Barima Pages 1,407

Barima Pages, born; Nana Kweku Tekyi Armah on the 29th of January 1992, is a Ghanaian recording artist.
He drew his breath at exactly 12 am at Efiankwanta Hospital in Sekondi-Takoradi.
He hails from Winneba in the Central Region of Ghana and currently lives in Ashaley Botwe, Accra

Nana Kweku is the last of 4 children born to Kwamena Bondzie Armah and the late Dora Oduro (1949 – 2017). Both parents were educationists who taught in various schools across Ghana and finally retired at Achimota Senior High and Achimota Basic School respectively.
Barima Pages attended Achimota Basic School after which he attended Labone Senior High School. He received his tertiary education at the prestigious Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ), where he read Communication Studies.
At a tender age of 5, Barima Pages fell in love with music predominantly because of his father who was in the Bethany Methodist Church Ghana’s Choir. His father would play songs like ‘'Unforgettable’‘, ’‘Mona Lisa’‘, and ‘‘Walking My Baby Back Home’‘ by the renowned Nat King Cole who happened to be his favorite artiste. Also, no Sunday went by without his father playing songs from the Ghanaian Pentecostal Pastor Elder Mireku. He would hum along and dance to them all over the house as he got ready for church.
A young boy at the time, Pages unconsciously picked up all these habits and a deep appreciation for music.
He began to sing in church at the tender age of 5. He astonished the congregation with his precociousness; enunciating the words of the hymn ’‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing" very lucidly. His big brother Ebo Selby also played a lot of Westlife, Shaggy and many music lyric videos in the hall with the FAM singing along. All this immensely ignited Pages’ passion for music.

As he grew older and more confident, Nana Kweku would go on to play a very active role in the church Youth service often singing at functions and regular song ministration hours. He acknowledges the fact that singing in church really gave him the desire and the drive to take up music as a career but it wasn’t until after the completion of Senior high School in 2009, that he decided to start recording music professionally. He recorded his very 1st song entitled “‘Looking through the Window” which had quite a catchy hook and rap verse.
Pages fell in love with the rapper Drake’s mixtape ’‘So Far Gone’‘ which was also released that same year (2009). He loved the song ’‘Best I Ever Had” a lot. It was influential in his decision to hone his rapping and singing skills so as to be able to do both as perfectly as Drizzy. He idolized him and still does. He boasts of having Drake’s whole discography: From ’‘Room for Improvement”(2006) all the way to ’‘Scorpion’‘ (2018) in his music library as the music collector he is. He is also a Big Stan of Ghanaian rapper Elorm Adablah (E.L).

He lists his top 5 rappers in Ghana as:

1. E.L
2. C – Real
3. M.anifest
4. Recognize Ali
5. Kev The Topic.

Barima Pages has 7 mixtapes to his credit.

His very 1st mixtape was dubbed “Me, Myself & I”. It had 10 tracks and was a cover mixtape. He used instrumentals of popular songs in the year 2010/2011 like Wiz Khalifa’s “Roll Up”, Tyga and Chris Brown’s Fan of a Fan mixtape hit single “Holla At Me” and Lloyd Banks’ “Beamer, Benz or Bentley” just to name a few. He called his cover versions “I Feel Good”, Holla at Me” and “Supra, J’s or Nike” respectively. The mixtape was recorded by his good friend “Mantis Beats, an independent artist and producer from London. Mantis has worked with American “Def Squad” trio rapper; Keith Murray. He recorded the mixtape for free and Pages credits him as the person who gave him the chance to really try his hands at rap at a time when it was very difficult to get studio time. Barima Pages himself says “Mantis really gave me my 1st shot in the booth and I will forever cherish the opportunity”
Unfortunately, this mixtape was uploaded unto the popular but now obsolete music sharing site limelinx.com and therefore, the songs are no longer available for download although one die-hard fan of his (AnelkaThaOG) claims he still has them on his computer but for goodness sake Barima Pages himself hopes it is never found “LOL”.

