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Sarkodie (Michael Owusu Addo) is an internationally known Ghanian rapper born on the 10th of July 1988.
Overall his first rapper experience started in underground rapping and participating in Adom FM's popular rap competition ‘’Kasahare Level’’. He also met one of his managers on the aforementioned competition ‘’Duncan Williams’’.
Eventually, he met famous musicians ‘’Edem’’ and ‘’Castro’’ who introduced him to an established record producer called ‘’Hammer of the Last Two’’. Fairly impressed by his flow, Hammer allowed Sarkodie to record two tracks for his in-production record ‘’Volta Regime’’. During 2009-2012 Sarkodie, after this collaboration with Hammer, proceeded to release his first album ‘’Maakye’’ which was mostly handled in terms of production by ‘’KillBeatz’’ and ‘’Jayso’’. Overall, the album has received a good response from critics and fans, considering that the album featured multiple guests like Paedae of R2Bees, J-Town, Sway and Kwaw Kese. He also supported the new album by performing at a concert in Holy City Gardens in the city of Accra.
Then, on the 16th of September in 2009, Sarkodie performed together with Busta Rhymes on his Busta Rhymes Live concert in Ghana. Thanks to his performance and his single ‘’Baby’’ which became a hit and let Sarkodie get some exposure for himself. Then after 3 years, Sarkodie released his second album called ‘’Rapperholic’’ which has featured quite a number of guests: Mugeez of R2Bees, Obrafour, Jayso, EL, Efya, Chidynma, etc. The album had overall 5 singles and allowed Sarkodie to get nominated and win his first-ever BET award.
In July of 2012, he kicked off his tour through Canada and the United States. He visited and performed in multiple cities such as New York City, Maryland, Chicago, Texas, Massachusetts, Ohio, Atlanta and New Jersey. And after his release of ‘’Rapperholic,’’ he went on a tour as well to support his album and he eventually performed at the Africa Unplugged Music Festival. He would also get the chance to perform ‘’How Low’’ with Ludacris at the ‘’020’’ Live Concert alongside R2Bees, Fally Ipupa and Iyanya.
In October of 2013, Sarkodie released a remix of one of his songs ‘’You Go Kill Me’’ which gave amazing results since it peaked as the number one song in the charts in Ghana.
Later in 2014, he released his third album ‘’Sarkology’’ which premiered at the Accra Sports Stadium in September. This album has featured a plethora of guests like Fuse ODG, Davido, Tiwa Savage, Banky W., Timaya, 2 Face Idibia, Efya, Mugeez, Obrafour, Burna Boy, Vivian Chidid, Silverstone, Sk Blinks, Stonebwoy, Joey B, Lil Shaker, Kofi B, AKA, and others. In addition, Sarkodie releases another remix of one of his songs ‘’Adonal’’ and later launched his music label called ‘’Sarkcess Music’’ in 2014. As part of the launch of his label, he premiered videos for "Adonai" (Remix Version) and "Special Someone". Sarkodie also released his songs "Megye Wo Girl", "Love Rocks", "Chingum", and "Whine Fi Me" under his label.
Later in May of 2014, he performed at the 15th Edition of Ghana Music Awards and on the 7th of June, he managed to join Miguel to perform his ‘’How Many Drinks?’’ at the MTV African Music Awards. Sometime later in June, Sarkodie collaborated on a project together with multiple other African singers to record a song called ‘’Africa Rising’’ for the DSTV’s campaign. As mentioned, the campaign itself was meant to inspire Africans to partake in different community-based social investment projects. Finally, in June of 2015, Sarkodie released a new song, ‘’New Guy’’ with the assistance of ‘’Ace Hood’’, a hip song that was special in a sense to Sarkodie.
Since he has rap parts in the song that are dedicated to his desire and motivation for success. He also wanted Ace Hood in it as he has said that he considered him "one of the world's most powerful rappers", and he also had to fund the production himself Sarkodie paid a total of $25,000 to cover the production fees associated with the recording.
In September, he released his fourth album ‘’Mary’’, an album dedicated to his grandmother, who sadly passed away due to the nurse's negligence in the hospital. And on February of the next year in 2016, he spoke about "The Art of the Hustle" to a group of Harvard Business School students.
Sarkodie held the fourth edition of his Rapperholic concert on Christmas and like always he features multiple amounts of guests the concert featured Fuse ODG, R2Bees, Wizkid, Samini, VVIP, Efya and Shatta Wale.
Sarkodie released his fifth studio album ‘’Highest’’ in 2017. It is comprised of 19 songs and 3 interludes with an inclusion of a bonus track. The album featured guests such as Jesse Jagz, Moelogo, Flavour, Korede Bello, Victoria Kimani and Big Narstie.
In June of 2019, he released his debut extended play ‘’Alpha’’ which ended up being a 6-track EP featuring Joey B and Ebony Reigns, with who he teased his collaboration with Reigns during the Ebony Reigns concert.
In December, he released his fifth album ‘’Black Love’’ which was supported by his previously released singles such as "Party & Bullshit", "Saara", "Do You" and "Can't Let Go". As described by Sarkodie, the album itself was an exploration in the area of black love and relationships.
In terms of personal life, Sarkodie married Tracy in a private wedding ceremony held in Tema, Ghana, on 17 July 2018. They have two kids, Adalyn Owusu Addo and Micheal Nana Yaw Owusu Addo Jnr. who got named after a famous rapper.
Sarkodie is also working with Tigo Telecommunications, a brand that sponsored his 2013 Rapperholic tour. In addition, on 30 October 2019, he has been appointed as the ambassador for the Year of Return campaign, which was conferred to him in the Creative Arts Industry Forum.