Hammer
began his career in music accidentally when a friend of his (Yaw Opare
Anoff, aka Way Deep), a gifted keyboardist at the time encouraged him to
take up the career because he realized Hammer had the ability to
dissect and analyze music in the most unusual ways as a professional
does. He also had the habit of finding faults with world class
professional music which he thought could be better. This friend and
Hammer then formed a production unit called The Last Two, meaning the
only two left to put Ghana on the world map musically. Together they
produced an album for a young artist called Obrafour which became the
highest selling Hiplife album in Ghana.
This album was called “pae mu ka.” Way Deep however left to the United
States while Hammer remained as ‘one of the two’ left alone with the
task of fulfilling the dream of two. Hammer however decided to maintain
the name The Last Two as a tribute to his friendship with Way Deep.
After Obrafour's album, Hammer took up a new dream to spread Hiplife or
Hip Hop in Ghana through all dialects instead of the stereotypical
“Akan” language which was and is the most popular language in the
country. After Obrafour (who rapped in the Twi dialect, typical of the
Ashanti people), he challenged himself by risking the production of
albums in other unpopular dialects, musically and made history again
with the recording of Tinny, who raps in the “Ga” language, typical of
the people of the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. He went down in history
as the best selling “Ga” act to date. He then challenged himself again
with Kwaw Kese ending up as the biggest “fante” act to date. The “fante”
language is typical of the indigenes of the Central Region and parts of
the Western Region of Ghana. The story followed with Ayigbe Edem adding
to Hammer’s credit as the biggest “Ewe” rapper to date. The “ewe”
language is the mother tongue of the Volta Region of Ghana and
neighboring Togo and Benin.Hammer also releases occasional compilation
albums which give the numerous artists who flock to his camp, a chance
to be on wax without releasing an album.
The compilation albums include the Execution Diary(2003), which was in
partnership with Obrafour, Sounds of Our Time (2004), The Crusade of the
Lost Files (2006) and the ongoing Evolution Recruits. A known
perfectionist and a very passionate musician, Hammer’s methods of
grooming his artists have come into question and controversy but the
results of the unearthing of iconic stars seems to shut negative
observers up. Hammer also does occasional scoring of movies, including
the American movie “Bloody Street.”The third child of Jones A. Osei and
Marian Osei, Hammer was born Edward Nana Poku Osei on March 27, 1976.
His father was a banker and his mother was in the fishing industry. They
both had six children consisting of three boys and three girls, in
order, Albert Osei, Angela Osei, Edward Osei, Elizane Osei, Karen Osei
and Jones Osei jnr.
He is also a descendant of the late Otumfour Opoku Ware II, one time
King of the Asanti Region. The family lived in North Kaneshie and later
moved to East Legon, a wealthy neighborhood in the capital in the late
eighties. Hammer attended Yellow Duckling nursery school, St Theresa’s
School, Achimota Primary School and finally the Presbyterian Boys'
Secondary School, Legon. However his passion for music became a
distraction from active academics and so he could not further his
education to the university level.
Occasionally in his adolescent, the
family lived in the United Kingdom and he also lived in the United
States of America during his late teens. Although his father was
heartbroken as Hammer’s grades fell, the family realized he was a born
musician and eventually supported him. Hammer was known to drum on any
surface available to him anywhere he found himself and was also known to
patrol his neighborhood with a boom box sound system while playing loud
music with friends.Growing up on his father’s musical collection (such
as Bonny M, the Bee Gees, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Pavarotti,
Bonnie Tyler and several television and movie theme instrumentals such
as James Bond, Dynasty, Neighbours, Dallas, etc.), Hammer digested works
from these great icons as early as age seven and this gave him an
unusual perspective over his peers, equipping him with skills that would
eventually shape up his musical career. After the Hip Hop revolution,
Hammer then became a fan of Special Ed, A Tribe called Quest, EPMD, De
La Soul, Craig Mack, Guru, Rakim, Das Efx, Jay-Z, Dr. Dre, etc. But his
real inspiration came from Osibisa, Quincy Jones and Bob Marley. Hammer
is known to be a very reserved person and avoids nightclubs, parties and
other social gatherings. The name “Hammer” initially came from a mock
performance of MC Hammer’s “Here comes the Hammer” back in school as a
fresher but now the Hammer name is related to the raging heavy drums
associated with his music production. Hammer lives a simple life far
from the celebrated person he is. Fans have credited him for being very
down-to-earth.
