Black Sherif reveals how he discovered his family connection with Amakye Dede

Ghanaian musician Black Sherif has revealed that his chart-topping album Iron Boy was inspired by legendary Highlife icon Amakye Dede, whom he later discovered to be a long-time family acquaintance.

In an interview on Hitz FM’s Daybreak Hitz on Tuesday, the award-winning artiste explained that the project was born from a personal visit to Amakye Dede’s home, where he went to pay his respects to the veteran musician. To his surprise, the meeting unveiled a generational family connection between them.

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“There were layers to the decisions behind making Iron Boy. I went to Nana Amakye Dede’s house and realised he was my grandfather, the real iron boy. It wasn’t intentional. I went to pay homage and later found out he was a family friend from generations back. That was the first layer, homage,” he told hosts Kwame Dadzie and Doreen Avio.

Black Sherif, also known as Blacko, added that although Amakye Dede does not appear on the album, he had initially considered featuring him.

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“To be honest, I did think about putting Amakye Dede on the song, but it just didn’t manifest in bringing the thing up,” he explained.

Released on 3 April 2025, Iron Boy has become one of the most streamed Ghanaian albums of the year. The project debuted at number six on Spotify’s UK Top Debuted Albums chart and achieved the highest first-day streams for a Ghanaian album, with over 2 million plays. It has since amassed more than 103.3 million streams globally.

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On Apple Music, Iron Boy spent an impressive 158 days at the top of the Ghana Albums Chart, with five tracks reaching number one on the Ghana Top 100 chart. The hit single Sacrifice dominated the chart for 23 consecutive weeks.

Meanwhile, on Audiomack, Black Sherif surpassed 1 billion career streams , reinforcing his position as Ghana’s most streamed artiste on the platform.

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The remarkable success of Iron Boy continues Black Sherif’s ascent as one of Ghana’s most influential young artistes, celebrated for his evocative storytelling, emotional depth, and ability to blend street poetry with soulful Highlife influences.