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The gospel according to Castro Destroyer

So some of the juicy news in town is that, Theophilus Tagoe aka Castro Destroyer aka Under fire aka the Sakwabaman is going gospel for one album :-) The album which will be out early next year is called "Dea Onyame Ahyira No, Atanfo Ntumi Nsae No" (translated as "Who Jah Bless, No One Curse"). It also has songs like "Ebe Yeyie" (It will be well) and "Otiasifuor Ye Kwa" (the earthling/human being is nothing - something along the lines of humans being mortal). This would be unprecedented amongst hiplife artistes and we (me, myself and I) wish him the best.

I hear he is speaking like a preacher, buriful. I don't doubt that he could sing gospel, Castro is a very very very good singer and I expect this album to sell. He'll be doing two things, singing in gospel and rapping in gospel. That's like Azigiza but only on a more commercial level. The last time a secular Ghanaian musician tried this, Daddy Lumba aka Ghanaian Michael Jackson aka Gyaaman Jerry Curls aka DL released a couple of good gospel albums ('Fa wo ho bo Jesus' and 'Mesom Jesus) which didn't do too well that he quickly went back to secular music. His next album was Aben wo aha (it is hot over here) which stirred so much controversy (profane lyrics) in Ghana and won him the song of the year at the Ghana music awards. The song was deemed so profane that every other song that was on the same level released in Ghana afterwards was automatically barred/banned from the Ghana music awards.

At least we are aware, Castro is doing this as a one-time thing, we'll see how successful he is. Nananom Sidney has done a couple of gospel songs on his albums, while Obrafour had Enye Nyame a on his Asem sebe album and Hwan na ene on his Heavy album. Tinny had Passion of the Christ featuring Praye on his Akwei Polo album while Dzormo from his Makola Kwakwe album had a great video which got airplay all over Africa. Several highlife musicians have done gospel songs, Kojo Antwi, Amakye Dede, Nana Fynn, Nana Tuffour, Daasebre Dwamena, A.B. Crentsil, to name a few.

While Castro is high on his Christianity, he is also in the news for some other reasons - the police is after him. They want him to assist them to track some people who killed a young Ghanaian at one of Ghana's most popular night clubs (Aphrodisiac) recently. Apparently, Theophilus Tagoe and his dancer, Ras Kelly, were in the club when the shooting went down. Here's where it gets interesting, Ras Kelly was seen to be in one of the cars that drove off with one of the killers. Hmmmm. What would Castro have to say about this issue? Is Ras Kelly innocent? Is Castro aware of that?

I hope Castro is innocent like Innocent Idibia - crime and gospel albums don't go together. Even his idol, 50 Cent didn't try that. What do you guys think about his gospel effort and do you think he could rival the gospel heavyweights like Christina Love, Esther Smith, Kwaku Gyasi, Isaac Ampong, Vine Praise, Nii Okai, Noble Nketsia, Pastor Lenny Akpadie, Hannah Marfo, Osuani Afrifa, etc?