Ghanaian music has a geography problem. Accra and Kumasi take almost all of the attention, and artists from anywhere else are usually expected to move, adjust how they sound, and stop mentioning where they're from.

Gonaboy did the opposite. Born Abdul-Razak Muniru Gona in Sissala East, in the Upper West Region, he writes in a mix of Northern folklore, Akan street slang and whatever the beat asks for, and has built a real following without trading his accent in.

Legon, Madina, and Abom

He started writing in 2019 while still in school, then spent his university years at Legon balancing lectures against studio sessions in Madina. The breakthrough came in 2022 with Abom, a fast, unvarnished track that got him noticed in the underground rap circuit on the strength of his cadence alone.

He could have stayed there. Instead he widened out. Hustlers Mantra and Abele showed the melodies were as reliable as the rapid-fire verses, and Hollata Story was the introspective one that made people listen to the writing. Same Timbs then took him to streaming scale, landing on Apple Music's "Africa Now" cover and a place in the Africa Rising Class of 2026.

In 2025 came Muniru, an eight-track EP named after his father, dealing with family expectations, the isolation that arrives alongside attention, and the economics of staying independent in West Africa.

The bridge he's building

Gonaboy has been open about what the infrastructure gap in the North costs young artists. Where he's from, young people rarely see music as an escape route, because the support isn't there. His stated ambition is to close some of that gap rather than simply chart, and to show that a kid from Sissala East can headline arenas without compromising who he is.