In celebration of his Birthday he said:
MY NAME MEANS RHYTHM IN HAUSA, A DRUM IN EWE (A Ghanaian Tribe from the Volta Rejoin)
Lynx Entertainment artiste KiDi has explained how he came by his professional name.
“In 2014, I was in university studying economics but I loved music. I was always running to the studio where my current team that I’m signed with [is]. I used to go hang out with them and Richie, the boss of Lynx Entertainment, said, what’s your name?
“I’m like my name is Nana Dwamena. He said, yeah but it’s too long to have as an artiste name so let’s find you a name that’s short and memorable; a name everybody will remember.”
“We did our own research and came by the name KiDi. In the Hausa language of Ghana, kidi means rhythm,” he stated.
“There’s also another language in Ghana known as the Ewe. They use the kidi drum to play music. The kidi drum gives rhythm to the whole cultural display. So that is where the name KiDi came from,” he explained to DJ Anarchy on a video posted on YouTube.
The role of the kidi , considered the “mother” within the Ewe drumming family of Ghana , is essentially to support other musicians.
This “dialogue drum” speaks and responds to the drum master of the orchestra, and sometimes launches into improvised rhythms.
The Ewe, people living mainly in Ghana and Togo, are famous throughout West Africa for their orchestras. The latter consist in particular of drums that play complex and diversified rhythms approaching jazz and Afro-Caribbean music. One of the best known of these is the Agbadza .
Like many African drums, those of the Ewe imitate the rhythms and sounds of their tonal language.
He added that some people hold the opinion it’ll be an awkward name to use when I am 50-years-old.
“I’m like it has nothing to do with that, you know. There’s a deeper meaning. It’s more symbolic,” he added.
Usually made of wood with decorative carvings, the kidi of the Ewe people of Ghana is a mid-sized drum played with two wooden sticks beating the skin of an antelope or deer stretched over the drumhead.
The kidi interacts with the lead drum in the ensemble and often handles improvisation during what’s known as the ‘drum dialogue’.
The ‘Touch It’ hitmaker has professionally done music for about six years.
Happy Birthday KiDi
