The poetics of desire and materialism: Daddy Lumba’s ‘Gold Digger’ and Samsney featuring Black Sherif’s ‘Goldigga’ in perspective

Love is generally understood as a bond between people with shared interests; however, economic circumstances, social expectations, and other factors often shape how intimate relationships are formed and sustained. A cursory look at existing scholarship on Ghanaian music has received relatively little attention to how poetic techniques construct enduring social meanings across different musical generations. In view of this, the present comparative examines Daddy Lumba’s ‘Gold Digger’ and Samsney featuring Black Sherif’s ‘Goldigg’a to explore how both songs represent love as a transactional act shaped by materialism and economic realities. Using close reading and contextual analysis within a Marxist–Feminist framework and New Historicism, the study purposively analysed the selected songs to explore how love and materialism are constructed across generations. The findings suggest that Daddy Lumba’s ‘Gold Digger’ employs humour, irony, and rhythmic repetition to criticise female materialism and highlight male vulnerability within romantic relationships, reflecting the moral values and gender assumptions of early-2000s Ghanaian society. In contrast, Black Sherif’s ‘Goldigga’ presents a more empathetic and realistic portrayal of youth relationships, exposing the pressures of urban survival and social image. Despite differences in tone and musical style, both songs show that economic status remains an important factor in intimate love. This study, therefore, contributes to scholarship on Ghanaian literary and popular music by showing that music functions as a poetic text through which society negotiates questions of gender, class, desire, and economic survival.