Boatism drops ‘5 Star’ for which he’s inspired by highlife

Boatism takes us back to our childhood and earliest feelings of love with his new released single ‘5 Star’. It’s his second single and this time he uses influences from Highlife, a Ghanaian (and Nigerian) music style he grew up on.

Boatism is born and bred in Amsterdam to Ghanaian parents. Music is a central theme in his life. He speaks proudly about the rich culture he grew up in “It’s my culture that taught me music. Whenever I played the drums in church I was soaked into it, it’s like I was on another level, I elevated. Do you know that feeling?”. Together with his best friends Bernard (BVNDØ) and Euge (Euge Louisa) he set up a collective Kingdomsound in 2017. They hosted parties and started dj’ing. Over time they started to experiment with music and use their creativity in different ways. BVNDØ and Euge started making beats and Boatism started writing and singing. 

5 Star is his second track, one that celebrates his Ghanaian background by using highlife influences. For the track he asked YSBEATSZ of Rich2gether to sample a beat by Pat Thomas “Whenever I listened to the song, the beat at the intro always grabbed my attention, I always thought - I want to sample it”. 5 Star is another love song “5 stars is the ultimate you can get, it’s the highest ranking in stars you can get. It’s quality” and that’s exactly what the song is about. “5 Star about being free” he continues.

The stars

Boatism makes a few appearances in the video, but he’s [again] not at the center of it. “I wanted to have children to be the main characters in the video, to tell the story because you feel like a young kid when you’re in love. You just want to spend time together and forget about everything. I wanted the video to be about that”. The two children in the video are chosen by Boatism with a reason “the girl, Naylah, my sister’s daughter. I recognize a lot of me in her and I with this video I want to give her a new experience at a young age; I want to show her that she can do whatever she wants to do – which is not very common in our community” Boatism speaks about Ghanaian parents that have a, sometimes, narrow minded vision of a future for their kids “they want you to be a doctor or lawyer, but not all of us can be that! I want to show her there is more to life and that she can experiment and find out herself what she wants to become”. The boy is the son of BVNDØ. “Noah is like a son to me - and because we’re so close, I instantly knew he had to be in this video”. 

The beat

The beat that YS sampled is one of Pat Thomas. A name that is mentioned often during the interview “I love his music so I want the people to know that I took inspiration from him”. The song is endorsed by Nii, one of the bass guitarists of Pat Thomas. “My girlfriend and I went to their concert during Felabration in Paradiso and we took the vinyl we have of them along. I made my way through the crowd and asked the band to sign it. They did. We took some pictures”.

Boatism took their Instagram names and started following them “then all of a sudden I saw my picture on Pat Thomas’ Instagram. Nii, the bass guitarist, and I started a conversation on Instagram and that’s how it started”. When 5 Star was finished Boatism decided to send Nii the track.  “He said he likes it, which is important to me, they are the OG’s and I’m happy I got their respect. from them”.

‘5 Star’ is available on all streaming platforms and on Youtube. Follow Boatism on Instagram. 

Pics by: Winny Sandvliet