Rim Kwaku Obeng

Rim Kwaku Obeng, born Samuel K. Mfojo, was a Ghanaian disco composer, drummer, percussionist and multi-instrumentalist. His late-1970s albums Rim Arrives and Too Tough, long thought lost, were reissued in 2015, and Far Out called them two of the greatest records in Afro-disco history.

Uhuru and a lost chance

By the early 1970s he was a member of the Uhuru Dance Band, a highlife group that pioneered Afro-disco. In 1973 he went to A&M Studios in Los Angeles for a session with his bandmate Duke Oketa. When Oketa hired a large string section without providing sheet music, Obeng wrote the score himself during a week's delay. He was paid $700 and received a job offer from the producer Quincy Jones, but Oketa threatened to sue if he accepted it.

London

Later in 1973 he flew to London with the band to record with Traffic and Joan Armatrading, but Oketa checked out of the hotel on the first night, taking Obeng's passport and luggage. Stranded and undocumented, Obeng spent six months homeless in London. A chance meeting with Armatrading at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club turned things around, and she took him on as a drummer at her band's rehearsals. In 1975 he copyrighted songs including Be Yourself and Sunkwa.

San Francisco albums

He went back to San Francisco in 1977 and recorded his debut, Rim Arrives, released in 1980, which OkayAfrica later called a dance-worthy blend of funk, disco and Afrobeat. His 1982 album Too Tough, made with K.A.S.A, was also recorded in San Francisco. In 1979 UCLA listed him alongside Stevie Wonder and Earth, Wind & Fire among artists combining traditional African forms with contemporary African-American music. BBE Records reissued both albums in 2015.