Long before he became known as Perez Musik, he was “Tinny”, a name he earned at Mfantsipim School after his schoolmates discovered his talent for rapping in Ga.

Speaking on The Career Trail on Joy Learning TV and Joy News, Perez Musik took viewers back to his school days, revealing a lesser-known chapter of his journey in the secular music space.

But the story of “Tinny” did not begin at Mfantsipim. His love for music had already taken shape years earlier, and by the time he entered secondary school, he was carrying that passion with him.

“I’ve always wanted to do something around music and entertainment,” he said.

“I once watched By the Fireside, and they were doing the ghost effect. Kwaku Ananse, or somebody like this, he disappeared. I was intrigued. I was like, ‘How did they do that effect? The funny thing is, nobody taught me how to achieve that effect.

“I sat down and thought, ‘If I put the camera down static and record an empty frame, then make the person come in or go out of the frame, when I cut it, I’ll get that effect.’ I didn’t even know there was anything called editing. The idea just popped to me that, ‘I can actually do this,’” he further explained.

His curiosity about editing even grew stronger when a production crew came to shoot a music video at his uncle’s house. He was fascinated by how artistes could appear in different locations while the song continued without interruption.

“I see music videos on TV. And I’m like, ‘Ah, the person is standing at different locations. But the song is seamless. So having watched the crew record and edit at my uncle’s place gave me a better understanding of what happened behind the scenes.

“So you’ll be playing the music, and you record. When you finish, and you edit, and then you put the music under it, I’m like, ‘Oh, okay,’” he recalled.

That early curiosity eventually developed into a strong interest in music and entertainment, which he carried with him into secondary school.

Before leaving for Mfantsipim, he had already recorded a demo album, which he took with him to school.

“I recorded an album, like a demo album. It was brought to me later in school. My first day, I had a CD,” he recalled.

The CD soon caught the attention of one of the senior students, who took him to Angel, Sarkodie’s manager and his senior at Mfantsipim.

“One of the seniors was going through my things and they were like, ‘What is the CD? What are you doing?’ And I said, ‘Oh, it’s my songs.’ They listened to it and then they took me to Angel, Sarkodie’s manager. Angel was my senior. He listened to it and he was impressed,” he narrated.

“So that weekend, the first entertainment in school, the very first one, I was made to perform. I performed my song. So I became very popular in school from the first week,” he continued.

His Ga rap style soon earned him the nickname ‘Tinny’ that defined his school days.

“I used to rap in Ga. At that time, Tinny was the big deal. So they used to call me Tinny,” he revealed.

Interestingly, Perez revealed that although he wanted to pursue music in SHS, the education system did not offer a clear path for what he wanted to do.

“The things I loved doing, there was no proper option there,” he explained.

He said he considered General Arts because it offered music, but eventually left the class after becoming frustrated with the way the subject was taught.

“The music teacher was so boring. Like, he made the music very difficult. Like, it was so boring. So I left,” he recalled.

He eventually moved into the technical programme, studying mathematics, physics, building construction, and building drawing.

Although he enjoyed building construction and was not bad at it, music and entertainment remained his passion.