Growing up in Ghana, Paapa hMensa was a quiet kid. Not shy, mind you—he didn’t lack friends or feel socially awkward—but when he opened his mouth to speak, the words stuck.—a severe stammer.

So he kept quiet. “I didn’t want them to laugh,” he says. “I didn’t even want to use energy speaking.”

Sundays, though, brought some relief. When he sang with the church choirhis stammer loosened its grip. When he discovered hip-hop at age 10, he found that rapping—and later singing solo—gave him the same super power over his affliction.

“Music was what gave me some peace, some serenity,” says Paapa, who speaks quickly and confidently but still occasionally stammers. “It’s how I knew I wasn’t stupid.”

Influenced by Kanye West and Lupe Fiasco, Solar demonstrates Paapa’s talent for producing everything from graceful synth orchestration to beat-heavy club anthems, but it doesn’t sound particularly “African” to Western ears, save for standout track “Pure Water,” which samples the sounds of street vendors and traffic in the bustling Ghanaian capital of Accra.