Denning Edem Hotor is shortly known as Edem as his stage name is a Ghanaian recording artist and entertainer. Edem started music in high school where he formed a 6 member group called Ringmasters, he is the only son of his parents who are both dead, and was born in Dzodze in the Volta Region of Ghana. Edem rose to fame in 2006 with his first hit single “WOTOME WOSHI” and he got signed to The Last Two Entertainment Group that same year.
He completed his primary and Junior High education at the Amazing Love International School and then proceeded to the Bishop Herman College for his senior high school education.
Edem is a student of the Meridian pre-university.
By age nine, Edem was usually caught pounding on tables, empty tins, and any item that could produce a good rhythm.
He joined his first music group in junior high. In senior high, he formed a 6-member group called the Ringmasters. They performed at the school as well as at funfairs elsewhere. They usually sang, rapped, and danced. After senior high school, he proceeded with his quest to build a commercial career in music. He recorded in the underground with artists including Kokromoti, Nival, Trigmatic, Vyroz, M.O.B, and Osibo.
Edem appeared on Voice of America where he talked about his “Nyedzilo” video, which features Mavin Records’ very own Reekado Banks, and his videos such as “The One”, featuring Sway that talks about Africa’s liberation and his award-winning song Koene that were previously featured on Music Time Africa by Heather Maxwell and Vincent Makori.
In 2006, he released his first radio hit single “Witine Woshi”, which translates as “we came and they ran”. It gained much popularity in his region and added to his underground reputation. That year, he got together officially with The Last Two Entertainment Group, headed by the hitmaker Hammer of The Last Two. This label is responsible for artists including Obrafour in 1999, Tinny and the madman Kwaw Kesse in 2005.
Edem appeared at live shows, significantly as the opening act for the John Legend concert at the International Conference Center in Accra in 2000. Before his debut album, he collaborated with other acts, especially with Obrafour. He went on a national tour with Obrafour.
After two years in the studio (2006 December to 2008 December), he came up with his first single “Bougez”.It received airplay across the country. His first album featured new as well as established acts such as Tinny, Kwaw Kese, Sarkodie, Obour, Asem, and K. K. Fosu, Tuba, Samini, Jayso, Trigmatic, El and Gemini.
Edem appeared on shows such as Stars of the Future Season 3 Finales, Ghana Music Awards (2009), and all major university concerts. He has been a part of the University of Ghana’s Commonwealth Hall week, Akuafo Hall week, Evandy Hostel(Legon) week celebration, Pentagon Hostel week celebration, Miss WA Poly, Miss Ho Poly, KNUST’s Unity Hall week celebration, and University Of Cape Coast’s Kwame Nkrumah Hall Week 2013.
His Debut Album The Volta regime was released in January 2009. This album is a result of two years of recordings in Accra. All the lyrics were written by Edem. The compositions were produced by Hammer of The Last Two who doubled as the executive producer.
Mass Production was to be a transition from his first. The album, he said, holds a mixture of unique beats produced by various engineers including hammer. Edem says, “…It basically is a transition from me being an artiste with a first album and now trying to put music out that will be appealing to everybody that has supported me.
Now the album is Mass Production because it is going to be made easily available and affordable to everybody in a sphere of life in the country.” In an interview with Peacefmonline.com, Edem disclosed that his favorite song on the album is “Kate” the only track produced by Hammer of The Last Two. “Anytime I hear that song it reminds me of my beginning”, he said.
On why he decided to drop Ayigbe from the name he said “This has nothing to do with an image crisis.” “The intention of Volta Regime’ as an album was to make a statement for my region to be respected…this statement was to make everybody know that you can use your dialect and sell anywhere across the world and in doing that I wanted to also make sure that the people from my region take pride when they are derogatorily called Ayigbe people or anything.”
“Two years along the line after executing ‘Volta Regime’, I know a lot of people who take pride in the name now”, he explained. He said the purpose of using Ayigbe has been fulfilled hence his decision to stick to only Edem which is still a Ewe name. His videos include “Delaila” ft M.I, “The One remix” ft Sway, “Only in Ghana”, “Wicked” and “Bad” ft Coded (4×4), Koene, “Over Again remix” and “Not on my level (heyba)”, which featured on BET 106 &Park, ChannelOTV and TraceTv. “Not on My Level? reached 49th position on Reflexfm Urban top100 chart in the Netherlands.
His next album was books and rhymes.
Edem won the Best International Act-Africa at the 2015 Black Canadian Awards. The ‘Koene’ hit singer beat Mafikizolo (South Africa), Yemi Alade (Nigeria), Davido (Nigeria), Eddy Kenzo (Uganda), Oritse Femi (Nigeria), and Teeyah (Ivory Coast) to win the award. The rapper thanked God and Ghanaians for their support which he said helped him emerge victorious at the event.
Edem won 2015 Vodafone Ghana Music Awards Album of the Year Books and Rhymes, Afropop song of the year with “Koene” and Video of the Year with “The One” video featuring SwayUk.
Edem topped the 2014 4syte TV Music Video Awards with 3 awards for Best Directed, Best Photography, and Most Outstanding Video for “The One” featuring SwayUK directed by Gyo Gyimah.
When the nominations list for the 2010 Ghana Music Awards was released, Edem’s maiden album had earned seven nominations.
Edem won the Best International Act-Africa at the 2015 Black Canadian Awards. The ‘Koene’ hit singer beat Mafikizolo (South Africa), Yemi Alade (Nigeria), Davido (Nigeria), Eddy Kenzo (Uganda), Oritse Femi (Nigeria), and Teeyah (Ivory Coast) to win the award. The rapper thanked God and Ghanaians for their support which he said helped him emerge victorious at the event.
Edem won 2015 Vodafone Ghana Music Awards Album of the Year Books and Rhymes, Afropop song of the year with “Koene” and Video of the Year with “The One” video featuring SwayUk.
Edem topped the 2014 4syte TV Music Video Awards with 3 awards for Best Directed, Best Photography, and Most Outstanding Video for “The One” featuring SwayUK directed by Gyo Gyimah.
When the nominations list for the 2010 Ghana Music Awards was released, Edem’s maiden album had earned seven nominations.
