His name is Blitz The Ambassador. From Ghana, with a touch of Trenchtown, he settled in BK. Here to tell a narrative with a new perspective. Through an international lens, he lends the tradition of Ghanaian high life, melded together with the jazzy nuances of an upright bass, hints of reggae, orchestra strings and a horn section that lifts the live hip hop band to new heights.
Bring a new voice and sound to hip hop, Blitz and his band, The Embassy Ensemble, are taking hip hop to places it's never been before. Through an array of exceptional instrumentation and penetrating lyrics, he displays a prowess for musicality that is unmatched, and conducts a live show experience that must be witnessed to understand its extraordinary value.
"I went for broke with this album," says the Ghana-born MC and producer who counts Fela Kuti, Bjork, Miles Davis, Nina Simone and Rakim among his influences. "I set out to change the way hip-hop approaches live instrumentation, to create synergy between all of the sounds on my personal playlist."
To complete the mission, Blitz and longtime co-producer Optiks enlisted a diverse envoy of musicians including emerging soul singer Rob Murat and indie rock sensation Kate Mattison.
Lest the hip-hop get lost in the musical mash-up, there's Blitz's bombastic flow and stadium-size stage presence. In the tradition of KRS-One and Chuck D, Blitz can move any crowd, small or large. He's hijacked the hearts of Soulja Boy-loving teenyboppers in tiny Clemson, South Carolina. He's swayed a grown and flossy Philly crowd who paid their money to watch Freeway and Akon but couldn't help but shake their asses to Blitz's cascade of sound.
"Hip-hop music is our lifeline," the MC says of the image he designed as a response to the fuselage of ringtone-y singles and studio gangersterism on the market. "We can't buy into stereotypes of young Black men and stay involved in our music's destruction and think we're going to survive ourselves."
His journey has taken him from the streets of Accra City, to Brooklyn's Bedstuy. Now it's his goal to take hip hop fans on a world journey that will open their eyes and ears to a new future of music.
