Pimpinaa – Stories by the Fireside is a modern, pidgin, spoken-word, love story, wrapped in conversations between poets embodying different characters.
It is a poetry duet, sung by voices from Ghana and North America exploring the different stages in the love cycle to explore the unfamiliar and familiar, in a different light to reveal another side of the sentiment known as love.
Ghana-based poet S.Losina and American born spoken word artist ShaiYaa, embark on a journey that ShaiYaa says would not have been possible, had she not gone abroad.
ShaiYaa studied in Ghana for four months in 2018 and underwent an experience that reshaped her creative trajectory.
Mutual love for Ghana and pidgin connected S.Losina and ShaiYaa. Their collaboration resulted in a documentary-style album of love showcasing its different sides.
The scenarios in each track of Pimpinaa, are familiar, and like parables, hold a moral. The artists use rhyme, pidgin, accent, and culture to strike a contrast, creating a unique viewpoint of the various issues discussed.
Aside from a unique viewpoint, the project explores relationships between western and African cultures.
The spoken word style by each artist, characterized by language and accent, reflects the cracks and beauty within the relationship of love and cultures.
Ignorance is one of these cracks explored in this river of words. The artists do well to showcase it and the different scenarios and cultures.
To some degree, the album mirrors the stereotypical nature of people to other cultures and reveals that often in love, assumption is at play.
The content is solid and well written; featuring themes ranging from puppy love, abuse, hope, family, and ignorance.
S.Losina’s emotion is felt in each character he plays. His rhyme scheme and humor are well placed; articulating the typical Ghanaian attitude to the scenarios cast in the project.
ShaiYaa’s voice is beautiful but lacks the emotion which we see in S.Losina. We, therefore, hear rather than feel the emotions of her characters. ShaiYaa must however be praised for embracing and falling in love with pidgin. Her pronunciation of certain pidgin words is honorable but sounds lackluster in my ears. It however doesn’t take away from the beauty in her work and the project as a whole.
The interludes in the project must also be recognized. They are brief but important transitions keeping the album together.
As the name of the album goes, Pimpinaa is a call declaring that a new voice of poetry is here. Not only for the west or the diaspora but for the Ghanaian as well.
From the cover art to the interesting conclusion in the final track, Pimpinaa is a different brew of the poetry I am used to.
“I hope say this no be the last we go hear” from ShaiYaa and S. Losina.
Listen to Pimpinaa here
Written by Hondred Percent
About the poets
ShaiYaa
ShaiYaa is a 22-year-old Black creative who was born and raised in Connecticut, USA but relocated to North Carolina in 2013; she earned a BA in English and TESOL certificate from East Carolina University in 2019. While moving to the south played a major role in who she is today, four months spent studying abroad in Ghana in 2018 completely transformed the trajectory of her life as a fiction and nonfiction writer, poet, and spoken word artist. ShaiYaa uses her pen and voice to uplift, heal, and bring light to a world desperately in need of it.
Follow her work here
Follow Shaiyaa on Instagram @piercingsandpineapples
S.Losina
S.Losina is a Ghanaian born creative hailing from Nima.
His love for art from a young age forged his creativity and during a stage performance after high school, was discovered by one of Ghana’s renowned movie directors, Abu Idi.
The director helped him gain a scholarship at Ghallywood Academy of film acting where he studied acting, writing, and voice training, to master his craft.
As a poet, he draws inspiration from his surroundings and utilizes pidgin often in his works.
Not limiting his talent to only poetry, he has also starred in movies with well-known Ghanaian Actors such as Umar Krupp just to name a few.
Follow him on Instagram @s.losina
