Despite their ambition to pursue education to a very high level, the
three young men that make up the music group called Rana cannot do away
with their passion for music and are now promoting their debut album,
No Limit featuring the popular track Baby Baby.

Rana comprises Kofi, Kobi, and Ebo. They met as students at St. Augustine’s College in Cape Coast and say they had the opportunity to perform on other campuses like Wesley Girls’ and Holy Child High Schools while at Augustine’s.

No Limit, say the three guys, is an indication of how far they want to take their music both in Ghana and around the world.
 
Rana was formerly called Adinkra, the name they used to participate in the 2004 edition of the Nescafe African Revelation contest which was won by Praye.
 
Rana means ‘the sun’ in Hausa and was adopted by the members when they felt the need for a unique name because many other ventures were using the name Adinkra.

“As no one can touch the sun, we are also untouchable,” they say. During the Nescafe competition, Kofi, Kobi and Ebo produced a highlife laced with Makosa song with Appietus called Love de la Afrike which was rendered in Twi, Hausa, Ewe, English and French.
 
After the contest, Appietus encouraged them to complete their university education before thinking of releasing an album which they did.

“ We heeded his advice and now we have our dream careers together with music as our passion. No matter the level we want to take our careers, music will always be a part of us. It is all a matter of planning well to fuse careers with our hobby.”

Kobi, the group’s leader, is a screenwriter and works with Revele Films. He studied English Language and Drama at the University of Ghana.
 
Kofi studied Engineering at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, while Ebo studied Computer Science at Catholic University. Kofi and Ebo are currently National Service Personnel .

Still on Appietus’ Creative Records label, Rana’s 10-track album has other songs like Koliko, One Love and Ye Nwu Ye.
 
The songs address social issues like sanitation and education as well as peace in the upcoming general elections.

Rana’s music ranges from hip hop and highlife to R&B fused with African rhythms and beats.
 
They say the fusion style aims at getting diverse lovers of music to enjoy their songs.
 
They admire people like R. Kelly, Usher, and Michael Jackson.

“Like these people, we want our footsteps to be permanent in the sands of time,” they say.

Rana collectively composed all the songs on the No Limit album and did not feature any other artiste.
 
They are, however, looking forward to collaborations with acts like Malaika from South Africa, Blue 3 from Uganda, P-Square from Nigeria and Samini.

The trio hope to launch the No Limit album by the end of the year.

By Ama Birago Boakye