“Kologo”: The Ayisoba story

The latter part of 2003 saw the emergence of a new heir to traditional Ghanaian music. It was not as if, he was reinventing the wheel but something almost surreal about the Afro-beat singer and performer Albert Apozori, trading as King Ayisoba made him an instant hit and his fame soared. “Siri na”, “Kai Kai”, and a host of other post modernist musical innovations would fetch him some multiple awards.

But even with music awards he has had to battle for gigs, media interviews and approval from those same audiences and core listeners who fell for his style years back.

The disc jockeys who, in 2007 would play his title track “I want to see you my father” without the influence of payola, seem no more interested. The television stations which used to heavily rotate several of his music videos appear unfazed by the declining goodwill of the Rasta-haired dude.

His management team, Pidjen Music, owned by Sound Engineer Panji Anoff, it seems, isn’t happy with this trend to the extent that, Ayisoba, who used to be the main milk cow for the label as well as its face, is wallowing in the creepy world of show business.

In a face-saving marketing gambit aimed at making the Ayisoba brand once more cherished, the label has put together a documentary of the life story of the musician on Video Compact Disc for sale.

The over an hour-long film titled: “Kologo Spirit”, also features some carefully selected eleven music videos of the musician with added footage of live stage performances.

It is clear this marketing strategy would reignite Ayisoba’s declining popularity. It is also that Pidjen Music will give it the necessary push than they are currently doing for “Coz Ov Moni”, a musical by M3nsa and Wanlov Kubolo, the label’s other mates.

Anyway, time will tell how “kologo” will fare as the young man from Bongo Soe tries to get his groove back!

Story by Obed Boafo