis' lone protege trumpeter Wallace Roney. In 2009, a life - threatening car accident while on the way to meet Mtume at Kiss FM
in New York delayed the album's release.
While continuing to work on his own music, Ohene also served as the main producer for jazz legend Jimmy Heath's Big Band/Hip Hop Fusion album. Heath mentions Ohene in his book "I Walked With Giants: The Autobiography of Jimmy Heath", which was released in 2010.
From 2008 - 2009, Ohene toured with Jazz/gospel harpist Jeff Majors in promotion of the compilation album Sacred Eight. Ohene produced and wrote "Trying Times" for the album, which peaked at 15 on the Billboard Gospel Charts. Ohene performed "Trying Times" on TV One's "The Gospel of Music with Jeff Majors."
album The House That O Built under his new moniker O'hene Savànt.
Featured:
Production Credits:
Early life and career
Kawann "Ohene" Shockley was born and raised in the North Philadelphia section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He later moved with his aunt and uncle to AccraAccra
Accra is the capital and largest city of Ghana, with an urban population of 1,658,937 according to the 2000 census. Accra is also the capital of the Greater Accra Region and of the Accra Metropolitan District, with which it is coterminous...
, the capital of the Republic of Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
, West Africa, where he spent his teenage years. He recorded his first demo tape at the age of 13, which lead to his first television appearance in 1997 on Smash T.V., a national television show in Ghana.
A year later, Ohene made his first major concert appearance at The Vibrant Street Carnival in Accra, with approximately 50,000 in attendance. 1998 also brought his first professional production, a Native Funk Lords track entitled "Amfuo", which received frequent airplay in Ghana.
2000 - 2004: Return to Philadelphia
Ohene returned to Philadelphia in the United States, where he established the Christian hip hopChristian hip hop
Christian hip hop is hip hop music characterized by a Christian worldview, with the general purposes of evangelization , edifying members of the church and/or simply entertaining.-History:Since hip-hop started in the 1970s, various hip-hop artists have...
group "Exit-Us". From 2002 - 2004, he taught a course entitled "The Art of Rap: How to Emcee" at Temple University
Temple University
Temple University is a comprehensive public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally founded in 1884 by Dr. Russell Conwell, Temple University is among the nation's largest providers of professional education and prepares the largest body of professional...
through the Pan African Studies Community Education Program.
While teaching at Temple University, Ohene wrote his first full-length album, The Rapademics, which was released in November 2004 and rereleased in January 2006. The majority of The Rapademics tracks produced by DJ DN3, with a few cuts produced by Mr. Throwdown, Greg Soundz, Jee-Eye-Zee, and Ohene himself. On this album, Ohene introduced the concept of "neo cubism," in part inspired by Picasso's Cubism
Cubism
Cubism was a 20th century avant-garde art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture...
, in which stereo panning creates alternate endings to the story. The Rapademics also fuses classical music with hip-hop and is the first hip-hop album to use the Waltz time signature
Time signature
The time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat....
3/4 (nearly all hip-hop songs are in 4/4 time signature).
In addition to Temple University, Ohene has lectured at Rowan University
Rowan University
Rowan University is a public university in Glassboro, New Jersey, USA with a satellite campus in Camden, New Jersey. The school was founded in 1923 as Glassboro Normal School on a twenty-five acre tract of land donated by the town...
, University of Delaware
University of Delaware
The university is organized into seven colleges:* College of Agriculture and Natural Resources* College of Arts and Sciences* Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics* College of Earth, Ocean and Environment* College of Education and Human Development...
, and Virginia Tech. He is referenced in songwriter and author Cynthia Bigg's "The Poetic Cries of the Impoverished", which was published in 2009. Ohene also met rap artist Christopher "Play" Martin of the rap duo Kid 'n Play
Kid 'n Play
Kid 'n Play is an American hip-hop and comedy duo from New York City that was popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The duo was composed of Christopher "Kid" Reid and Christopher "Play" Martin working alongside their DJ, Mark "DJ Wiz" Eastmond...
