Reality Show Mixtape – Kay Ara

Actually Kay Ara’s mixtape, the Reality Show, was released somewhere in the later part of 2011. I had come to know the artiste through a very weird experience and his only song I connected with was, “Me Dough”ft Lil Shaker of the Skillions Family.

The day I reluctantly downloaded the tape, I had the sinking feeling that I was wasting my precious bandwidth on another tape that would prove unworthy of downloading. I can only say now, that I’m highly ashamed at how I downplayed the artiste without even listening to more of his tunes.

The Reality Show, is a ten-track mixtape, mostly mixed by Klu of MOnsta Music. The first song, a cover of Drake’s “Headlines”, with the same title, is actually my least favorite track for very obvious reasons. There was a certain metallica notion to the beat. I had not even liked the original song. Nonetheless, I menaged with the lyrics and that of the next song, “Rebirth”, which equally didn’t meet my standards. The next song, “I Grew Up And Screwed Up” feat Jae Ghost, though not a personal favorite, turned out to be a jammer with my colleagues, who loved his lyrical delivery. “Touch It” the fourth song on the album with extremely extremely explicit lyrics is my personal favorite. The beat matches with the notion behind the lyrics, which seek to tell of a Catholic Nun who constantly wanted sexual favors from the persona. The second verse is also sexual, telling of the dangers that can arise if a girl visits a horny guy. The next song, a slow and emotional love song, could have been better if the hook/chorus was done by someone with a nicer voice. However, the song is one of my favorites, again Kay Ara, flaunted his lyrical prowess.

From hence, the rest of the songs are what I would called “the best songs” on the tape, as a fellow put it. “Junior’s Lullaby” is by all standards a very good song, a lyrical exposition on a certain abortion and “Go Baby”, about a spouse who the persona has grown tired of. Then comes the song of the tape, “Pain”. Its is needless to say, “Pain” is my favorite song and that it has the best lyrical composition on the whole Reality Show mixtape. In an Eminem-like manner, the artiste raps in no particular order, with a certain anger in his voice that rose as he continued. I believe I connect to this song mainly because it tells the story of most of the unusually good artistes, who remain labelled as “underground” or “upcoming” acts. The album then tapers to an end with “Karma” and finally “Usually Suspect” feat “Twi Teacher”, a UK-based Ghanaian act.

Generally, the tape is undeniably rich in lyrics, and the 5th to last songs cover up for the first 4 songs making it a worthy download. There is not a single doubt that Kay Ara, is full of versatile surprises and with more airplay and better publicity could represent Ghana on higher Hiphop platforms. However, it is important to note that Kay Ara is a pure rap and hiphop artiste and his kind are mostly less prefered on the Ghanaian showbiz front as compared to those who make songs with no lyrical sense but body-moving beats.