R2Bees Features Wizkid, Stonebwoy, Mr Eazi in New Album

Ferdinand Ekechukwu

On a recent Saturday night at the Purple Pub in Ghana’s capital Accra, even the pandemic and an official shutdown of bars and clubs could not stop the music. Early revelers laze on plastic chairs emptying local beers as speakers reeled to full volume drown out their voices. After midnight, the chairs empty, whether it is Sarkodie, Stonebwoy or R2Bees, the kings of Ghanaian Afrobeats soon have the whole street swinging.

Although today’s new wave Afrobeats music scene has been strongly dominated by West African giant Nigeria, neighbouring sister country Ghana has been steadily emerging. Over the years, the continent has witnessed artistes from both nations come together to make some of the best music from the African soundscape. Among other things, music has been the one thing both nations agree on just as much the thriving pop culture in Ghana and the tumultuous Nigerian environment has paved the way for Nigerian artistes to make Ghana home.

The result of this development is good collaboration made manifest among artistes from both countries. The latest of this musical union is the Ghanaian iconic duo R2Bees features which has Nigerian superstar acts like Wizkid, Mr Eazi, Joeboy, and Ghanaian King Promise, Stonebwoy, Gyakie, and Darkovibes, in new stellar 15-track afro-fusion album titled “Back 2 Basics”. The Ghanaian hip hop and hip-life duo, Faisal Hakeem (Omah Sterling) and Rashid Mugeez (Mugeez) who are together known as R2Bees have been in the game for over a decade.

The award-winning duo, R2Bees, offers an ambience of enchanting Afrobeats atmosphere. The numbers are mostly delivered in a signature layered native Twi and Pidgin-English language, blessing the album with an expansive range of appeal. They kicked off the year with the set’s lead single “Fine Wine”, prior to this release, the group had achieved commercial success with their previous release titled “Yawa” featuring Sarkodie released in the month of October 2020. The group’s eminent readability was proclaimed with “Fine Wine” which surged up the charts within a few days of release.

Succeeding this accomplishment with “Eboso”, a precursor to “Back 2 Basics”, R2Bees’ fourth studio album, “Eboso” built anticipation towards the body of work, garnering traction online especially from the rave of comments from music enthusiasts and critics. A Ghanaian hip hop and hip-life duo from Tema, R2bees is made up of two cousins, Faisal Hakeem (Paedae da Pralem/Omar Sterling) and Rashid Mugeez (Mugeez). Omar Sterling is the CEO and leader of the group, whilst Mugeez is the lead vocalist.

The two cousins have been together their whole life, lived in the same house and also attended the same primary, junior and senior secondary school in Tema. Interestingly, the album listening which was held on November 24, 2021, in Accra, hosted several celebrities including Efya, Efia Odo, Kelvin Bwoy King Promise, Mona4reall, Gyakie, Yaw Tog, MzVee, Kidi, Fameye, K O D, and many more. Before the release of ‘Back 2 Basics’, the duo had released their 3rd album, ‘Site 15’ which was released in 2019, a few weeks to lock down all around the world.