Arts & Culture Observe Life Through Music with Kwame Adu
March 02, 2023
By Betti Halsell
Assistant Managing Editor
Tipping the scale of music back towards hip-hop is L.A. based artist is Kwame Adu. Originally from New Jersey, Adu has planted himself in Northeast Los Angeles. Focusing on the art of his presentation and lyrics, Adu most recently performed at Hot and Cool Café in Leimert Park and he joined other local artists in That Good Sh*t concert earlier this year. Adu looks to bring a sense of retrospective thought back into the creation of music.
“I perform pretty often, I spent at least a good half of 2022 going into 2023 performing and I do my best by thinking about my preparation,” Kwame Adu began to dissect his creative process and the energy he puts behind his performances.
He continued, “My creative process is jumping in and working the drums and rhythm.” Adu explained that he began producing after he established himself as a rapper. “I was always really good with drums and rhythm and I started practicing music, in terms of theory,” Adu said.
Adu’s favorite song from his catalogue is “Prayer,” he stated, “It was one of the fastest things I wrote—the whole song was done in two hours,” Adu stated. He described this project as fun, but it also held a serious tone. Adu confirmed that creating a song takes less than two days to make.
Adu described his sound as being introspective, comparing it to a sit-com, “Like oh, this is this life, ah-ha, this is what I’m observing—very much like that…I’m saying what I’m seeing,” Adu said. The rising artist stated that he would have liked to have collaborated with musical icon Rick James.
He mentioned that he has pulled inspiration from his inner child, “My priorities is keeping that youthful inner child—kind of looking back a lot and being inspired to stick to whoever I was when I was nine years old,” Adu said in reflection. He mentioned that people that come to mind when he thinks of inspiration are his sister, younger cousin, and nephew. He mentioned a lot of people close around him.
Follow Kwame Adu on Instagram @Kwameadu.