Although it was Barima’s 1st shot at rap and wasn’t that great, one could tell he was very passionate about rap and music in general but there was a lot of “room for improvement” (that’s a Drake album title) ha!
He promoted the mixtape via Twitter, which was then a very new and popular social media website.
He garnered a lot of attention; both positive and negative. However, the negative attention was initially overwhelming. Internet trolls bashed him a lot. Those were crazy times. Barima Pages could be a trending topic for days with the internet community continuously berating him. Some went as far as telling him to quit music because they claimed he sucked. These were very hard times for the still young and inexperienced Pages.
According to him, “I used to really feel bad. I didn’t understand how strangers on the internet hated me so much. Some would even post tweets insulting my mother for no apparent reason. I didn’t understand how people could be so mean, when they were supposed to be giving out constructive criticism on my music and had rather turned to personal attacks’’

At a point he put out a song entitled “Pages on Yonkers” which was a cover version of a song by “Tyler the Creator. He had a line in there where he said “I keep a cool head like a BJ in a fridge’’. This was the line that put him on legendary status. It went viral with people making memes and passing so many comments. Some said it was a nice pun. Others thought it was a weak bar and chastised him but a lot more people got to know of Barima Pages from here onwards and the rest is history. Those days were bitter but helped strengthen his resolve. The negative remarks motivated him to work harder to perfect his craft and 2 years down the line in 2013, he released his 2nd mixtape entitled “Keeping It Real” #KIRM [Keeping It Real Mixtape] https://soundcloud.com/barimapages/sets/keeping-it-real-mixtape on his birthday; 29th January.
He came harder this time. He was then under a record label: “313 Records”
He put out a Pre-Mixtape Freestyle “I KILL THESE TRACKS” https://soundcloud.com/barimapages/i-kill-these-tracks-prod-by-kwamethaalhaji?in=barimapages/sets/best-of-barima-pages produced by KwameThaAlhaji (Kwame Beatz) of Moni 3 studios. The record received a lot of positive feedback and had the masses saying he had gotten way better and could actually rap now.
The lead single for this mixtape “My Story” https://soundcloud.com/barimapages/my-story?in=barimapages/sets/best-of-barima-pages was very well received. The song talked about hardships he faced on a daily basis with lyrics like;
“charley I hustle, man I really struggle.
Just cos I put on a smile don’t mean everything is simple.
It’s complicated, my life is complicated.
Mathematical problems, my life is complicated”
He got props from his mentors Kay – Ara, Kojo – Cue and Klu.
Kojo – Cue who was then his mate in GIJ, had been giving Pages a lot of advice with regards to rap music because of how he was finding it difficult to bear with the internet trolls. Pages recounts bus rides with him to and fro Monsta Music studios in Adenta. “He told me to put my pain into the music and that real music comes from the heart and true feelings. People relate to that and fall in love with the record.” Klu, Kojo – Cue and Kwamejhosef later jumped on a remix of “My Story” https://soundcloud.com/barimapages/my-story-remix-ft-klu-x-kojo-cue-x-kwamejhosef?in=barimapages/sets/best-of-barima-pages which also received quite a lot of admiration.

Pages then went ahead to put out the 2nd single for #KIRM “Perfect 2” https://soundcloud.com/barimapages/perfect-2-prod-by-kiddiebeatz?in=barimapages/sets/keeping-it-real-mixtape
This was a love song which had Barima singing and wooing a young lady with words like;
“Hey girl, the 1st day that I saw you,
I couldn’t take my eyes off you.
I knew we were the Perfect 2.
Baby we’re the Perfect 2,
Girl I’m in love with you.
I don’t know what to do”.

The song did very well with thousands of downloads across several music websites. Pages cemented his place in the hearts of many and got the accreditation as a good musician. Even all those who had bashed him in the past showered him with words of praise and encouragement. He had finally been vindicated.
On the 29th of January 2013, he put out the full 12 track mixtape. It was promoted on various renowned music websites such as Ghana Music (Ghanamusic.com), Ghana Mixtapes (Ghanamixtapes.com), Music of Africa (MoA), Urbanroll (urbanroll.net), Loud Sound Ghana (Loudsoundgh.com) TalkMediaGhana (talkmediaghana.com) and TopNaijamusic (TopNaijamusic.com) just to name a few.

