The conversation about the state of Ghanaian music has grown tiresome in recent years. For the better part of a decade, veteran artists and seasoned executives have beaten their chests and mourned the supposed death of Highlife, Ghana’s most iconic export, at the hands of a generation allegedly more captivated by borrowed sounds than homegrown heritage. “Ghana Music isn’t what it used to be. No artist is making Highlife anymore.” Most equate evolution with abandonment, insisting the music has lost its soul.
Yet while that debate has raged loudly across the space, a young man from Bremang, Kumasi, has brought a refreshing feel to the heritage these veterans miss. Barely a whisper of applause has gone his way, but RCee has been solving the very problem those elders lament, and doing so with remarkable elegance.
Ever since he announced himself to the Ghanaian music scene with “Knees & Bend”, RCee has maintained a formidable and unwavering authenticity rooted in the soil of Ghanaian sound. He has carved a lane, and now, with his latest EP project, “Young Daddy”, he is amplifying his purpose.
Released April 15, 2026, “Young Daddy” sees RCee with captivating confidence and admirable flex. The title itself is deliberate with reverence and a nod to the late, legendary Daddy Lumba, whose shadow looms large over Ghanaian music.
What “Young Daddy” delivers is Burger Highlife, that soulful, sophisticated fusion of Jazz, Funk, Disco and Afrobeats that defined an era and produced the likes of Rex Gyamfi, Kojo Antwi, A.B Crentsil, and George Darko. These are the architects of a sound that felt both quintessentially Ghanaian and internationally palatable, and RCee draws directly from that well. The giants who built and breathed life into Burger Highlife would hear this project and recognise their own DNA in it. More importantly, they would be proud.
Whether he meets that standard is, admittedly, a conversation for time to settle. But on “Young Daddy”, he makes a genuinely compelling case.
The 6-track project opens with “Sweety“, a warm, unhurried introduction that draws you gently, like the first sip of something smooth. It establishes RCee’s “Young Daddy” persona clearly: charm, ease, and a quiet confidence that never tips into arrogance.
“Tooli” featuring M.anifest, brings dynamism to the project. It is also one of the more interesting pairings in recent Ghanaian music. M.anifest, with his years of lyricism and cultural weight, holds a genuine balance on the track. The track portrays the contemporary feel of the project and signals that RCee is operating in serious company.
“My Dear” featuring Mellissa is perhaps the most pleasant surprise on the project for me and one of the most rewarding. Mellissa’s arrival was not widely anticipated, but she weaves through the production with a lovely, dynamic energy, her vocals sitting in the pocket of the beat with an instinctive confidence. Together, the track breathes tender and layered in an already strong body of work.
“Money Makes The World Go Round” (MMTWGR); Personally, it is the project’s peak, and the centrepiece of that best encapsulates everything RCee is trying to say: the Borga swagger, the 90s bad-boy energy, the groove of Highlife filtered through a thoroughly modern lens. If there is one track to point someone to as an entry point into this project, it is this one.
“Atiaa”, familiar to those who have been following RCee’s pre-release rollout, lands comfortably in the sequence, a love song that demonstrates the gentler end of his range.
“Serious”, a great nod to Amakye Dede, who is widely known for the word tag. The track brings a 360 moment to wrap up the project with a fitting energy: measured, intentional, and quietly assured.
What holds “Young Daddy” as an amazing body of work is the production’s commitment to live texture. The saxophone appearances, the guitar work, the deliberate nods to vintage Ghanaian sound. These details accumulate into something genuinely different from much of what is being released in this space right now.
There is a particular kind of frustration that comes with watching an artist do everything right and still be overlooked. Now, I think RCee would know that feeling well. A TGMA nomination for “New Artist of the Year” eluded him despite a growing body of work that, by any honest measure, deserved recognition. An oversight that, frankly, raises questions about the industry’s willingness to recognise artists doing exactly the work it claims to want. Yet rather than bitterness, RCee has responded with an impressive body of work.
“I really want to take this genre to the world,” he has said, and “Young Daddy” is the most compelling evidence yet that he has both the talent and the conviction to do exactly that. The elders worried about the future of Ghanaian music should listen to this.
