Black Sherif’s “The Villain I Never Was,” released earlier this month, has earned the Accra-based highlife singer and rapper his first Billboard Top 50 spot.
According to Billboard, the full-length project debuts at No. 12 on the World Albums chart this week. The sensational musician’s debut album, “The Villain I Never Was,” was released on October 6th and sees him extend the raw delivery and the overcoming-self-sabotage philosophy he introduced on pop hits like “Kwaku The Traveller” and “Second Sermon” into a 14-track manifesto.
The Villain I Never Was, which is about making sense of a difficult life, plays like a collection of Sherif’s personal affirmations, which he uses to battle inner demons and fuel his ambitions. Blacko balances the realities of his upbringing in Konongo, Ghana, and the lessons he’s learned since with a fresh take on the sounds that shaped him on the album.
“I feel like inside myself, I am my own villain,” the artist born Mohammed Ismail Sherif tells Apple Music. “Even outside, with things that happen to me, and situations that I’ve been through—I’ve always been the villain in my own head. But when I sit down, and start to realise and explain things to myself, then I know I was never that villain. I’ve been trying to survive that. I am not actually that villain that they say I am, or that my mind tells me I am. So the album is actually inspired by pain, anger, perseverance, and self-actualisation—being aware and standing your ground. Most of the words in the album are commands to my spirit, and it tells my story.”
Black sherif joins other Ghanaian music elites: Stonebwoy, Shatta Wale, who have made Billboard World Album Charts entries with their full-length projects: “Epistles Of Mama” and “Reign” respectively.
