Ras Kuuku reveals how he sabotaged family’s ice water business to avoid street hawking

Award-winning Ghanaian reggae and dancehall artiste Ras Kuuku has shared a humorous but revealing story about his childhood, disclosing that he deliberately sabotaged his family’s ice water business to avoid being sent onto the streets to sell.

Speaking about his early life and the challenges he faced growing up, the Puom hitmaker said his family introduced a small-scale bagged ice water business as a means of earning additional income. Like many children in Ghana, he was expected to carry the bags of water on his head and hawk them around the community.

However, Ras Kuuku admitted he had no interest in becoming a street vendor and feared that agreeing to sell the water even once would turn it into a daily responsibility.

“My family brought an ice water business home, and they wanted us to carry it on our heads and go around selling. I knew that if I accepted it once, it would become my routine, so I had to find a way out,” he recalled.

To avoid the task without openly defying his elders, the reggae musician confessed that he intentionally damaged the products before leaving home.

According to him, he poked holes in the plastic bags containing the ice water, allowing the contents to leak out before reaching his intended selling locations. By the time he returned home with spoiled stock and little or no money, the business appeared unprofitable.

“I poked holes in the water bags so it would all leak away. By the time I walked a short distance, half the water was gone. When I brought back no profit and ruined stock, they realized I wasn’t cut out for it and finally stopped sending me,” he said with a laugh.

Looking back on the incident, Ras Kuuku described his actions as youthful mischief but said they ultimately gave him the freedom to focus on his true passion—music.

The reggae and dancehall artiste noted that his determination to pursue music eventually paid off, paving the way for a successful career that has earned him recognition as one of Ghana’s leading reggae acts.