Rising afro-fusion artist Gyakie has released her emotional new single “Scar” with North London’s JBEE and we’re taking a look inside the video shoot.
Gyakie has proven to be a change-maker and powerhouse in the music industry since her debut single, “Love is Pretty”, released in 2019. Between collaborating with artists such as Diplo and AKA, garnering over 150 million streams on her single “Forever”, and growing a dedicated fanbase, Gyakie is continuously on the rise. A powerful track detailing love and pain, “Scar” tells two sides to the story of the hardships in a relationship. Depicting the duality both sonically and lyrically, the story of nuances and layers is heightened through the song’s combination of R&B, hip-hop, and drill.
We spoke to Gyakie about “Scar”, working with JBEE, and the importance of correctly depicting a song visually.
Read the interview…
Congratulations on your new release! How do you feel? What is the most exciting part of releasing music?
I must say this particular song is a big step for me as an artist. The reason is because this music is drill. And I’ve never dropped any drill music in my entire music catalogue. And if you even check one of my Instagram posts, I made a post earlier this year and I was like, “I’m about to drop a song and I’m really nervous,” because I was very nervous. I am very nervous. Because I didn’t know how my fans were going to adjust or accept me dropping a drill song. But lo and behold, I dropped a teaser and the excitement from the fans really took me by storm. And I was like, okay, it looks like you guys are really ready for a switch up. So because the people really accepted the teaser and it has really blown off, I got very excited about the release. And I’m very, very excited that I have JBEE on this song because it was going to be a very good way to, you know, exchange the Ghanaian and UK markets.
What was that collaborative process like? How did you work on the song together?
So the very first time I met JBEE ever was the first time we recorded the song. And this was when JB came to Ghana. He came to Ghana, and my management communicated that we should do a studio session with this rapper called JBEE, so that was our first time meeting ever. So he came and I had my producer come around and we played a couple of beats and we recorded the song really fresh. It was just one take. This song is a very spiritual song. It was just one take. And when we finished recording, everybody just kept saying this song is the song. So one of the exceptional things about this song was the fact that this was my first time meeting him ever. And my first time meeting him was the first time we recorded a song. And it was recorded in Ghana in my home.
It’s such a powerful and emotional song. What were your inspirations writing it and what themes do you hope people take away from it?
So this song, I went very detailed with the lyrics because what I spoke about in the song, if you don’t pay close attention, you might not get it. So there’s a line where I go, like “I’m running around with a scar on my leg, who’s going to help?” What I’m trying to relate this to is people that are, you know, looking okay, smiling, glammed up outside, but you do not know the kind of things that are going on deep down. So you running around is you being progressive, and there’s no way you can run if you have a scar on your leg, but I’m actually running with a scar because I have to progress but I’m still bleeding inside. And there’s nobody available to help but I’m still moving on. So it’s basically an explanation of how people actually do experience this in life, especially with artists and everybody else, you go outside, you meet people, you love, you’re smiling, but nobody really knows that you’re actually really bleeding inside. And that is what I related the chorus of the song to. And the part where I talk about, “where do you draw the line?”, this is me asking my partner or whoever I was referring to in the song as to where he sits in his boundaries, as in terms of being in a relationship and it keeps going left, everything was not going right and you keep questioning your partner. Where do you actually draw the line in relation to the kind of troubles we’re facing in the relationship? So there’s just two sides and everything is very personal. And JBEE also really explained it further in the rap, because he spoke about the fact that yeah, the female could be blaming the guy, but she’s not perfect as well, because he knows she’s also been doing things that are not going to make the relationship progress. So it’s a very deep song. And I think when anyone is listening, if you pay attention to the lyrics, you’re going to appreciate the song more.
How important was it for you to capture that message visually with a music video?
With the music video, which I’m super, super excited about because we went through a lot with this one, we had to shoot the video twice. One thing about me is I’m a little bit of a perfectionist. So the first video came out, and I realised that it wasn’t really correlated with the kind of message that I wanted to see in the visual. And so we shot one in Ghana, and we actually had to come to the UK to shoot another video. And this time around, everything that we wanted to explain in the video we did.
Is there anything else that you want to share with our readers or anything else that you’d like to say?
My last words have to be the fact that “Scar” is out in all music stores. One of the best drill songs on the block right now. The music video is going to come in a few days. So whenever you get to read this, go to YouTube and type in “Scar” by Gyakie and JBEE, and you’re going to see a visual representation of the beautiful song that we have out now.
Stream “Scar” now…
And now for a first look into the “Scar” music video…
