20 Years Still On Top – A Tribute To Innocent, Sierra Leone Music Icon

By Ibrahim Sorious Samura

It’s not quite normal in our society to notice that someone keeps up to his best and consistency for about a decade in Sierra Leone. This scenario fits in any field, especially in music. We have seen many Sierra Leonean artistes excelling for a short period, and later relegated and became ‘spent forces’. But there is one Sierra Leonean artiste, musician, songwriter, sound engineer, poet and emcee who has beats all the odds in ‘two successive decades.’ To some, he is the ‘Political Genamusa’, others know him as the ‘Fela Kuti’ of Salone music, but his parents named him as Prince Kuti George, popular on stage as Innocent, an emblem of a success story.

Sierra Leone is blessed to have such a multi talented superstar, who has been making some of the biggest headlines in Salone music. Many people believe that Sierra Leone music has evolved around him for a massive period of 20 years, all filled with his signature. He has never been on vacation throughout his music career. He remained steadfast and consistent, with hits after hits.

He started off his music career in 1999 with ‘Igwe Society’, a music group he co-founded with a childhood friend known as Decent. They released their biggest song titled ‘Igwe’, which became an anthem in the earlier 2000s. Igwe was a mega hit that crossed the boundaries of Sierra Leone. As a solo artist, Innocent has released countless number of hit songs.

Some of the major hits to his credit include ‘De Yai Dae Watch’, ‘Gi Dem Notice’ ft Chema B, ‘Apple of Me Eye’ ft Nega Don, ‘Blessing Borbor’, ‘DNA’, ‘Love Letter’, ‘Pray For Me’, and more. In 2011, Innocent’s song (Mama Salone) won the theme song for the 50th Independence Anniversary of Sierra Leone.

Innocent was honoured as member of the Order Of The Rokel for his outstanding contribution to music in Sierra Leone. He has several awards and recognitions to his credit, at both local and international levels.

He is the founder and CEO of one the country’s biggest recrd labels, Money Making Machines (MMM), under which he has managed a couple of superstars like Sara D Great, M2, Coolest, Rahim Da Wezard, and more. He was also part of the Noble Squard music crew, headed by rapper, YOK 7. He was a Founding member and the first President of the Eastern Artists Union (EAU) before he migrated to United Kingdom years back.

Innocent is well regarded for his social commentary songs, sweet rhyme schemes, melodies, and his versatility to do any genre of music, including rap, afropop, RnB, dancehall/raggae, tecno, etc.

On the 15th November 2019, Innocent will be celebrating 20 years (2 decades) in Sierra Leone music at the Hotel 5/10 in Kissy, Freetown. The entire music industry will be in attendance to pay tribute to a living legend, whose latest song (Pray For Me) is currently number one on all playlists and music charts across the country. This shows that he will not leave the music scene soon. He has bigger dreams for the music industry, let us help him achieve this together. 20 years, still trending.