. Martin still aids him as a career consultant since their initial meeting in 2004.
2006: Inner City Soul
Leaving Temple University to focus solely on music, Ohene released his second album, Inner City Soul in July 2006. This time, Ohene handled most of the production himself (with one contribution each from Rapademics producers Mr. Throwdown and DJ DN3). Inner City Soul represented a shift from his first album, mixing doo-wopDoo-wop
The name Doo-wop is given to a style of vocal-based rhythm and blues music that developed in African American communities in the 1940s and achieved mainstream popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s. It emerged from New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Baltimore, Newark, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and...
and rap, with the lyrical focus being more spiritual and political. Surpassing the critical acclaim of The Rapademics, Inner City Soul was touted as one of 2007's best albums by Hip Hop Linguistics. In 2006 he met musician and producer Dexter Wansel
Dexter Wansel
Dexter Gilman Wansel is an American keyboardist, raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He contributed to the development of the Philly Sound and worked with producers Gamble and Huff at Philadelphia International Records. Wansel led the musical group, Yellow Sunshine...
as well as R & B/Soul singer-songwriter William Hart of the Philadelphia singing group The Delfonics
The Delfonics
The Delfonics are a pioneering Philadelphia soul singing group, most popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Their most notable hits include "La-La ", "Didn't I ", "Break Your Promise," "I'm Sorry," and "Ready or Not Here I Come "...
. Both of these musicians currently serve as mentors and advisers for Ohene.
2007: Mysterion 7, Nina Simone by...Ohene
Ohene released the themed EP Mysterion 7 on July 7, 2007. It was available for seven days, selling for $7.07, containing seven songs (the last of which ended at the seventh minute), and explored the numerologyNumerology
Numerology is any study of the purported mystical relationship between a count or measurement and life. It has many systems and traditions and beliefs...
of the number seven.
2007 also saw Ohene's third full-length studio album, Nina Simone by ... Ohene. A tribute to the works and life of Nina Simone
Nina Simone
Eunice Kathleen Waymon , better known by her stage name Nina Simone , was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist widely associated with jazz music...
, written and produced solely by Ohene, each song represents a hip-hop reimagination of a Nina Simone's originals with slight variations in subject matter. The album ends with the track "Nina Simone By O (Bio)," an audio biography of Simone, including her discography.
After being urged to review Mysterion 7 and Nina Simone by ... Ohene by his students, Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
professor and social commentator Dr. Cornel West
Cornel West
Cornel Ronald West is an American philosopher, author, critic, actor, civil rights activist and prominent member of the Democratic Socialists of America....
referred to Ohene's work as "genius."
2008 - 2010: Between Releases
In 2008, Ohene returned to Ghana, West Africa to showcase his talents as part of the Bob Marley 61st Anniversary Birthday Show. He also released the instrumental jazz album Without Words, which lead to an introduction to legendary producer James MtumeJames Mtume
James Mtume is a jazz and R&B musician and a radio personality. Mtume's group is perhaps best known for their 1983 R&B hit song "Juicy Fruit". The song was sampled by The Notorious B.I.G. in his song "Juicy"...
, who now serves as Ohene's manager and mentor. That same year, Ohene began working on a new album, to be executively produced by Mtume, that promised another reinvention of Ohene's production and songwriting. This highly anticipated album will feature such greats as Tawatha Agee (lead singer of the legendary R & B group "Mtume") and Miles Davis' lone protege trumpeter Wallace Roney. In 2009, a life - threatening car accident while on the way to meet Mtume at Kiss FM
Kiss FM
-United States:* KISS-FM , a brand name used for several Top 40 stations, many owned by Clear Channel Communications including:** KBKS-FM, better known as "106.1 KISS-FM", in Seattle** KHKS-FM, better known as "106.1 KISS-FM", in Dallas...
in New York delayed the album's release.
While continuing to work on his own music, Ohene also served as the main producer for jazz legend Jimmy Heath's Big Band/Hip Hop Fusion album. Heath mentions Ohene in his book "I Walked With Giants: The Autobiography of Jimmy Heath", which was released in 2010.
