Search - Nana King :: The Beginning

Nana King Born William O.A. Konadu in Los Angeles to Ghanaian parents. He started playing music at 5-years old. He continued to play lead guitar in several local Heavy Metal bands in Hollywood. Later on he got in-touch with his African roots and started playing Afro-Beat music popularized by the late Fela Kuti. In the early 90's he did a series of concerts with late Gangsta Rapper Tupac Shakur.He even did a 3-month engagement with his 20 member Afro-Beat band in Bangkok which was sponsored by Pepsi,Thai Airways,Colors of Benetton. Which earned him international appeal in Asia. In late 90's he was signed to Solar Records as a African artist but nothing ever came out of it.In 1998 he lost his father and took his fathers body back to Ghana for the funeral. After the funeral rites he decided to stay and opened up his recording studio and record label called Ashanti International Records named after his ethnic tribe the Ashanties. He learned the language and came out with his first album in 1998 Called Obaa Paa which means Good Woman It was in 1999 that Nana King s second album called Champion rocked the entire country a smash hit 34 weeks at number 1 on the Ghanaian charts. Nana then started to produce all the biggest Hip-Life stars in Ghana Ex-Doe,Akyame,Vip,Dassebere, Batman Samini and more. He released other albums that did well too. But decided to quit Hip-Life and take time to get back into to singing english songs again. But a friend made a bet with him about rapping and he did it an won Best Foreign Rap Act in Nigeria. He also opened up for Akon in Nigeria and Jay-Z in Ghana. Nana also makes music videos for people which earned him his place on the voting academy for MTV Europe Music Awards in Copenhagen. Nana is also one of the presiding judges on Stars of the Future which is a show like American Idols. He also stars in a sitcom called Home Sweet Home and a couple of movies too all in Ghana. His album The Beginning is strictly R&B and it shows off his vocal ability. It's a 14- track album that talks about love,life,death and his challenges in the music industry. Every song heard on that album was produced by Nana King and mixed and mastered by Kofi Opong Mensa in his studio in Dansoman Ghana West Africa. He did almost all the instrumentation on the entire record. Out of the 25 instruments he plays,only a few are brought into this album:the piano,lead guitar,bass,and drum programing. Lyrics and all were written by Nana King.