One of West Africa’s most exciting recording artists came to visit me at VOA headquarters. His name is Denning Edem Hotor. This 29-year old, dread-headed rapper from Ghana goes by the stage name Edem. He has a couple of slogans too: “Go get ’em Edem!” and “Special Delivery”.

Edem is a force in Ghana and is aiming to push the envelope to the rest of Africa and the globe. I discovered him a little over a year ago during my daily routine of researching good African music. I liked him for his music, that raspy thick quality of his voice, and his music videos especially The One featuring Sway and Koene Remix featuring Ice Queen and Lil Shaker.

On March 8th Edem sat down with  me in Studio 4 for a nice relaxed interview. It is presented here in three parts from beginning to end. In Part 1 Edem describes his special relationship to VOA and explains what brought him to Washington. He also talks about his latest single that’s gone viral, and its connection to Ewe folk music in his native, Volta Region.

Next I coax “Special Delivery” into a little freestyle, although it didn’t take much effort on my part. The man clearly loves what he does. He concludes with mentioning more about the importance of mixing languages (English, Pidgin English and Ewe) to balance his music’s appeal to both young, urban audiences and global markets.

The interview concludes with a song, a summary of his multi-national awards, his exciting new role as advocate to end early child marriage, and a peak into his bright plans for the future.

Since the taping of this interview, Edem has released the music video for Nyedzilo. As usual, Go Get ’em Edem produces another masterpiece.