Since we’re all trying to be famous…

Okay, I’m being real here. A lot of Ghanaian teens like me are being “creative” and using their talents to inspire people and allow people to become enlightened and find something to relate to…I sound ridiculous to MYSELF.

Guys, I’m tired. I’m tired of the hyping and the low quality of the things that are being hyped.
Oh, you have a fashion line? Ah yes, that’s right, those fifty-cedi boots you imported from Nigeria and are selling in that tiny kiosk in between the waakye seller’s and the barber shop. I’ll stick with my ten cedi slippers from Makola, thanks very much.

And there’s the “writers” who KEEP SHARING THEIR OWN WRITING and not bothering to check out the blogs of the people they’re inviting to read them. How are we building a strong young writers’ community when everyone is only paying attention to themselves? There are some who don’t even read! How you gonna know how to write? Sometimes I’m just reading and what I keep repeating to myself is, “That’s supposed to be a capital letter. Ooh, spellcheck let you down. That’s supposed to be a question mark. What the heck are you even saying?”

Yeah, this is why I hate Wattpad, you know? It’s stupidly hard to try and find gold amidst all the cess. You want a publisher to discover you and make you an internationally-famous writer, when you CAN’T EVEN PUNCTUATE?!

Don’t even get me started on the musicians. I like how you can be saying things like, “F**k, I get so much p***y the girls be fallin’ over me like s**t…Smoke weed!” Wow, congratulations, you’re sixteen and you know swearwords! Sarkodie or Kanye West is DEFINITELY going to put you on their label! Like naahhh, G, you’re a Ghanaian schoolboy who doesn’t even know what the world looks like outside of your GarageBand app.

I’m talking a lot, but by now you should understand why I was motivated to write this:

Since We’re All Trying To Be Famous

Since we’re all trying to be famous,
Let’s all focus on getting what we create out there.
Let’s call it our “passion”
And choose not to be aware of our own terrible punctuation
Or lack of skill with a photo editor
Or our inability to compose lyrics that make sense.
None of that matters when you’re trying to be famous.

Since we’re all trying to be famous,
Let’s all get frustrated,
Because as we’re hyping ourselves, those we are trying to get to recognize us are trying to get recognized,
So everybody’s speaking and no-one’s listening
And everyone is writing, but nobody’s reading

And this is probably why those who acknowledge themselves as talentless
Are now the wisest people and the best critics;
While these people know how to appreciate what they witness,
The hopeless are still trying to get famous.

-Akotowaa