My thoughts on three standout lines from Kwaku the traveler.
We are all Kwaku the traveler.
All on the same road leading nowhere
Perharps somewhere, which exists only in our minds.
On this road we have taken turns we shouldn’t have taken
Regardless of where you are on this road,
Always remember, you know a fellow traveler.
The song, Kwaku the traveler, by Black Sheriff, Ghanaian-born musician and performer from Konongo is the latest single from the up-and-coming musician who says he is a sad boy trapping his way up. Black Sheriff has more than 40 million total streams on Audiomark. I probably am the last person to discover Black Sheriff. I did not know him until I listened to Kwaku the traveler, however, I recognized his voice from his feature with Burna Boy on the remix of the Second sermon. Black Sherriff is the quintessence of the new emerging afrobeat sound across the continent, his art is also a testament to how music cannot be boxed by language.
Black Sheriff’s song has got all of us miming all week. The energetic song adds a special feeling to every moment, however interesting the rhythm is, it can’t distract you from the deep words the artist had in the song. The song, if carefully listened to shows that the artiste tried to tell a story, a true story about the consequences of his actions and inactions throughout his infant musical career.
Talking about deep lout deep lyrics. Last weekend saw Wizkid lose both of his nominations at the Grammys. I am of the opinion that Wizkid had no show at Las Vegas because his songs, by and large, lack meaning, they are too ephemeral, and do not go beyond the basics (money, fame, sex, soft life). Even when singing about things with no greater meaning like sex and quick money, there are ways to be poetic with it. I think Wizkid should find himself a good songwriter.
I have identified three lines from Kwaku the traveler which I find profound and worth thinking about. The first is “I have no one to blame when I fall again,” the second line is “I keep going, more like a rolling stone, cause I have no stopping time,” and of course, the most popular like from the song: “ of course, I fucked up. Who never fuck up hands in the hair; no hands?)
Black Sheriff starts the song with how he has done what he was determined to do, presumably, making it out of the trenches. He recounts the fuck ups he has had. He continues to tell how his misdemeanor could be excused because he was young, he says, “I was young, what did you expect from me>” He then continues to ask the banging question on everyone’s lips: “who never fuck up?”
Everyone agrees with Black Sheriff on that line, which is why its been everywhere on social media. There are, I think, two ways to think about this line. One is to see it as a way people quickly excuse their inconsistencies and undesirable traits. The other comes from a deeper level, to think of the line as a recognition of one’s flawed nature, and that of others. If one takes the second way of thinking about it, and one is truly convinced, it is my opinion that one will fair substantially better in interpersonal relationships, and one’s outlook on life will generally improve.
We all have a predisposition to judge and condemn others for the same things we do. We lose touch with ourselves but are fast to look through other people’s mistakes, making it difficult to have sustainable relationships with people. Like my Dad always says, “Don’t define people by their separate mistakes or misdeeds, rather, look at the several other instances they have exhibited good traits.” Who never fuck up? No one!
“I keep going, more like a rolling stone, because I have no stopping time.” Black Sheriff goes on in recounting his career journey; he concludes that he is timeless and won’t let his mistakes stop his movement through life. I discussed this concept extensively in my last article, “Tzu Jan”, which talks about letting life happen by itself and not dwelling on the past to define the present or the future. I find this line profound also because of the artiste’s reference to the rolling stone. He compares his movement to that of a rolling stone, not moving by its own force, but by an external force that is greater than its own.
The rolling stone keeps moving not because of its self-applied force or pressure, it keeps rolling only because of its mass acted upon by gravity. If the rolling stone’s mass were zero, gravity will act on it regardless, but it will not roll. Compare yourself to the rolling stone and take the rolling stone’s mass as the competence you build for yourself. The external force in the universe will act on your competence and will keep you rolling, only if you give it something to act on.
“I really have no one to blame when I fall again.” Black Sheriff it all with this line that screams “self-awareness.” Man recognizes that it is human to fall, as it is also human to pick oneself up. It is necessary to move on after falling, it is even more important to do all these by oneself, for oneself. The past few months have come with vivid realizations of what adulthood is for me. The greatest lesson I have learned since I became 19 in January is that I am the author of my fate, I am solely responsible for anything I turn out to become in life, not my parents, not any other person. I think this is the first ingredient for success.
Accepting responsibility is one of the best decisions you can make for yourself. It is impossible to do anything worthwhile in life without recognizing that the outcomes of our lives rest solely on we make every moment.
Keep listening. Feel the music, feel the energy in Kwaku’s voice and think about the sound it gives. We are all Kwaku the traveler. We have all fucked up along the way, but we keep going like the rolling stone, and we have no one to blame when we fall again.