In 1997, as the young Hammer and Way Deep started their music production career, a friend
Tinny was also a full beneficiary of Hammer’s grooming and entire
production which earned him a classic for a debut album. In order to
reduce the risk of the release of Tinny who was emerging with the ‘Ga’
language, very unpopular then in the music industry, Hammer decided to
feature him on Obrafour’s third album hit single ‘oye ohene’ remix,
which shot Tinny up to stardom even before his debut was released. There
was also a dispute between Hammer and Tinny during the recording of his
maiden album called 'Makola Kwakwe'. Apparently, Tinny was caught up in
the ‘twi’ revolution and despite being a ‘Ga’, he wanted to force
himself to rap in ‘twi’ because of a wider market. Hammer however
believed Tinny would popularize the ‘ga’ language in the industry and
would not allow him to rap in ‘twi’ as he believed Tinny would be ousted
by the ‘twi’ speaking rappers. The issue was settled finally as Tinny’s
family agreed that the ‘ga; should dominate the album with snippets of
twi and the result was a pride for the ‘ga’ people and a number one spot
for Tinny. He went on to win several awards at the Ghana Music Awards
in subsequent years and other awards in parts of Africa.
In 2004, Hammer took up yet another challenge with an artist called
Kwaw Kese, an indigene of the ‘fante’ language who hailed from Agona
Swedru in the Central Region. Kwaw Kese came to the capital purposely to
look for Hammer through one of Hammer’s artistes “Dogo”and upon his
first audition, Hammer confirmed his potential and started grooming him.
Within three months of training, Hammer released a single, ‘oye
nonsense’ from him which immediately made him eligible for concerts and
appearances. Demand for this artist was so high that Hammer had to
release the second single ‘kwakwa” which certified Kwaw Kese as the best
‘fante’ rapper Ghana had ever seen. His debut album however was delayed
until the following year and in the 2007/2008 Ghana Music Awards, Kwaw
Kese went on to win about seven awards.
In 2005, Hammer got married and had his first child. He eventually
took a break from production for more than two years until the middle of
2007 when he took up the project of yet another artist from another
part of the country. This artist, Ayigbe Edem, was introduced to Hammer
two years earlier by Jay Foley, an advertising agency owner who used to
be a production student of Hammer back in 2002. Edem’s potential was
obvious from the word go and Hammer started grooming him immediately.
The result was the landmark album titled ‘The Volta Regime’ which
immediately put the Volta Region on the Ghanaian hip hop musical map.
The album earned Ayigbe Edem seven nominations with one win at the 2010
Ghana Music Awards. Edem is still recording his second album and lives
away from the noise of the city in the outskirts of the capital Accra.
During
the recording of The Volta Regime album in 2009, a young potential
rapper named Sarkodie approached Hammer for a recording deal. After
auditioning, Hammer branded Sarkodie as a rap encyclopedia due to the
various styles he could conjure on impulse. He then tagged Sarkodie as a
special case and encouraged him to master one particular style of his
which was tongue twisting. This artist also proved himself to be the
only local rapper with the ability to freestyle off the head with
intelligent rhymes mixed with logic. Hammer did not want to waste time
on Sarkodie so he quickly signed him for a five-year contract and
created spaces on two of Ayigbe Edem’s songs (u dey craze and give it
up) to introduce him before the recording of his debut album. However,
after the release of Ayigbe Edem’s album, Sarkodie’s demand soared and
the promotion of Ayigbe Edem’s album seemed to conflict with the timing
of the recording of Sarkodie’s album. This resulted in a dispute that
could have delayed Sarkodie’s recording. Hammer later agreed to let
Sarkodie go as he wanted to focus all attention on Edem at the time.
Sarkodie moved on to win the Artiste of the year 2010 at the 2010 Ghana
Music Awards with his debut. Relationship between Hammer and Sarkodie
was never affected by this as Sarkodie went on to name his album ‘makye’
which was given to him by Hammer upon their first meeting. Their latest
project "Saa Okodie No", which was produced by hammer was recently
aired on 106 & Park and contributed to Sarkodie's nomination at the
recent BET Awards 2012 where he won the Best International Act.
This relationship did not end in marriage. At a press conference for one
of his artists, Hammer was arrested for failing to appear in court on
delay of child support maintenance payments. It is not clear which of
the women caused the arrest but upon arrival at the police station with
his lawyer, Nana Asante Bedi Otuo, the arrest was reversed and he was
asked to appear in court on the next assigned date. Hammer currently
lives in his retreat home in the outskirts of Accra where he is
currently working on his new compilation album as well as new artists
Agyekum and Joey B. Hammer is also the current national director of
Hiplife at Musiga (the musicians union of Ghana). It also rumored that
Hammer is working with AMAA Best actress in leading role, Ama K.
Abebrese on her debut single which will introduce her to the music
industry
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