From 2008 - 2009, Ohene toured with Jazz/gospel harpist Jeff Majors in promotion of the compilation album Sacred Eight. Ohene produced and wrote "Trying Times" for the album, which peaked at 15 on the Billboard Gospel Charts. Ohene performed "Trying Times" on TV One's "The Gospel of Music with Jeff Majors."
2011 - Present: I Am Ohene
In 2011, Ohene released his fourth solo album, I Am Ohene, self-produced with all live and synthesized instruments (no samples) played by Ohene himself, featuring time signature changes and distinct movements on each track. That same year, he also released the house musicHouse music
House music is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago, Illinois, United States in the early 1980s. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s discothèques catering to the African-American, Latino American, and gay communities; first in Chicago circa 1984, then in other...
album The House That O Built under his new moniker O'hene Savànt.
Discography
- 2004, 2006 - The Rapademics (RAHM Nation Recordings, LLC)
- 2006 - Inner City Soul (RAHM Nation Recordings, LLC)
- 2007 - Mysterion 7 (RAHM Nation Recordings, LLC)
- 2007 - Nina Simone by ... Ohene (RAHM Nation Recordings, LLC)
- 2008 - Without Words (RAHM Nation Recordings, LLC)
- 2011 - I Am Ohene (Soul Model Recordings, LLC)
- 2011 - The House That O Built (Soul Model Recordings, LLC)
Featured:
- 2005 - "Bang, Bang" on Guerrillas in the Mixx, Vol. 1 (Backbone Records)
- 2005 - "Childhood Development" & "Martyr" on The Chancellor (RAHM Nation Recordings, LLC)
- 2006 - "Art of War" on The Call (RAHM Nation Recordings, LLC)
- 2007 - "Gnosis" & "Faculty Meeting" on Legend of ... The Chancellor (RAHM Nation Recordings, LLC)
- 2008 - "Fly (Remix)" on The 8th Day (RAHM Nation Recordings, LLC)
- 2008 - "Gods Among Men" on American Scholar (RAHM Nation Recordings, LLC)
- 2009 - "Trying Times" on Sacred Eight (Music One)
- 2010 - "To Whom Much Is Given" on Back and Forth (Koyto Mixtapes)
- 2011 - "Kick" on San Diego (Suxxess Records)
Production Credits:
- 2004 - "Waltz in 'O' Minor" on The Rapademics (RAHM Nation Recordings, LLC)
- 2005 - "Fallen Part Two," "Double Meaning" & "Random Thoughts" on The Chancellor (RAHM Nation Recordings, LLC)
- 2006 - "On The Grind (Mama Told Me)" & "I Still Care" on The Call (RAHM Nation Recordings, LLC)
- 2006 - All Tracks except "Kennedy" & "We The People" Inner City Soul (RAHM Nation Recordings, LLC)
- 2007 - "Gnosis," "Fallen (Suicide)," "Faculty Meeting," "Double Meaning" & "Conclusion?" on Legend of ... The Chancellor (RAHM Nation Recordings, LLC)
- 2007 - "18-18," "Humble Resistance," & "Born Again" on Mysterion 7 (RAHM Nation Recordings, LLC)
- 2007 - All Tracks Nina Simone by ... Ohene (RAHM Nation Recordings, LLC)
- 2007 - "More to Give" on Crime & Consequences (Cross Movement Records)
- 2008 - "Playoff Beard" and "I Know U Heard" on American Scholar (RAHM Nation Recordings, LLC)
- 2009 - "Trying Times" on Sacred Eight (Music One)
- 2010 - "David's Song," "I Could Have Been," "Sufficient," "Script Hop," "Live It Up," & "Lord I Remember" on St. Fallible (Soul Model Records, LLC)
- 2011 - All Tracks I Am Ohene (Soul Model Recordings, LLC)
- 2011 - All Tracks The House That O Built (Soul Model Recordings, LLC)