Nkasei Shaken By Threats From Tuobodom

It is the dream of musicians to satisfy and really entertain their musical fans to the fullest, hence the art of creativity and style in one's music.

Nevertheless, too much creativity ends up in making a good art look clumsy. This is the current scenario of the controversy surrounding the latest hit of Nkasie "Tuobodom".

In an interview with the group, it was evident that the duo, Clement Yeboah a.k.a Shy and Isaac Mensah a.k.a Nana K were a little perturbed and shaken by the fury of the Tuobodom traditional council.

In last week's edition of the Graphic Showbiz, the Adontenhemaa, Nana Nyarko Antwiwaa gave an ultimatum of one week to the musician to come out and explain the song, including how the capital of Tuobodom became Jinijini, beside clarifying other disparaging comments made in the song.

According to Nkasie, the publication was what made them realise how controversial the song had became as, though several threatening calls had been received, they had taken them for one of those situations encountered by most celebrities.

Lately, however, it is being rumoured that the queenmother intends to send the issue to court, so the musicians may soon be served with a writ of summons.

Despite the fact that they have received nothing of the sort, they assert that no personal confrontation had occurred between the two parties.

Nevertheless, they feel insecure about the individual threats being issued on their phones.

According to them, the genesis of the whole saga was when they decided to hold a regional tour in the country with the first stop over at Brong-Ahafo, because they believe the leading song, Tuobodom was titled to them; the dates scheduled were on the first second and third of July.

However, prior to the show, the Brong-Ahafo Regional Security Council told Space FM, a Sunyani-based radio station they were working with that, their security could not be granted, hence the postponement of the programme until further investigations had been conducted to ensure their total safety.

Initially, what they regarded as a joke, turned sour, what with the intervention of the traditional council and their quest of getting the song banned on radio stations and concealed forever.

This, they said, was the last straw that broke the camel's back.

As to preparations towards solving the issue, the duo proposed going to see the queen mother who they learnt lives in the Brong-Ahafo region, but presently the place has become a no-go area for them, so they have no option than to stay back at the moment and do some consultations to arrive at a good solution.

Their expectations from the traditional council is to be specific with what they don't like about the song so they can make amendments about it, be it the lyrics, the rhythm, remarks or the use of the name Tuobodom.

"We don't mind contributing to developmental issues of the town Tuobodom, just to prove our good intentions towards the town to them," they added.

Despite the current hullabaloo over the song, Nkasie said they have no regrets for using the three towns, namely Yefri, Tuobodom and Jinijini in their song because their intention was to bring the towns together.

Jokingly, the duo admitted that in reality, Jinijini is not the capital of Tuobodom like they said in the song, but out of creativity, they decided to tell citizens of the town that no matter where they came from, they were related and thus should not be divided by the distance between one town and the other.

The rhythm of the song had been in existence for so many years and all they had to do was add a few witty comments and remarks to entertain the nation and also tell a history that had been hidden for many years to the rest of the world.

Interestingly, the controversy is making the song more popular than it used to be, hence over 2 million copies have already been sold, with request for more on the market. This they said, was amazing but there was no joy when one's safety is at stake in one's own country. They say they had never expected to be misunderstood.

Having learnt an unforgettable lesson from the situation, they have decided never ever to use names and nouns in their music because once bitten, twice shy and a word to the wise is in the North.

To their fans, they expressed lots of thanks and promised to be of their usual self, which is to keep on entertaining them to the fullest.

On the contrary, they wish to apologise to individuals who find the song, Tuobodom as a mockery to them and prayed for their forgiveness since they their intention had only been misconstrued.