BBE present the lost private press album Rim Arrives / International Funk from Rim Kwaku Obeng / Rim and The Believers officially the first release under BBE Africa. A new and exciting cultural and lifestyle outlet focusing on the arts across the continent. TRACKLISTING LP A1 Gas Line A2 Believe In Yourself A3 Sunkwa (Life First) A4 Funky Drummer B1 Brushing Means Making Love B2 Nothing Is Free B3 Spend Your Money C1 International Funk D1 International Funk (Instrumental) We’re very proud to present here the first of two legendary ‘lost’ albums both previously available only as rare-as-hen’s teeth private presses, from one Samuel K. Mfojo, the man known as Rim Kwaku Obeng. As well as heralding the arrival as solo artist of an exciting new drummer, the title of his 1977 debut, Rim Arrives, also makes reference to the long struggle Kwaku had in getting to that point. To say that he ‘paid his dues’ is an understate-ment! A member of one of Ghana’s most popular bands, the Uhuru Dance Band, during a period when ‘every song was a hit’, the recording studios of LA were even more alluring to an aspirant musician, and he followed his bandmate, Duke Oketa, there for a session in 1973. Despite having hired a massive string section, Oketa failed to provide charts for the session, and it was postponed for a week, with Kwaku being asked to write them instead. He turned it around, pocketed $700, and won the admiration of Quincy Jones who was hanging out at A&M’s studios and asked Kwaku to join him … only to back off when Oketa intervened, threatening a lawsuit if Kwaku walked. That scuppered opportunity was as nothing compared to the disaster that next befell him: having flown to London with Duke’s band, to record with ‘a band called Traffic’ and a young singer-songwriter called Joan Armatrading, Kwaku found himself marooned in the city without money, documentation or friends. Oketa had checked out of their hotel the first night, and had Kwaku’s passport and luggage with him. Despite the sympathy of the hotel staff, he found himself on the streets, and thus in 1973 began a six-month period as a homeless, destitute, undocumented stranger. That Kwaku by chance managed to meet Armatrading, who helped him get his life back on track, by chance passing Ronnie Scott’s where she was playing, was an even more unlikely twist in the fate of this promising young musician. He never found out why Oketa had abandoned him, but he fulfilled his promise, recording Rim Arrives in San Francisco in 1977. That year was the zenith of disco, and pretty much anybody who entered a recording studio that year cut a disco record. Rim was no exception, his Ghanaian rhythms tailor-made for the percussive energy that was fuelling the clubs of the day. With a mixture of hot LA session musicians and African emigrés, he cut an album that very much captures the spirit of its time. As well as kit drums, conga and an array of percussive instruments, the multi-talented bandleader also played piano and clavinet on the sessions.