Music of Thursday, 2 June 2005

Source: ghanamusic.com

The Prophets Sing ?Nyame Tumfuo?

It is common to see a new artiste emerge almost everyday on the gospel music scene and although not all of them achieve success, it has not deterred others from entering this highly competitive arena.

The latest to join the train are The Prophets, twin brothers, Michael Adjei Senior and Junior who have taken the first step in bringing their vision of turning souls to God through singing to fruition, with the release of their debut album, Nyame Tumfuo.

It has a total of eight songs on cassette and nine on CD. Listening to the songs, one can conclude that the album’s main theme is praise as majority of the songs exalt and praise God’s goodness, generosity, kindness and love for mankind. Nyame Tumfuo, the title track might sound familiar to people because of the rhythm which is “lifted” in totality from UB 40’s Fools Rush In, a reggae song.

Instrumentation is perfect and the strong voices of the two are used to full effect on this song which thanks God for all the wonderful things he has done in their lives, raising them up from nobodies to somebodies.

Yebo Wo Mmrane which also praises God for all his blessings and exalts him in his holiness, has a traditional adowa rhythm although it is computerised. It is complemented very nicely with a good chorus.

W’ayeyi is in the slow vein and will be especially good for worship. On it they exalt and praise God for his handiwork and tell us to do the same because God deserves praise. The instrumentation is perfectly done with some great keyboard work. The other praise songs are Me Hyira Wo, Wo Animonyam and Praise the Lord.

On Yere Tukwan, The Prophets have taken a well known church song and jazzed it up making it more funkier and much nicer. In the mid tempo vein although very danceable, the Prophets ask whether we will be part of those making the journey to heaven where there is no pain or sorrow, only happiness.

They tell us that thousands have already gone up and are waiting for us. This song gives us cause to think about our salvation and where we will be going after death as Christians. Yenim Nyame and Ko Ma Me complete the album.

The Prophets started singing in their teens and went professional ten years ago. According to Michael Adjei Jnr who spoke to Showbiz, “During our secondary school days at Benkum Secondary School, we used to sing to entertain our seniors and through that we were always able to avoid punishment. Our only punishment was to sing”.

When their career first began, they decided to do highlife music because they thought that was where their strength lay. They even took steps to record an album in 1995 with a cousin but unfortunately before they could master their demo and start programming, their cousin who was their financier left for London and their dream was put on hold temporarily.

Then a friend invited them for a church service and everything changed for them; they gave their lives to Christ thereby changing their focus as they decided to do gospel thereby abandoning highlife.

As to why it took them such a long time for them to come out with this album, Michael said that “As Christians, the Bible advises us to wait on the Lord for everything and that is what we did. We waited on him and this is the right time he has appointed for us”.

The two are single and combine music with their respective jobs. To Michael, as to whether they will continue combining both will depend on the success of this album. “Obviously we will have to choose one of them if this album becomes successful but we will have to decide on which one to discard”.

Nyame Tumfuo was Executive produced by Michael Adjei Snr and Michael Adjei Jnr.