‘Sore’ stands tall among the songs that shaped the rise of a new school of Hip Hop acts and behind this exceptional blend of Drill and Ghanaian sonics is a teenager from Santasi, Kumasi that goes by the name Yaw Tog.
In this Pulse Interview, I sat down with Ghanaian sensation Yaw Tog who tells me how he ventured into music, his sudden rise to fame with ‘Sore’, juggling academics as a superstar, being a musician, and his upcoming album ‘Young & Mature’.
Yaw Tog, despite being a young artist embodies the confidence and personality of a superstar. From the manner he leaned comfortably into his sit and his sunglasses giving him the posture of a man who spent the better part of the previous night in a club, I could immediately reconcile the black, tough-looking young man in ‘Sore’ video with the person in front of me.
I was eager to get an idea into how his hit song ‘Sore’ came about especially as word on the street was that he was in secondary school when he scored a number one single in Ghana. I asked Yaw if it was true that he was in school when he made ‘Sore’ and he replies absolutely!
For a Ghanaian teenager in secondary school, his sudden fame must have come with a price, part of which was his academics. I asked Yow how his parents reacted and he tells me that like a typical African parent, his mother put her foot down and insisted he must finish his studies.
“At first, when I started music, my mom said I must complete school, but I listen to the music more than I listen to my mom,” he says laughing “So I just did my thing and blew up in secondary school but now I’m done with school.”
‘Sore’ was an instant hit achieving massive commercial success in Ghana before crossing over to Nigeria and the UK. The single will later get a Stormzy remix and I asked Yaw if he reached out to Stormzy.
“I didn’t even have the number to call,” he said and this drew laughter from me, his manager, and his delectable sister Stephanie both of whom sat in the corner watching Yaw occasionally nodding his head and interspersing his answers with “You know what I mean?”.
Yow tells me the remix was nothing short of a miracle and it was all God, Stormzy, and Kwesi Authur.
“My management just told me one morning that Stormzy wanted to jump on my song. I didn’t even believe them until I saw Stormzy who came to Ghana to shoot the video and chill with me.”
‘Sore’ remix was a turning point for Yow who was 18 years old at the time and he followed it up with his debut project ‘TIME EP’. Yaw tells me that when he was recording songs, he didn’t know it was going to come together as an EP.
“Making that EP, I didn’t know I was making an EP. My people just told me we need to put out an EP and I told them that I have many songs and we just choose from them and put together an EP.”
Yaw Tog’s success with ‘Sore’ invariably inspired a crop of young hip-hop artists to believe that they can find their voice through rap. At the fore of this school of young rappers is Black Sheriff. I asked Yaw if the fans will get their wish and see him and Blacko on a song and he tells me it’s inevitable.
“Blacko and I are cool and we have been on a song together which is Black Road Gee’s song. At some point, I and Blacko will work together.”
Yaw’s first collaboration with a Nigerian artist is ‘Azul’ where he joins forces with Afrobeats sensation BadBoy Timz. I asked him how the single came about and he reveals it was his choice to work with BadBoy Timz.
“Titi (Titi Adesanya is the Product Manager of Empire Africa) came to me when I was in Nigeria for the AFRIMA award and asked me which Nigerian artist I will like to work with and I told her BadBoy Timz.”
I asked him why he made the choice and he tells me he enjoys BadBoy Timz’s music and that the song came about spontaneously while they were both in his hotel room where “Who order Azul?” was kind of a joke thing among his team.
Yaw prides himself on being a musician with the elastic talent to do it all. He refused to be labeled as a rapper or be limited as an Afrobeats star. For him, he’s simply a musician. He has shown his versatility on ‘Sophia’ where he takes a break from being a hard bar spitting rapper to a Pop star making a soft tune for the ladies.
“I’m a Musician,” Yaw tells me. “I can do it all so I don’t like to be called a rapper or an Afrobeats artist because I also do Drill.” A part of me wanted to allow myself the liberty of explaining to Yaw why irrespective of genre, he was still an Afrobeats artist but I knew he was going to have none of it.
Born Thorsten Owusu Gyimah which first letters form the acronym (TOG) and Yaw which is the name given to a male born on a Thursday. Yaw Tog is 19 and he’s one of the biggest artists in Ghana. He is a role model to other teenagers and this might require that he mature faster than he would have needed were he not a superstar. I asked him if this brings him pressure and with unmistakable confidence, he tells me there’s none.
“There’s only pressure when the fame gets to you. I see myself like a normal person instead of a star.” About needing to grow up too fast, Yaw says “I need to be careful and stay humble. Right now, I’m good and that’s why my album is called ‘Young and Mature’ “
Despite his humility, Yaw Tog is a star and his life changed with ‘Sore’. He tells me his mom now understands that music is his calling.
For Yaw Tog, the best part of success is being able to share it with people who saw him grow in the hood of Kumasi, Santasi. That’s why he had his friends and neighbors with whom he shared the memories of everyday life appear in the music video of his breakout single. “That’s my hood, that’s my people. I grew up with them and they saw everything happen,” he says with a triumphant smile.
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