The mixtape did great with a lot of people gravitating towards songs like; “Thinking about You”, “If You Want Me ft. JR (China)”, “No Limit ft. Flake (Malawi)” “Play Out In The Rain” and Afro Pop Song “You Know I Love You”, which was produced by a Malawian with the moniker Strucktic Beats.

All songs were recorded and mixed at Rap House Records by Abraham Adjetey Lomoh (Itz CJ Beatz) except “My Story” and “Perfect 2”, which were recorded under 313 records at DM studios in Lakeside Estates, Ashaley Botwe. “Perfect 2” was produced by Kiddiebeatz with some touches by DM [Name] on the mix.
Itz CJ Beatz is credited with working with the likes of Yaa Pono, Samini, Edem, Kojo Cue and Shatta Wale etc. https://beatznation.com/profile/cj-beatz/
Later that year Pages collaborated with some other upcoming rappers from Malawi, Nigeria and Zimbabwe; Flake, Jigi Jay and Sharky (now known as Soko Matemai) in that respective order. They gave birth to a song entitled “My Country Girl” with each rapper bragging about how girls from his country were the prettiest. The song was an initiative of the website Music of Africa (MoA https://twitter.com/MusicofAfrica. The rappers had their songs on the website and had been rounded up from there. With these collaborations Pages gained some contacts and fans from other countries.

In that same year, on the 14th of September, Barima Pages put out his 3rd mixtape: “Songs for Women EP”
https://soundcloud.com/barimapages/sets/songs-for-women-ep
It had 5 songs. The mixtape was dedicated to women; his female listeners, his girlfriend at the time and the most important lady in his life; his mum: Dora Oduro.
According to Barima, he drew inspiration from Frank Ocean’s 2011 mixtape; “Nostalgia Ultra” which had a song entitled “Songs for Women”

Track 1 “Superman ft. Klu” is a love song about bumping into a fine girl on the streets and wooing her.
It had lyrics like;
“So, I was walking down the street and I met this girl
fine lips, thick hips.
She looked so swell
So I beckoned her and then, I asked
“won’t you be mine?”
She smiled and then she looked at me and said
“That’s fine by me”
So I took her by the waist
That’s courtesy!”

Track 2 “For My Mama”, a cover version of Nas’ “Dance” also written for the artiste’s mum, saw Pages expressing his love for his late mother, reminiscing on how she used to hold his hand to help him cross streets as a kid and how they used to take pictures after church together in 1996. Pages lays emphasis on the fact that now that she had gotten older it was now his turn to hold her hand and help her cross the road. It was quite a vivid song.
Track 5 “It Girl”, was a cover version of Jason Derulo’s popular song with the same title. This had Pages professing his love for the lady in his life then; Eugenia Baffour aka “Kim Baako P3” as she was affectionately known on Twitter. The song had Pages saying he had been to and fro looking for love and had had several ladies but hadn’t felt as he did about Kim. As the helpless romantic he is, the song ended with a skit of Pages saying a few words like “I want us to be together forever”.

The EP did very well with a lot of people gravitating towards these songs: “Superman ft. Klu” “For My Mama”, “Tonight ft. K247” and “It Girl”. ‘It Girl” garnered a lot of attention especially because Pages and Kim’s love life was quite a spectacle on the internet.
Folks later on mock Pages when he and Kim went their separate ways but Pages maintains his stand and says “I was genuinely in love when I wrote the record and I was inspired by sincere emotions. I don’t really care about what people have to say. True feelings inspire the best of records”
The song actually did very well with most female listeners saying “The Kim girl is lucky”

