In the depths of night, far across the Atlantic Ocean, on the other side of world, in the Dark Continent, "Africa" is found a small country called Cameroon. That’s were “Sona Lionel Ekumeri” was born. During the late 1980’s, Lionel Richie’s hit swept across the globe. Sona’s mother “Mama J.” a big fan of Lionel Richie decided to name him Lionel. After He was born, he was placed in the hands of his dying great grandmother, who named him “Ekumeri” meaning “it met me” after a long period of being asked by her cult members to sacrifice him. The name Sona on the other hand means gold and nobility.
From birth, Sona was surrounded by poverty and misery. His grandmother struggled everyday to raise a family of ten on a budget lower than a dollar a day. Sona was also surrounded by crime; the streets took the law into their own hands. The harsh life gave both Sona and his older brother (Emmanuel Nangia) a quick and swift adaptation to the street life. At the early age of 8, both brothers conned the street dealers, negotiating street deals to make a little extra money.
At age 12, the two brothers moved to Buea, a small city on the southwest side of , and that is where he was introduced to hip-hop. After free styling a clean 16 bars over a Sega Genesis instrumental, Sona for the first time had proven to himself and his brother that he could rap. The two brothers started entering local rap competitions where they both came out victorious and were made champions. The whole city knew them as the “Two Brothers.”
At age 14, Sona and his brother moved back to French Cameroon, were at the time French hip-hop was slowly sweeping the streets. The young rapper and his brother got straight to business to create a name for themselves in their new environment. The brothers entered rap battles where their cinematic style won the hearts of the streets and attracted more fans, just as a magnet attracts metal. His realistic rhymes drew the crowd and quickly won Sona popularity as one of the best MC’s in . The rising star created a shockwave across the nation and the name Sona got into the ears of record executives in . Just as the record label was finalizing the contract terms in 2003, the two brothers left to the to see his dreams come to reality. The two brothers settled in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
. After a year of adjusting in the , while enrolled at the
University
of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee
, Sona, undercover started the rap scene in . The young rapper started gaining notoriety among his counterparts at school.
In 2006, Sona decided to launch his own label (Imperial Records) with his vision to break in the game and change not only rap, but music. After two years, in the states, Sona got back into the studio and started recording his album titled, Man in the Mirror. With his first single Titled Dreams, Sona Plans of rocking the charts are slowly coming to reality, just as how his dreams of coming the came to reality. In his eyes is both blood and tears, the young artist is paving the way for other Un opportune Africans in
Africa
.
