[Source: BBC]
Blitz Bazawule, the director of a new film adaptation of Alice Walker’s revered 1982 novel The Color Purple, is a true renaissance man.
In his 41 years, the Ghanaian has also co-directed a Beyoncé film, published a novel, performed his music across the world and set a Netflix record.
His latest challenge – a musical of the potent, Pulitzer Prize-winning book about a troubled, young, black woman fighting racism and the patriarchy in America – is released in the US on Christmas Day.
Bazawule’s Color Purple follows a 1985 film adaptation that won actress Whoopi Goldberg a Golden Globe, and a Broadway musical that opened in 2005.
Directing a second film version of a celebrated classic is a high-pressure task, but the Atlanta-based artist certainly has the credentials.
Born Samuel Bazawule in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, he had a deep penchant for drawing as a boy.
Music was also a major passion, particularly jazz, Ghanaian highlife, Motown and Afrobeat (a forerunner to the currently popular genre Afrobeats).
However it was hip-hop, specifically Public Enemy’s 1988 album It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back, that had the biggest impact on Bazawule.
“I had never heard young black people express themselves in that way before,” Bazawule said on the website of his now defunct artist development company, Embassy MVMT.
Inspired by Public Enemy, Bazawule released several mixtapes after he left Accra to study at Kent State University in the US.
After graduation he moved to New York – the birthplace of hip-hop – to pursue a music career.
He has released four studio albums under the name Blitz the Ambassador and raps in English, Ghanaian language Twi and West African Pidgin.
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