The following year, just some few months after a painful heartbreak, Pages gets back unto the music scene with a new mixtape: “For Tha Homies EP”. As is tradition, he dropped it on his birthday; 29th January 2014.
This was a 5 song EP but had skits for an Intro and Outro making it 7 tracks in all.
As the title suggests, it was an all rap and straight up Hip Hop mixtape for his male listeners to groove to. It had it all: the puns, punchlines and metaphors; the marks of a true lyricist. The reception was great with a lot of attention around songs like “G.O.D”, “Rich as Fuck ft. Kay – Ara”, “Dem Say ft. Geraldino” and “Paper Chase ft.K247”
The song “G.O.D” had a lot of talk and controversy around it. Pages laid claim to the fact that he was Ghana’s very Own Drake as he could rap and sing equally well. As usual, the internet trolls did their thing. Others poked fun at the lyrics
https://genius.com/Barima-pages-god-ghanas-very-own-drake-lyrics
There were some lines in the song where Pages says;
“If you don’t like me homie you can kiss my anus.
If it ain’t enough boy you can kiss my whole ass.
No homo tho.
Just tryna get dough.
I goes hard nigga. Ocho Cinco!”
These lines had critics questioning if he was beginning to feel as egotistic as the rapper Kanye West who had similar lines on a song of his entitled “Power” off his 2010 album; “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy”. However, the song had clever lines and word play which were appreciated by his fans.

The song “Rich as Fuck” also did amazing. Pages featured his long time mentor Kay – Ara. He had admired him from afar for a while. Barima boasts of how he can rap along word for word to most of his songs. Even before I started rapping I was crazy about his music. I used to listen to him on radio on Dr Duncan’s show when he was with a group in West Legon (Westlands) known as 24/7 with rapper friend Lethal Lyrix. For me to finally get to do a song with him was a huge honor”. The song generated a lot of buzz on social media among fans. It had over 10,000 downloads on the website TalkmediaGhana.com. Again Barima was vindicated and had his rap skills appreciated.

On the 30th of May 2015, Barima, upon somewhat deliberation and pondering, surprisingly tweeted that he was quitting music. This caused a social media frenzy and had people starting a twitter trend (#GoodbyeBarimaPages)

After a long hiatus (5 years), he put out a new mixtape dubbed #BestofBarimaPages which was a compilation of some of his best songs on his musical journey.
It was released on the 20th of January 2019. It was promoted via Soundcloud. https://soundcloud.com/barimapages/sets/best-of-barima-pages

This was his next project after “For Tha Homies EP’’ in 2014

In accordance with his tradition of releasing music on his birthday, BP put out another mixtape titled “The Warm Up EP”. The 6 track mixtape featured Kojo Cue, Gemini Orleans, Big G and DJ YoGa.
Track 1 “Public Service Announcement” was a freestyle over the popular Jay Z record “Public Service Announcement” off the “The Black Album”
Pages exudes a lot of confidence on the record with intricate schemes. He postulated again that he is a rap lord and a force to be reckoned with. He again likened himself to Drake and Ghanaian Hip Hop legends with lines like

“Ok back to the fact that I’m a dope act

I been a OG in the game I’ve had an impact

In fact, your favorite rapper is an infant

Rip the track apart but I still keep it intact

Young Drizzy
Young E.L
Young C – Real
Punches like Ali

you better Recognize! ”

Gemini Orleans of “Skillions” fame endorses him in a skit on Track 2. https://soundcloud.com/barimapages/gemini-dopest-rapper-skit?in=barimapages/sets/the-warm-up-ep

He acknowledges Pages’ lyrical prowess and tenacity. He also makes a prophecy and sees Barima Pages as a force to be reckoned with, taking a hold of the crown and staying on the scene forever.

On track 3 (The Warm Up), Pages lays exquisite bars on the instrumental to yet another great hip hop record; Drake’s 0-100/ The Catch Up. Being the die-hard Drizzy fan he is you can be damn sure he went in!
His friend DJ YoGa whom he attended GIJ with ended the song with an endorsement skit and some words of inspiration

Track 4 “Teenage Crush” https://soundcloud.com/barimapages/teenage-crush?in=barimapages/sets/the-warm-up-ep
is a song expressing feelings for a lady (Michelle Djangmah) he had a huge crush on at about age 15. They happened to live in the same neighborhood. Their mothers were friends and were on the same staff at Achimota Basic School.

Track 5 is a skit from a friend called Big G who passed a comment upon seeing a picture of the lady on Barima’s Whatsapp status. He was very blown away by her beauty

Track 6 is an inspirational song entitled “Champion” featuring Kojo Cue. It was produced by KVNX of “Harpy Sounds Studio” in Haatso.

