Beware of dogs … watch your buttos!! Those are the words of advice we would like to caution you with as we journey through Tic Tac’s Accra Connection from the camp of TN Records. Tic Tac starts off the album with a conventional Hiplife track “Yaa”. This song, featuring Jeho, cautions women against Ghanaian men philanderers. “Beware of dogs” follows next. If you are familiar with Tic Tac’s music then you will know that this song was a real big hit in Ghana during its release. The catchy chorus – “Beware of dogs, watch your buttos” speaks for itself. Was Tic Tac  actually referring to real dogs or is there some metaphorical message hidden in this song? 

“U go see your mother kantonaakpo (nob of a knee)” goes the chorus of the next interesting track on the album. The song is a general social commentary on life in Accra and Ghana. Again, Tic Tac artfully blurs the line between hidden metaphor and light-hearted fun lyrics. Mr. “Hweekosin” a track from one of Tic Tac’s older albums is also featured on this album. Mr. “Hweekosin” is a pedophile who uses “a mysterious strategy” of luring small girls with “candy and toffee” in order to get into bed with them. Tic Tac and Shadow ask Mr. Hweekosin to not touch the little ones … lest they get wounded!

“Kangaroo” featuring Batman follows next on the album. Eii bra Tic,  first you had us running away from your dogs … now we are jumping as high as kangaroos. I’m guessing if you can jump that high then you don’t need to watch your buttos because the dog chasing you will never be able to reach it. On a more serious note though, this song simply cautions all PhDs (Pull Him Downs in local parlance) who don’t want to see their fellow men succeed. Tic Tac simply asserts that he is blessed and so all his naysayers should just chock it and watch him jump as high as he can go … like the son of a kangaroo.

“Giggy giggy giggy bambam”; that is the sound of Tic Tac’s heart when he is with his woman. This song is a good exercise in assonance and the lyrics, percussion, Tony Tetuila’s (who features on this track) Twi singing … all go “giggy giggy giggy bambam”. It will definitely set you on fire on your seat after one listen. After collaborating with an artiste from Nigeria, Tic Tac borrows some sweet sounding Tabla beats from India on his track “U r da only one” which features Rhian Benson. It is always good and refreshing to see Ghanaian musicians finding creative ways to incorporate other genres into their music without losing the Ghanaianness from their songs. Tic Tac also gives shout outs to the various townships in Accra at the end of this song.

“Kanzo” gives a picturesque description of Tic Tac’s favorite meal and how his day is not complete without some “Kanzo”. Being a lover of kanzo myself, I can relate to his love for it. In case you are wondering what kanzo is … check out paragraph 5 of www.maameous.com/2008/08/on-being-ghanaian-i-invitation-to-meals.html or you can get a more abridged version from www.ghanacommunity.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=765 . Of course, by referring to liking something “at the bottom”, one wonders if this Kanzo track is another of Tic Tac’s hidden metaphor songs. Shameless plug: Kanzo is definitely one of my favorites from this album.

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Tic Tac takes another trip, this time to South America in his remix of the “Beware of Dogs” track. The song is re-rendered in steady reggaeton beat that you can definitely shake your waist and buttos to whilst you watching for the dogs. Kwaw Kese raps in Fante nicely on this song. Tic Tac’s final track on the album is a lovely collaboration with Freddie Meiway from Cote D’Ivoire. “Wope” again blends two music genres from different countries into a single sublime mix. Definitely well worth the listen.

After a thorough listen to this album, its title of “Accra Connection” now makes sense. Tic Tac has done an excellent job of mixing music from Nigeria, India, South America, Ivory Coast and other countries with Ghanaian hiplife. This album does so without losing the core Ghanaianness of the songs. If you are looking for world music with Ghanaian roots, this is definitely the album for you.

http://sribuo.com/2010/07/10/music/tic-tac-accra-connection