Ghanaian MC M.anifest, who performed at Design Indaba Music this year, has released a new music video for his track “Forget Dem”.
The music video, which was shot in Cape Town, is directed by Garth Von Glehn and features scenes of M.anifest working at a food store selling ice-cream through a shop window and as a barber. M.anifest’s character, tired of the menial work, promptly “forgets dem”.
The video cuts to a party scene that sees the rapper dancing with his love interest played by Roselyn Ashkar, who represented Ghana in Africa’s Next Top Model. Cape Town locals will recognise the area as the rooftop of the lively watering-hole Yours Truly.
In an interview with Design Indaba earlier this year, M.anifest said: “I think African music is a surprising departure from the representation of the Africa that a lot of people see… contemporary African music that combines the old and the new is even more intriguing now.”
The track is true to this: M.anifest combines contemporary elements such as hip-hop beats from a 808 synthesiser and highlife guitars with the sounds of a traditional cowbell. The rapper easily switches from the Ghanaian dialect Akan (or Twi) to English.
This video sees the Ghanaian MC dishing out the multilingual wordplay he is celebrated for over beats produced by the award-winning Killbeatz. The “Someway Bi” MC is spreading positivity and “vim” (the Twi word meaing “passion”) as he raps about staying focussed and moving on.
