16/12/2023
DJ Manni broke new ground and influenced the genre and sub-genres of reggae, dancehall, afro beats and the likes with his uncountable mix tapes. Out of many DJ’s of all time from the start of turntable culture comes DJ Manni, an Influence in the history of sound system and is ubiquitous without doubts and that makes him a groundbreaking DJ.
Emmanuel Kwadjo Denkyi born 6 August known in the showbiz circle as DJ Manni is a Uk/Ghanaian disc jockey and a radio host based in the United Kingdom. He is well known for his mix tapes, support for reggae/dancehall,Afrobeats,Drill and promoting talented acts. He is considered as one of the most important reggae/dancehall hierophant;, helping bring artists with good music to a mainstream audience both locally and internationally. Manni gained attention with his first debut mix tape in 2013, it experimented into conscious reggae songs and hardcore dancehall songs but he had already released couple of afro beats, reggae/dancehall mix tape in 2012.
EARLY LIFE
Emmanuel Kwadjo Denkyi was born in Nkawkaw a town in south Ghana and is the capital of Kwahu West Municipal district, a district in the Eastern region of Ghana. According to Manni, he lived in Ghana where he stayed at Kwahu, then later moved to Accra where he stayed at akotex Newtown/Nima and finally settled at Taifa. However, because he stayed in a Hausa speaking area he could only communicate in housa and not his native tongue after a few years in Newtown/Nima, he was returned to Kwahu to learn how to speak Twi. He had primary education at Taifa pre-school and afterwards moved to Greenhill international at St. John’s. After that he also school at Mpreaso kwahu for a few months before being taken to London.
In London, he was enrolled in Warwick school for boys from 1996 to 2000, before long, he was sent back to Ghana in April 2000 because of his short temper and numerous reports by teachers of him missing class and being involved in robberies in and outside of school due to his frazzle attitude and friends he associated himself with. His ossified behavior did not warrant him to even be hosted in Accra, so his dad was forced to take him Tarkwa to enroll him in Tarkwa Secondary school. He was barely in the school for a term because his anomalous behavior did not favor him;his father ordered the school not to let him leave but he jumped the wall and left all his belongings and came back to Accra for a year and returned to London.
Upon all his mulish behavior, he was very intelligent and Talented in Arts & Sports . On his return to London, he joined a local football team for a season which they came second in the BARKING YOUTH FOOTBALL LEAGUE CUP in 2002 his performance that season got him a trail at LA RAIDERS SOCCER ACADEMY academy in East London , which he was selected and signed to the academy.He also studied GNVQ in sports & recreation and even got his UK F.A Level 1 coaching badge. His compelling style of play got him a step ahead of his colleagues; he was ranked as the top most attacking midfielders. Nevertheless, due to a knee injury and a surgery after, he decided to take some time out . After a long stay in London, he came back to Ghana after 7 years he spent 3 spend in Ghana. That was somewhere 2008, during his stay he over head Iwan - “Who is Bad”music on the radio. To his surprise, he developed so much love and interest for Ghana reggae/dancehall songs after some weeks in Ghana he also saw Shatta Wale’s “Anastasia”. On Tv There and there, he said to himself “reggae/dancehall will be maximal in Ghana some years to come”. He enthusiastically started collecting more reggae/dancehall songs made in Ghana as a hobby, within some short period he left to London. After a while he was in Ghana again purposely to Get fit and get back to his football & to analyze the trending value reggae/dancehall in the country; after a year in Ghana DJ manni went back to London and then to San Antonio Texas for his try-outs with San Antonio Scorpions, he was selected for the final making it out of 5,000 players to the final 44 it was although he scored 9 Goals in 2 Games he was still not selected for the final 27 players based on work permit issues, This was the final straw for him to hang up his boots. Afterwards he left to London.�On his arrival after few weeks later, a very good friend of his was having a birthday party and invited manni to come and play music since he always had an mp3, fortunately for his friend; he had the chance to listen all Manni’s music he had collected on the Mp3 player, upon listening to countless back to back hit ear candies for hours, he anchored in and motivated Manni to see the business side of all the music he had collected and do something great with it. The indispensible requirement of hard work is self discipline and success is also possible when only you can overcome the natural tendency to cut corners and take the easy way, with this as his mind set he made a concrete decision to take on Disc Jockey as a profession.
