Pappy Kojo

Pappy Kojo carries forward the legacy of Obrafour and Reggie Rockstone by reshaping hiplife—a fusion of hip-hop and Ghanaian traditions—for contemporary listeners. Born Jason Gaisie in 1989 in Takoradi, the major city in Ghana’s Western Region, he first encountered music while enrolled at Ridge International School, where he absorbed both local hiplife trailblazers and Western figures such as Eminem and Michael Jackson. In Takoradi he began staging his own rap events, yet in 2004 he relocated to Verona, Italy, to join his mother. His interest in rap and Ghanaian sounds persisted in Europe, prompting him to post online videos of himself performing cover versions of favored songs. By 2013 he was shuttling regularly between Italy and Ghana while intensifying his pursuit of a music career. In 2014 he appeared under the name Pappy Kojo on Joey B’s “Wave.” Later that year Joey B returned the gesture by featuring on Pappy Kojo’s first single, “Realer No,” which achieved major success in Ghana: it reached the top of regional radio playlists in the south and earned Hip Hop Song of the Year honors at the Ghana Music Awards.

The year 2015 proved relatively subdued, but Pappy Kojo resurfaced in 2016 with the Ghanaian hit “Awo’a.” Subsequent releases included “Van Damme” alongside Akiti and, in December 2017, “Abena,” a collaboration with Mr Eazi and Bisa Kdei. Another success arrived in June 2018 with “Ay3 Late,” which featured fellow Ghanaian rapper Sarkodie. The year 2019 marked Pappy Kojo’s most active period so far, yielding five singles; two of them—“Balance” and “Green Means Go”—were later included on his debut album. A further preview came in December 2020 with the remix of the prior year’s “Thomas Pompoy3yaw,” recorded with South African singer/songwriter and poet Busiswa; the track received International Collaboration of the Year at the 2021 Ghana Music Awards. Following the additional single “My Heart,” Pappy Kojo issued his debut album, Logos II, in March 2021. Titled after a vessel that docked in his hometown during his childhood, the project was finished before the first worldwide COVID-19 lockdowns of early 2020. In March 2022 he released the Logos Hope EP, which contains “Koobi,” a recording made with O’Kenneth & Reggie.