He started his primary education at the Amazing Love School, and then continued there for his junior high school.
As a product of the secondary school system in Ghana, he proceeded to Bishop Herman College for his senior high school education. He lost his mum at age 13. He was left with his dad, a lawyer, and his sister. He lost his dad at age 16.
His only immediate family at the moment is his sister, whom he adores very much. He grew up surrounded by music in his locality and music from across the world ranging from hip hop to dancehall, reggae and hi life.
By the age of nine, Edem was usually caught hitting tables, empty tins and any item that could produce good rhythm. He took off with his first music group in junior high. In senior high, he formed a 6 member group called the Ringmasters. They performed at the school’s entertainment programs as well as at funfairs held in other schools.
They usually did singing, rapping and dancing. After completion of senior high school, he proceeded with his quest to build a commercial career in music for himself. he recorded uncountable songs in the underground with the likes of Kokromoti, Nival, Trigmatic, Vyroz,M.O.B and Osibo .
In 2006 he released his first radio hit single "WOTOME WOSHI" which literally translates as "we came and they run". It gained much popularity in his region and added to his underground reputation as a talent to look out for. It was in this same year that he got together officially with The Last Two Entertainment Group, headed by the hit maker Hammer of The Last Two. This record label is responsible for bringing up artists like Obrafour (an Akan artist) in 1999, Tinny (a Ga artist in 2002) and the madman Kwaw Kesse (a Fante artist) in 2005.
During his career advancement, Edem also made a lot of appearances at live shows, the major of which was as the opening act for the John Legend concert organised by Charterhouse and held at the International Conference Center in Accra in 200-- . Before his debut album, He did a lot of collaborations with other acts, the major one being with Obrafour for a TiGo telecommunications promotion. He went on a national tour with him, sponsored by TiGo. After spending two years in the studio (2006 December to 2008 December), he came up with his first single "bougez" which received a lot of airplay from radio stations across the country. He later came up with his first album which featured a lot of new as well as established acts such as Tinny, Kwaw Kesse, Sarkodie, Obour, Asem, K. k. Fosu, Tuba, Samini, Jayso, Trigmatic, El and Gemini.
Edem has appeared on major shows like Stars of the Future Season 3 Finales, Ghana Music Awards (2009) and all major university concerts. He has been a part of the University of Ghana’s Commonwealth Hall week, Akuafo Hall week, Evandy Hostel(Legon) week celebration, Pentagon Hostel week celebration, Miss WA Poly, Miss Ho Poly, KNUST’s Unity Hall week celebration and University Of Cape Coast's Kwame Nkrumah Hall Week 2013.
He has become a household name in neighboring Togo as they share the Ewe language.
Debut Album: Volta Regime (2009)
His Debut Albume 'The Volta regime' was released onto the Ghanaian market in January 2009.
This album is as a result of two years of recordings in the hush hush studios in Accra. All the lyrics of the songs on this album were written by Edem himself. The compositions for all the songs were produced by Hammer of The Last Two. He also doubled as the executive producer of this album.
2010 Edem performed at the BET Awards Cypher [ www.bet.com/topics/e/edem.html ]
Second Album: Mass Production (2011)
Mass Production, is going to be a transition from his first and unlike his previous album which was solely produced by producer/sound engineer, Hammer of The Last Two, the album, he said, holds a mixture of unique beats produced by various engineers including hammer. Edem says, "...It basically is a transition from me being an artiste with a first album and now trying to put music out that will be appealing to everybody that has supported me. Now the album is Mass Production because it is going to be made easily available and affordable to everybody in a sphere of life in the country.In an interview with Peacefmonline.com, Edem disclosed that his favourate song on the album is song "Kate" which is the only song produced by Hammer of The Last Two on his new album. "Anytime I hear that song it reminds me of my beginning", he said. On why he decided to drop Ayigbe from name he said "This has nothing to do with image crisis.
It has everything to do with growth of brand. The intention of ‘Volta Regime’ as an album was to make a statement for my region to be respected…this statement was to make everybody know that you can use your dialect and sell anywhere across the world and in doing that I wanted to also make sure that the people from my region take pride when they are derogatorily called Ayigbe people or anything.
Two years along the line after executing ‘Volta Regime’, I know a lot of people who take pride in the name now", he explained. He said the purpose of using Ayigbe has been fulfilled hence his decision to stick to only Edem which is still an Ewe name." [1] Check out Edem's twitter handle @iamedem he has mindblowing videos like Delaila ft M.I, The One remix ft Sway , Only in Ghana, Wicked and Bad ft Coded (4x4) , Koene, Over Again remix and Not on my level (heyba) which featured on BET 106 &Park, ChannelOTV and TraceTv, Not on My Level has reached 49th position on Reflexfm Urban top100 chart in Netherlands, Edem worked with Grammy Award winner and producer JAZZWAD on which couldn't make it to his recently released album BOOKS & RHYMES.
Awards and Honors
When the nominations list for the 2010 Ghana Music Awards was released, Edem's maiden album had clocked seven nominations. His record must have made it to some other categories under the "industry awards". this will increase his number of nominations
Post a Comment