Music of Thursday, 14 July 2005

Source: ghanamusic.com

Bukom Banku On Hiplife Stage

Who would have thought that Braimah Kamoko a.k.a. Bukom Banku could sing and dance? That was the shocker at Biggy’s Pub which hosted the seventh version of the Toli Masters meet last Saturday.

Known as the Tolimasters.com the programme is organised by Radio Gold in conjunction with the management of Biggy’s Pub, situated at Asylum Down a Suburb of Accra.

The boxer had been invited to entertain the gathering at the event, which brings people who have jokes together in a competitive atmosphere.

Every sentence that came out of the boxer’s mouth sent the large crowd at the Pub into fits of laughter due to his special English which he sometimes translated into Ga.

He also shared some of his experiences at the American Embassy, when he was refused a visa to accompany Ike Quartey to the US recently with the audience.

According to him when he was told by the visa officer that he looked like somebody who would run when he gets to the U.S. he answered that he was not Ben Johnson the athlete but a boxer.

When later in the programme he announced that he would sing a song from his demonstration tape of 18 songs, every one thought it was going to be one of his many funny antics. But no, the song entitled Banku Eba (Banku has arrived) was a beautiful well arranged song with a very danceable instrumentation and thoughtful lyrics.

Banku’s hiplife song got the whole audience on their feet dancing and cheering while many looked at him in awe.

Fine Boy a comedian who has appeared several times on the Concert Party circuit, easily became the Toli Master of the seventh edition when he got the audience laughing in merriment at his well arranged jokes.

Atongo and Willy who performed alongside Fine Boy also did well but was no match for him. Toli Masters.com aimed at tapping talent and giving a platform for such talents to exhibit their skills, is the brainchild of three friends B. B. Menson of Radio Gold, Albert Johnson a.k.a. Odeefour of Happy FM and Heavy D in the US.

Members of the public who enjoy a good joke and those who can tell a good one, flock Biggy’s Pub every other Sunday to enjoy jokes and wisecracks from the toli masters such as Fred Amugi, Jojo Mills- Robertson, Koo Fori, Wofa K, Papa Shamo and others.

Those who intend to tell a joke have their names placed in a bowl and a member in the audience pick the first to perform. Each performer then gets 15 minutes to perform but if the audience find his or her jokes unappealing, he or she is quickly clapped and booed off the stage.

Last Sunday, the audience had their feel of jokes when Corporal Babanao (Wofa K) took the stage and thrilled the audience to some side-splitting jokes and so did Koo Fori. Papa Shamo the Toli Master for the sixth edition was presented with a DVD player by the organisers but not before he had put up a good dance performance.

Odeefour and Kwesi Kyei Darkwa (KKD) were also presented with souvenirs of Tolimasters.com. In the case of Odeefour it was for being an originator of the programme and for KKD his exploits in broadcasting and being one of Ghana’s finest MC’s.