KiDi, Kuami Eugene, MzVee and DopeNation all started in the same place. Lynx Entertainment, founded in 2006 by the producer Richie Mensah, launched a long list of Ghanaian careers in the 2010s and produced hits for many of the biggest names of the decade before that. Here is the story of the Lynx Entertainment hit factory, from a World Cup song to “Touch It”.
The founder: Richie Mensah
Richie Mensah, a producer and singer-songwriter, founded Lynx Entertainment in 2006. His name is still on some of the label’s biggest records: he is one of the producers and composers credited on KiDi’s “Touch It”, alongside KiDi (as Dennis Nana Dwamena) and Jack Knight.
The first generation
Lynx launched the solo careers of Richie himself, ASEM, Irene Logan, OJ Blaq, Eazzy, Zigi and Jayla. Irene Logan is a link to another story: she won the first season of Stars of the Future in 2006, then formed the duo Irene & Jane with the third-placed singer, Jane Awindor, better known today as Efya. Lynx produced for Irene & Jane too.
A World Cup song and a peace song
In 2010 Richie, ASEM, OJ Blaq, Eazzy and Zigi recorded “Africa’s Moment”, which appeared on Hello Afrika, Sony Music’s release tied to the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. The song was used in a Vodafone advert that staged the first flash mob in West Africa.
In July 2011 the label released Back 2 Zero, with its own artists and guests including Gyedu Blay-Ambolley, Tinny, V.I.P, Okyeame Kwame, Efya, Trigmatic, E.L, Edem and Iwan. It included a remake of Ephraim Amu’s folk song “Yen Ara Asase Ni” with 11 top Ghanaian musicians, which was adopted as a peace song before the 2012 general elections.
The producers behind other people’s hits
Lynx also produced singles for Tinny, Okyeame Kwame, V.I.P, Praye, Bradez, Becca, reggie-rockstone/">Reggie Rockstone, Efya, Trigmatic, E.L, Edem and others. Bradez was the duo of Flowking Stone and his brother Kunta Kinte, whose “Simple” won Most Popular Song at the 2009 Ghana Music Awards.
D3 and MzVee
In the summer of 2012 Lynx introduced D3, a girl group whose members were 16, 19 and 20. “Good Girls Gone Bad” and “Gyani Gyani” were hits, but the group split at the end of 2013 because of school commitments. Its lead singer went solo and became MzVee: Unsung Artiste in 2014, New Artiste of the Year in 2015, and three albums by 2017. She left Lynx in 2019.
KiDi: MTN Hitmaker 2015
KiDi won MTN Hitmaker in 2015 and signed with Lynx. “Say You Love Me” (2017), which he wrote and produced himself, launched him. The Golden Boy (2021) won Album of the Year at the Ghana Music Awards, “Touch It” became the most-streamed Ghanaian song on Spotify at the time, and in 2022 he was Artiste of the Year.
Kuami Eugene: MTN Hitmaker 2016
A year later Kuami Eugene came third on the same show and also signed with Lynx. “Angela” and “Confusion” made him a star, his debut album Rockstar won Album of the Year in 2019, and he was Artiste of the Year in 2020. He moved to Empire in 2022.
DopeNation
Wikipedia also lists DopeNation among the acts Lynx launched. The twins began as producers, making “Kpuu Kpaa” for Shatta Wale, and went on to “Naami” and “Zanku”.
The Lynx legacy
Two of the three Artistes of the Year from 2020 to 2022, Kuami Eugene and KiDi, came out of one label’s talent-show signings. Add MzVee, DopeNation and a decade of hits produced for others, and few Ghanaian labels can match Lynx Entertainment’s record in the 2010s. Several of its stars have since moved on, but the songs that made them still carry the Lynx name.
