Ghanaian Comic Rapper A. Y. Payoo And His "Payorians", "Washout" Branding Terms

Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part I of a three part pancocojams series that focuses on the upcoming Ghanaian comic rapper whose stage name is "A. Y. Payoo".

Part I presents information about A. Y. Payoo and showcases two of his YouTube videos.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/06/examples-of-referent-payorians-term.html for Part II of this pancocojams series. Part II provides examples from various discussion threads of A. Y. Payoo videos of commenters use of the referent "Payorians", the term "washout", and the self-bragging statement that Payoo is "the face of Ghanaian rap".

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/06/examples-of-ghanaian-terms-chale.html for Part III of this pancocojams series. Part III provides examples of the Ghanaian Pidgin term "chale" ("charlie", "charlee" and other spelling) and the Twi term "paa" from various discussion threads of AY Payoo YouTube videos.

The content of this post is presented for cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to A. Y. Payoo for is his creative performances and branding strategies.

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INFORMATION ABOUT A. Y. PAYOO & SOME OF HIS BRANDING STRATEGIES
A. Y. Payoo burst on the Ghanaian music scene in May 2020 via a number of YouTube videos that were picked up by international social media including Whatsapp, Instagram, Facebook and Tic Tok. In two interview video of Payoo that I have watched, that entertainer admits that he uses various strategies as a way of "branding" and marketing himself.*

Two examples of this branding and marketing strategies is that Payoo coined the referent "Payorians" as the name of his fans after his stage name "Payoo", and gave a new meaning to the term "washout" which he and his fans use.**

Although I haven't come across a definition for the way that Payoo and his Payorians use "washout", when Payoo and his fans use the word "washout" I believe it means something like "to conquer everything in his (their) path (i.e. "to be the most successful entertainer"). The term "washout" (as used by Payoo) is therefore a self-bragging statement.

Payoo's self- bragging is also reflected in Payoo's use of the African American Vernacular English word "goat"*** to describe himself. Payoo's self-braggin (a core characteristics of Hip Hop)  is also shown by his statement that he is the "face of Ghana rap."

*From https://www.thebrandingjournal.com/2015/10/what-is-branding-definition/
A brand is a name, term, design, symbol, or other feature that identifies one seller's good or servicv as distinct from those of other sellers." American Marketing Association)

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Definition #5 for "washout" on https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/wash+out) is "to flood something with water and erode it or make it flow away". I think that A. Y. Payoo's new definition of "washout" is that his (rap) bars flow so hard that any other rappers are washed out (removed from his path by the power of his creativity, skill, and power).

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***"Goat" means "greatest of all times". "Goat" is also the title and theme of A Y. Payoo's viral YouTube video.

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I've found very little information about A. Y. Payoo who started publishing YouTube videos of himself in May 2020 (around about the same time as the Covid-19 pandemic).

Here's the complete quote about "A. Y. Payoo" from https://afrikalyrics.com/artist/ay-poyoo

"Emmanuel Yeboah, popularly known as AY POYOO, is a performing artist and comic rapper from Ghana. He combines comedy with music and spoken word poetry  to narrates different hilarius scenarios!"

Additional information about how A. Y. Payoo chose his stage name is found near the beginning of  this YouTube video:

A. Y. Payoo Full Interview On Focus FM (Washout)



Official A. Y. Payoo, May 23, 2020
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In a May 21, 2020 YouTube interview (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU7eFZfGOH4) A. Y. Payoo shared that he purposely came up with his stage name in order to distinguish himself from other Ghanaian entertainers who use that "entertainment" term in their stage names. In the interview that is embedded in this post, I believe he said that he thought of the expression "Ay!" that is used when someone is pleasantly surprised or impressed and then went to the dictionary to look up the word "A" and came up with the word "awesome".  He then decided to use the letter "A" as his name with its meaning being "awesome.".

According to those interviews, the letter "Y" in Payoo's stage name represents the entertainer's last name (surname) "Yeboah". Payoo" then shared in those interviews that he chose the name "Payoo" to rhyme with the name of his manager. That name starts with a "T" but I don't know how it is spelled. If I understood him corrected, A. Y. Payoo shared most of this story in the beginning of the video embedded above.

In addition, A. Y. Payoo also shared in that May 21, 2020 interview that he happened to find the chain he often wears when his first video was taped, and he decided on the spot to wear it as part of his "brand" (the characteristics and style that distinguished him from other entertainers). Wearing a chain around his neck connects that comic rapper with early African American rappers who wore gold chains (jewelry). Payoo's custom of wearing pants that show his boxer shorts also is purposely done to "brand" himself and to have people connect him to the (albeit dated) United States rapper style.

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SHOWCASE VIDEOS
Video #1: A. Y. Payoo - Goat (Official Video)



Official A. Y. Payoo, June 8, 2020

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Video #2: A. Y. Payoo - Swimming Pool (Official Video)

Official A. Y. Payoo, June 4, 2020

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This concludes Part I of this three part pancocojams series on A. Y. Payoo.

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