BREAKTHROUGH
The achievement of one’s goal is assured the moment one commits his/herself to it, Manni is selfless and dedicated individual who is very mindful that he is a product of his environment, so he chose an environment that will best develop him towards his goal though he had no idea about disc jockey, he had couple of Caribbean friends who were already into the profession so he allied himself with a few of them by name Squeechie Don from Jamaica🇯🇲& DJ Iyah from Montserrat 🇲🇸 he learned quick from Squeechie Don this was somewhere in 2012. Lasting success is possible when you can discipline yourself to work hard for long time, Manni started practicing the art of disc jockey; he invested almost all the time he had to master the art of the profession. It took him days, months and years of practice to become a master on his own. He was fast to realize his potential immediately his friend planted the idea of making profit out of his music collection. During the period by which Manni was practicing at the grass root stage, Squeenchie Don had also established an online radio at that time called Hota Lava radio based in London. Manni worked consciously, deliberately & continuously that earned him some credit to go on air (Hot Lava radio) to showcase his newly found profession.
Working consistently was his default mechanism so he went on to release his first mix tape which was an absolute bombshell based on the fact that the response he got from the masses, friends, family and other industry players got him addicted to the profession like a j***y on a co***ne. His next project was a mix for Shatta Wale, to his surprise the mix flowered him up to limelight. Since music travels fast music freaks are all over hunting any pleasing music materials; President of Ghana Motion Inc., Mr. Kwame Asenso called DJ Manni congratulating him for a good production work (mix tape) done after he had the chance to soak in the mix tape. Immediately, opportunity knocked on Manni’s door; Mr. Prosper Asenso pledged to upload any of DJ Manni’s mix tape on his website. Shatta Wale’s mix had over 3000+ downloads.�He flourished to fame properly in 2008 after he joined forces with Kingsman Djgashie GH Bekoe to establish a sound system viz One love Africa with the aim of promoting talented musician through mix tapes. Manni released the volume 2 of the Shatta’s wale mix tape. Along the line he discovered other talented artists; Stonebwoy, Kaakie, Iwan, Rudebwoy Ranking and the likes who were equally good, by means of promoting their songs, he released Ghana dancehall volume 1, without doubts it also did well on the music market but did not get maximum attention. Before late Manni realized he could have done better, which he came back pre-programmed this time, he released the second volume of Ghana dancehall, as promised it was also uploaded on www.ghanamotion.com, the mix tape has over 12,000+ download.In 2014 Manni once again came to Ghana for 3 months whilst here in Ghana releasing 3 new mixtapes and then finally going back to London July 2014.Apon his return to London he continued with the radio work winning him more fans and lover from all around the globe,in 2015 “Shatta wale”called apon DJ manni to be his official DJ for Dance Afrique after all the support he saw DJ manni giving him.It was a very successful show at SS Arena Wembley after the show DJ Manni decided to move to Ghana for a while whilst in Ghana DJ Manni played 2 more shows with Shatta wale Ghana meets Naija & Labadi beach rave. In 2016 DJ manni was the first DJ of Ghanaian decent to be posted by “REGGAEVILLE” when they posted his “AIDONIA” mixtape on their official website,In 2018 DJ manni decided to officially join hands with “ONE SIDE FAMILY”in which he started his live show called “DJ UNPLUGGED”in which he continued promoting Afro/dancehall even playing “COME HOME” by “VYBZ KARTEL” enough so that it even caught the eye of VYBZ Kartel himself enough for him to comment on DJ Manni’s instagram page.Whilst With “ONE SIDE FAMILY” DJ manni has been the official DJ for numerous shows noticeably “DUNA RAVE” hosted by himself & ONE SIDE FAMILY. DJ Manni is currently with “TEAM 4K SHOOTERZ alongside SQUEECHIE DA MIXIN DON & DJ SHADZ(4K BOOS) and is managed by Jamaican “DONNAY ROC” of ROC FACTORY who is based in Ghana at the moment
DJ Manni officially registered his trademark professionally in 2013 and has mixed 270 + mixtapes in 10 years Dj Manni Set a record nobody talks about enough by doing 50+ mixtapes in 2016 some of his mixtape series includes:
DJ manni has been nominated 7 times by Guinness Ghana DJ Awards, in 2023 dj manni took home BEST MIXTAPE DJ at the maiden Ghana Reggae Dancehall Awards held in Accra
Written by John Claude Tamakloe
