Beginnings At the beginning of the 90s, his debut consisted of DJing in hip-hop clubs. He also co-produced and rapped in some songs of DJ David Fascher ("Here We Go", "Make The Crowd Go Wild"), under the alias
MC Africa True.
1994: Eurodance project and departure In 1994 he joined the Eurodance project Darkness as a rapper, which was produced by Bülent Aris and
Toni Cottura. The song "Dreams" became a club hit, but Nana did not feel very comfortable with the style Darkness adopted and the group separated. However, his current scene name, Darkman, originated from this time.
1996-1997: Debut album and commercial success In 1996 Aris and Cottura founded the
Black Music label Booya Music, which Nana joined as the first artist. The first single, "Darkman" reached the top 10 of
Germany's official single-chart by
Media Control. The following single, "Lonely", became the most successful euro-rap song, being number-one for several weeks. The album,
Nana, released in 1997, is more on the mainstream, American style of rapping. It features numerous other members of the Booya Family, such as Jan van der Toorn and
Alex Prince.
1998: Father The second album,
Father, was released in May 1998 and contains slower pieces and more personal lyrics. The songs "
Too Much Heaven" and "War" were also featured on the tribute albums
Love The Bee Gees and
Hands on Motown.
1999-2004: Single releases and hiatus At the end of 1999, Nana's released the single "I Wanna Fly", which flopped, due to a decrease in euro-rap's popularity and the growing importance of hip-hop played in
German. Nevertheless, Nana still recorded two further albums with Booya Music, which were not released due to legal problems. At the beginning of 2001 Nana released the German-language song
Du wirst sehen, a gesture which was not appreciated by international fans. The single flopped, and the planned bilingual album
Global Playa was canceled at the request of the record company.
2004: All Doors in Flight No. 7 After a long break, Nana made his highly anticipated return in the summer of 2004 with the release of his album
All Doors In Flight No. 7. Featuring collaborations with Jan van der Toorn and Manuell, the album was launched under Nana’s own label,
Darkman Records. It was distributed exclusively online through Nana’s official website.
2022: Team Darkman (The Storm After the Calm) After the COVID-19 pandemic, Nana made a return to touring across Europe in August 2022, accompanied by his newly appointed official backing singer, Polish R&B singer-songwriter Graciano Markowski, known professionally as
Graciano Major. Their collaboration went beyond live performances—Nana and Graciano also teamed up in the studio, releasing their single “One Night Stand” in 2021 under Nana’s own label,
Darkman Records. The track was distributed online and made available across major digital streaming platforms. In October 2022,
Graciano Major collaborated with Lebanese electronic music producer and DJ Ramzy Shaar to remix Graciano’s Single “Dubai”, which was released under the label
Cat Music. The official Ramzy Shaar remix of “Dubai” is now featured in Graciano Major’s live performances alongside Nana. == Discography ==