{"id":119192,"date":"2023-02-22T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-22T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/?p=119192"},"modified":"2023-02-22T11:14:17","modified_gmt":"2023-02-22T09:14:17","slug":"king-ayisoba-work-hard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/king-ayisoba-work-hard\/","title":{"rendered":"King Ayisoba, working hard on the kologo and tradition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Born Albert Apoosore, King Ayisoba is known to be a pioneer of mainstream traditional music in Ghana. Making his entrance into the music industry in the early 2000\u2019s, he grabbed the attention of most Ghanaians, especially those living in modern cities both in and outside Ghana, with his sharp voice and live performances with his favorite kologo instrument. King\u2019s interest in music began in his younger years where he recalls an interesting story as a young 3 year old living in a small village right outside Bolga. By then he still couldn\u2019t walk and had the family worried. They had tried various ways to help him. One day a herbalist\/ritualist came by the house and upon speaking to him for a bit asked for his father. When little Albert showed him where his father was, the man went to his father and advised him to make a small kologo guitar for his young son. Intrigued, his father went to different ritualists to verify and they all said the same. From then his father got him a kologo and he\u2019s played it ever since. \u201cI learnt on my own. My master is God,\u201d Ayisoba says about how he learnt how to play in his usual pidgen english.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As he grew, and his skills sharpened, he started to play in local bars, markets, and funerals to get a name for himself in the local scene. King was creating music that was very unique at the time, so when it reached the capital Accra he gradually gained fame; respected for singing in local dialects such as Frafra, Twi, and pidgen English and also using traditional instruments. Ayisoba has managed to create a blend of local and foreign fan base as his lyrics, when understood, are drawn from his personal life and are sometimes funny, urgent, or imaginative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The song that shot him into the limelight, \u201cI want to see you my father\u201d reached the hearts and minds of many Ghanaians. In the song, he admonished fathers to be responsible and stop spending the majority of their money on girlfriends. It\u2019s a cry of a son who needs his father. The song was put on CD known as \u201cModern Ghanaians\u201d and it contained songs with the flavor and spice of modern hip-life mixed with Ayisoba\u2019s traditional style. It helped him win the Most Popular Song that year at the VGMAS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cI set Kologo to my voice\u2026I can use the kologo to play different music<\/em>\u201d King explains that like highlife music can grow into hip-life, traditional kologo music can evolve into what the youth want. King sees many instrumentalists always having to tune their instruments based on songs or sets but he says if they would look closely they would notice he only tunes his kologo guitar once at the start of his very long sets. He feels this distinguishes the kologo apart from other instruments. \u201cI can play the guitar and gombe, but I wanted to focus on kologo to polish that well.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWork Hard\u201d is King Ayisobas 10th<\/sup> album. The journey hasn\u2019t been easy because of the diversity in world music presently. \u201cIf you don\u2019t push promotion, nobody will hear you.<\/em>\u201d He says he started an initiative like the Batakari Festival as one of the ways to also do his part to keep his music as well as traditional music as a whole competitive in these ever changing times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ayisoba started recording the project in Holland but upon returning to Ghana as Covid hit, he was looking for ways to keep inspired and to keep working. Growing up in the hinterlands without basic school education, he has always believed in working hard so being idle was new to him. At that point, he was just at home but he refused to just stay indoors and instead decided to continue the project and focus all his energy on finishing it. He aptly titled the project Work Hard<\/em>. Although he couldn\u2019t go out to work, he would rather Work Hard<\/em> on his music and his Album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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