Nii Okai Writes KODA and Trailblazers

Trailblazers

My roommates were in the final year and a lot of the SCC and IHCF leadership were domiciled at Indece Annex (Independence Hall – Spartans). Though KODA was a proud Conti boy (Unity Hall), he had to frequent Indece Hall because it had become the epicenter of Christian leadership activity at the time. Many actually thought I was in my final year as a result, and since I was about leaving for my French year broad program in Cotonou – Benin, it actually felt same.

Truth was that I was in my second year, and was already in the thick of affairs musically. I led most of the mass choir songs at this time – something one of my Kwabotwe seniors had to write to me in Benin about; unbeknownst to me, I was courting quite some disaffection as a result and he loved me so much to draw my attention to same.

Through the instrumentality of Koda, we the mass choir core leadership got to back Pastor Joe Beecham for a couple of his Kumasi gigs and for the first time in our lives he brought us some bread (thank you envelopes) from the artiste. We were scandalized and refused outrightly because our spiritual training at Tech was founded upon “freely have you received; freely give”, and we were not going to allow mammon to creep into our ministry. This challenge with charging and bread matters would become an albatross that Koda and I would still struggle with even after school, when we became industry players. Koda prevailed on us to accept the token from the artiste otherwise he would be offended and that episode interestingly opened us up to a jazz gig at one of the prestigious hotels in Kumasi. Believe it or not, we started playing Christian jazz at the hotel with yours truly on paper sax – the owner’s son was my next door neighbor and the leader of Aposa. So before Simply Jazz was born, we were already making some subsidiary income from our skill. Truth be told, it was really the experience of playing music together that attracted us; we were sold out to Jesus.

By the time I returned from Cotonou therefore, a totally new Christian leadership team had emerged on campus and Koda made sure everyone knew about his brother Nii’s return. If you’ve been on campus, you’d know how some Christian leaders could posit as spiritual authorities practically mimicking the evangelical church fathers. In essence, our struggle with excesses by some church leaders would start from campus. We were not easily moved by prophetic declarations that wasn’t backed by scripture and our music leadership went beyond the rudiments of music, to total discipleship. We were seldom accused of praying too much and POP Choir for example had to halt our prayer meetings altogether because it was becoming like that of the church (and we were numbering over 200 at the time).

Explo had released a powerful album at the time titled Adom, and the wave was spreading like wildfire. Uncle Ato’s CCF had also worked on an album, and Harold Bedu-Addo’s (POP Choir President) had informed me of the choir’s conviction to also work on an album. My final year back on Tech campus was now clearly defined. I was to co-lead the Mass Choir with Koda, work on the POP Choir album, and eventually be a part of Da Projekt and Simply Jazz. I was then also quite unsuccessful with my relationship goals and was hoping for a miracle to transition from a strong second class upper GPA to the coveted first class. I had to eat humble pie with the latter and focus my energy on the music at this point, ably supported by my brother Koda.

He had raised a formidable team of musicians who ensured that our Mass Choir projects were on point. Albert Ntim (TM) had introduced during his term, the challenge of presenting one original song during Intellecto, and this had ushered Koda and I unofficially into what we termed castroda productions. Koda would compose the music and share same with me for the lyrics, and the only other competition we had was from a prolific songwriter called Franklin Eleblu, who became the MD for Explo. We channeled that competition into collaboration when Ps Joseph Gyebi mooted the idea of recording all the songs we had started writing, especially those that didn’t get selected.

So during the vacation he organized some money from his Borga trip in collaboration with Ken Afful, and we all contributed our “rejected songs” to the production. I had rejected my own song (Den na menfa) from the POP Choir album project and Koda brought one from his roommate’s (Kweku Konadu) collection (Montintim) when we realized we needed a “commercial song” to balance our Brofosem songs. This Montintim song would eventually secure Koda’s first industry award as Best Male Vocalist.

We weren’t a group so formed, we therefore named ourselves Da Projekt, because it was simply a project we were trying our hands on. What we gained out of this would be a family God was going to use to start a movement within the contemporary gospel scene in Ghana and beyond. Through Da Projekt, some met their wives, mentors, ministries, mentees, business partners etc. We birthed all this at Uncle TVO Lamptey’s Vision Audio Lab studio at Haatso, where our big brothers Ace Ankomah and Danny Nettey of blessed memory would take turns to inspire us. They saw themselves in us and I guess we were simply audacious. We would organize a launch at the Covenant Family Community Church at Cantonments and begin a movement catalyzed by Nana Kofi Asihene and his team of creatives also from Mass Drama – KNUST.

Koda was arguably the most experienced studio-wise among us, so he weighed in heavily on the production decisions. He was based in Takoradi, and by the time we heard his demos, there was next to nothing you could add or take away from same. After a while, the challenge of distance would make him retreat from some of our engagements, which happened to be mostly in Accra. We tried to maintain Da Projekt, but it became practically impossible and so managed to pull together for a reconciliation video with some new members before we parted ways completely.

The instrumentalists however would continue to bond together and become Simply Jazz. I was their paper sax guy until they patched me when they got a real saxophonist. Simply Jazz was born in Indece Hall, when through the instrumentality of our hall President, Christopher “Columbus” Opoku (aka Perfect Pitch) of blessed memory, we staged a world class jazz night as part of our hall week celebrations. It wasn’t the dexterity in my humble estimation, but the tightness of the squad that made the difference. These were and have remained brothers to date. They’ve supported each other through heartbreak, marriage, church hurt, networking, health challenges and the list goes on.

Koda would coach me through the POP Choir album project and ensure we came out with a groundbreaking album that would transcend university campuses into mainstream church ministries. There was no production I was involved with without the Koda touch. We even got to compose an anthem for Africa Hall, and produced the song for some good bread. I would gain some experience working on jingles at Virtual Sounds (the studio) thanks to Nana and Philip Vormawor, and later with Uncle TVO at his studio. Thereafter Koda and I would work on some commercial jingles as castroda due to recommendation from our brother Kojo Oppong Adjei, who was the UG Mass Choir director in our final year.

We would be drafted alongside Makafui Kwami, Worlanyo Afenyo, Adwoa Owusua and Joy Eshun into the missionary band called Trailblazers by Uncle TVO and Dr Solomon Aryeetey to travel via 13 states to raise support for Pioneers Africa. This would form the bedrock of the Hephzibah Summit after we were graciously hosted by my mentor Patrick Oduro, and birth many countless projects and missions both here and abroad.

I failed to reveal that the very first song I ever wrote was at Mfantsipim, and Koda was there to accompany the music; The Way was later released on my 4th album – Holy Writings featuring Cwesi Oteng, Ike Nanor, Sitso Rzn and Koda. Castroda production was also responsible for Ike Nanor’s groundbreaking maiden album – Metwere Yesu and finally, the legendary Moko Be album. I’m practically done with the book Moko Be, so I won’t indulge on same for now.

Koda has produced 99% of my released music, and I’m unashamed to have been the test case of every new thing he learnt in his journey as a producer/engineer before he became an artiste in his own right. It was tough for him when his albums eventually did better than that of his clients and I made it a chore to remind him that the battle was not to the strong, but simply his time and chance. For example, the Guide me oh song that shot him into prominence wasn’t actually on the second album he was about launching. While rehearsing for the launch, the band stumbled on the arrangement and begged him to include same in the launch concert. He sought my opinion and I supported the band. When they played it, it went viral, so he had to find a way to release it first as a single and eventually add same onto a studio recording. His artistry would then begin to grow in leaps and bounds often with the hit songs he ordinarily would not have released, but the Lord had commissioned. Koda writes the finest ballads and yet the Lord would have him groove His message instead.

I’m clearly trying to compress my story here in a bid to challenge my brothers and sisters to write theirs, because what I’ve not written about Koda far outweighs what I’ve written. I told my brother that the Lord had reassigned me about 6 years ago. He was initially pained because he felt I was giving up on our dreams but praise be to God, having stood with me through the inception of the iChurch, he indeed testified about the Lord’s faithfulness before taking the early keteke to Zion.

From Yesu adi nkunim, through Aseda, Game Over and Amen, he was being the coded Koda all along. After helping me release The Grace, we will continue with Love and Good works till we meet again in the heavenly choir.

Source: Nii Okai

Published by: Clement Afreh CBCInc Hypes @clementafreh