Ko-Jo Cue and Shaker are back on a record together. “This Trip” came out on streaming services on Friday, 2 October 2026. The video went up the evening before, posted jointly to Ko-Jo Cue’s and Shaker’s YouTube channels. A second song, “Seen Dreams” featuring Titi Owusu, comes with it, so the release is two tracks long.
It is the first time the two have put their names side by side on a release since the late 2010s, when they shared the album Pen & Paper and the singles that followed it.
“Some combinations just make sense”
The pair announced the reunion in the YouTube description for the video, with a list of famous double acts rather than a press quote:
Red & Meth. Styles & Jada. Em & Royce. R9 & Rivaldo. Xavi & Iniesta. Gari & Beans.
Some combinations just make sense.
Cue & Shaker. Pen & Paper.
Rap duos, two Brazil forwards, a Barcelona midfield and the gari and beans every Ghanaian student knows. It is a playful way of saying what fans of Pen & Paper have said for years.
There is one more detail worth noticing. The pre-save link for the song sits on a web address that begins “PnP2”. Neither artist has announced a second Pen & Paper album, so for now it is just a hint, but it is hard to read it any other way.
The two songs
“This Trip” is the short one, at 2:23, and the production credit on the video goes to Paq. That name links back to their shared history: Paq’s 2018 single “I’m Tired (Etormi)” featured both Shaker and Ko-Jo Cue.
The video was directed and edited by Uncle Fred for the production company Hive Global, with Jephthah Siaw Amponsah as director of photography.
“Seen Dreams” runs longer, at 3:38, and keeps everything in-house. Shaker, a producer as well as a rapper, produced, mixed and mastered it himself. The singer Titi Owusu is on the hook and shares the writing credit with Linford Kennedy Amankwaa and Elikplim Yao Atiemo, the two men’s real names. Both songs are released under Ko-Jo Cue’s Bantama Blues label.
How Cue and Shaker got here
The partnership grew out of BBnZ Live. Ko-Jo Cue signed there after the success of “Corolla Music” in 2014, and Shaker joined the label in October 2015. Shaker was already known by then for “I No Dey See U Saf” and for producing Sarkodie’s “Talk Of Gh” and “Lies”. Shaker’s single “Handkerchief”, produced by Magnom, also features Ko-Jo Cue.
Pen & Paper arrived on 20 October 2017: 13 tracks that opened on “Accra-Kumasi Rd.”, a nod to Shaker’s Accra and Ko-Jo Cue’s Kumasi. “Things We Do 4 Love” with KiDi became its best-known song, and in August 2018 it got a remix with Sarkodie. Kwesi Arthur, Magnom and Cina Soul were among the album’s other guests.
The run carried on after the album. “Mama Yie” came out as a joint single in May 2018, “Unity” followed that August, and in January 2019 they led a posse cut, “Show Dem”, with Twitch 4EVA, Kofi Mole and S3fa. Shaker also appears on Ko-Jo Cue’s “Wole, Pt. 2” from 2018, next to Worlasi, Kwesi Arthur and Kay-Ara.
Where each of them is now
Ko-Jo Cue is coming off the biggest project of his career. KANI: A Bantama Story, released in November 2025, ran to 17 tracks and brought in Camidoh, AratheJay, Ofori Amponsah and Ayisi. Before that came For My Brothers in 2019, the EP 21 Memory Lane in 2021 and I’m Back in 2023.
The two had already crossed paths on record this year. In May both appeared on “Time Machine”, a single by the veteran hiplife producer Hammer of The Last Two, alongside AmakyeTheRapper and Kwaw Kese. “This Trip” is different, though. This time it is their names on the cover and no one else’s.
Our first take
The release is a smart split. “This Trip” is the quick one, made with a video and a short running time for social media, and “Seen Dreams” is the longer, more personal song, made entirely by the two of them and Titi Owusu. With Shaker producing, mixing and mastering it, nobody outside the trio touched it.
If the “PnP2” link means what it seems to, these two songs are a warm-up. Either way, it is good to have them back together.
Where to listen
“This Trip” and “Seen Dreams” are on Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music, Audiomack, Boomplay, Tidal and Deezer. Play the previews on the “This Trip” and “Seen Dreams” song pages, and find his full catalogue on the Ko-Jo Cue profile.
