Pure Akan

Pure Akan is Nana Kwabena Appiah, a Ghanaian hiplife and highlife musician from Kwahu in the Eastern Region, born in February 1990. He has also been listed as Bernard Nana Appiah, and early in his career he went simply by Akan, the name on songs such as “Me Sika Aduro” and “Man Hole”. His grandfather was a chief linguist, and he names that heritage as his main influence. “The foundation of music is the message,” he told Pan African Music in 2022.

He released a self-titled EP, Akan, in 2015, then his debut album Onipa Akoma (“human heart”) in 2017 on A-Level Music. A year later Ahkan of the hiplife duo Ruff ’N’ Smooth spoke publicly about the newcomer who shared his name.

His second album, Nyame Mma (“children of God”), came out in 2021 after close to three years of work. Its lead single was “Mensesa Me Ho” (“I’m not changing”), and two of its tracks tell an Ananse folk story in two parts. In November 2022 he staged the Nyame Mma Experience in Accra, mixing music with plays and spoken word, with Efya, Worlasi, King Ayisoba and the Senku Live band. A live album from the project followed in 2023.

Since then he has released “Auntie Bete” (2023), the album Odo Awaamu (2024) and an acoustic version of it (2025), “Kwappiah Gyina So” (2025), and “Masua Adeɛ” and “Ogyidinii” in 2026. He has worked with Efya on “Mensei Da” and “Yete Apor”, Kwesi Arthur and Juls on “Saa Ara”, Ko-Jo Cue on the “Wo Kae” remix, Kirani Ayat, and Senkulive and Aduberks on “Accra We Dey”.