Repping for Lagos and Accra too

Name: X.O Senavoe

Where He’s From: America/Ghana/Nigeria

Genre: Hip-Hop

Most Similar: E.L., Naeto C., M.I.

Sounds Like: A rebel without a pause, or a country.

Favorite Lyric: “When your chick blowing you kisses she’s really saying my name.”

Rapper X.O Senavoe was born in California to parents of Ghanaian and Nigerian heritage. He spent a lot of his youth in Ghana, but if you ask him which city he calls his own he has a hard time choosing between Accra and Lagos. No wonder he often inhabits several voices or personalities in the course of one song. His verbal skills, er, speak for themselves on his recordings, but for further bona fides he’s also applied them to earning a law degree from Howard University. (No worries. If we land an interview we’ll be sure and ask if he’s single.)

MTV Iggy first heard the young artist on the recently released Empire Mates State of Mind, which brought together all the members of Nigeria’s Empire Mates label plus some choice affiliates, such as the as yet unsigned Senavoe. He swung by our shoot with Wizkid, Skales and Banky W. giving us the opportunity to check out more of his tracks. We can tell you he’s found an agile flow all his own, one appropriate to a guy who seems to hop oceans and time zones quite a bit. In addition to working with rising Las Gidi stars, he’s also collaborated with Mugeez of Ghana’s R2Bees among others from Ghana. That’s him on “Happy Birthday Ghana” with Efya, Wanlov and E.L.

This emcee might be hard to pin down but we suspect he’ll soon be even harder to miss. Look out for his forthcoming tape/EP XpointO. For now, here are his extant statements: