5five Rides On ‘Afrikan Gurlz’

5five knew their African Gurlz song had pitched them high on the local scene but they did not for a moment guess they would be nominated for awards in five categories at the MTN-Ghana Music Awards 2008.

Now that they are in contention for Discovery of the Year, Hiplife Artiste of the Year, Song of the Year, Pop Song of the year and Hiplife Album of the Year, Luther ‘Papi’ Azameti and Jeffery ‘Killi’ Opoku Agyekum hope all the effort they have put into coming this far would be recognised with some trophies at the awards ceremony later this month.

African Gurlz from the group’s Ur Luv album on the Bullhaus Entertainment label, has enjoyed tremendous airplay on radio stations throughout the country since early last year. Watch Video: Afrikan Gurlz by 5Five feat. Diojo

The late Mufty Dabre was one of the first people to realise the potential in the African Gurlz song. He played it so often on Peace FM that people wondered what special interest he had in the song.

Several music lovers assume the song, with its jumpy soca rhythm and simple catchy chorus, is by a foreign act. The group’s Executive Producer and Manager, Lawrence Nana Asiamah Hanson, better known as Bulldog, however, says “everything was crafted in the hood at Adabraka in Accra.”

5five has had to really hit the road to complement the exposure from radio. The group has performed at several Hall Weeks in tertiary institutions across the country, toured Nigeria with Tinny and even sang for kids at their schools.

An incident in Tamale, according to Bulldog, made them appreciate the hassles in trying to protect one’s own intellectual property.

“We were on tour of the three Northern regions last year with Castro and got wind of 5five material being pirated in Tamale. We tried to pursue it but rather ended up behind bars for some hours. We were not amused at all about the situation but we took it as part of the burden to bear in moving on with our work.”

With a strong field of songs including Ewurade Asem (Cee), Most High God (Lenny Akpadi), Odwo(Ofori Amponsah), Edin Jesus (Ohemaa Mercy) and Odem (Kwaw Kesse) to battle for the Song of the Year award, 5five is praying hard that African Gurlz might slip through and capture the trophy. That would be a moment of great joy for them.

5five is in the studio now working on a follow-up album. It has a tall order to supercede the popularity of the maiden collection but the two young men and their Executive Producer are hopeful they can come out with another winner in the coming months.