The project was released on the 29th of January 2019 and is available for sale on Aftown [insert link] and Soundcloud [insert link]

BP put out another mixtape on the 24th of October 2019 entitled K.I.M (Killing Imaginary Monsters)
This project was fueled by mixed feelings of love for his ex-girlfriend Kim (Eugenia Baffour).
It was basically a sequel to “Songs for Women” which had “It Girl” as the last track. This time it was track 1 on this project as a reprise and the love story continues.

Track 2 is a skit of Kim professing her love for Pages.
This was a voice note from when they were an item in 2013.

Track 3 “You Lied To Me” was a cover version of Immortal Technique’s “You Never Know” off his 2003 album “Revolutionary Vol. 2”
The song had Pages recounting past times with Kim and coming clean on how their break up came about etc.
The song was well received and had a lot of fans tweeting.

Track 4 “Cupid’s Arrow” was a song he wrote with Kojo Cue.
This is a love song that basically talks about how love has a powerful hold on us. It also touches on heartbreak.
It was produced by Itz CJ Beatz
This EP according to Barima was very therapeutic for him. He was going through a lot emotionally and venting through the songs helped ease the pain.

Track 5 “More of You” is quite self-explanatory. Pages basically just asks Kim to come back to him.
It had lines like
“Every single time I,
shut my eyes I see you.
Every single time I,
Try to sleep I see you.
It’s really crazy how I,
Seem to still want you’’
The song was produced by Skrowebeatz [insert beatznation profile]
The project was well received by the Ghanaian Twitter community since Kim and Pages’ relationship was hot gossip on the internet. It is available on Aftown https://storefront.aftown.com/view/barima-pages-k-i-m-ep--5db20354a50f7]
and Soundcloud [https://soundcloud.com/barimapages/sets/k-i-m-killing-imaginary

On the 29th of January 2020 Pages put out another mixtape dubbed “The Birthday Playlist”.
[https://soundcloud.com/barimapages/sets/the-birthday-playlist]

It was a compilation of some singles and featured songs over the years.

Track 1 “Mr Right” was a freestyle over Drake’s “Mr Right’’ ft. Mary J Blige.
The song was basically Pages bragging about his sex game and how he puts it down.

It had lyrics like:

“Don’t it feel like
ugh
You with a god when you near me
My speech’ll leave you mesmerized
You’ll always wanna hear me
I got you stuttering baby I swear
It’s like you fear me
My swagga heavy-duty
Shawty can you really bear me?
I’m talking to you with these verses hope you hear me clearly
I’ll have you screaming hallelujah every Sunday morning
Surely, you’ll be feening for this D B
Just hit me with that Weather 4 two
put it on repeat!

Track 2 “Wet” is a skit. The title says it all (lol) I mean after a song about sexual prowess, what else could it be about?

Track 3 “Body Seduction” is a club jam he made with some friends [Noiid Nevs and Meido] that he met in Winneba. Pages lived there for some 3 years with his Dad.

Track 4 “LOFTNS (Shaker skit)” [https://soundcloud.com/barimapages/loftns-shaker-skit?in=barimapages/sets/the-birthday-playlist]
was an endorsement skit from Skillions New Generation general “Lil Shaker” now known as just “Shaker” or “Shaker this” and a new signature on songs; “Leaders of the new School”. He is currently signed to BBNZ.

Track 5. “I Love You – Refugee ft. Barima Pages” is a sweet love song with a highlife feel to it.

Track 6. “Ring My Bell – Refugee ft. Barima Pages” is another highlife type of love song”

Track 7. “Hello – Koby Bronz ft. Barima Pages” sees Pages experimenting with the highlife genre once again.
This is also another mellifluous love song.

Track 8. “King of Comedy (DKB Skit)“
[https://soundcloud.com/barimapages/king-of-comedy-dkb-skit?in=barimapages/sets/the-birthday-playlist]
is an endorsement from [Derick Kobina Bonney] of Big brother Fame

Track 9. “Get There” is a motivational song. It is to spurr anybody on a hustle to work harder to reach their pinnacle.

After this project pages has put out a lot of new material.

Follow him on twitter for updates ; twitter.com/barimapages