The Rise & Rise of No Tribe

n full flow on stage, No Tribe is a group gospel artistes with a wonderfully sterling style that easily infect their audiences, often making them stand and dance with joy and excitement.

Those are some of the traits that have made the group stand out of the late and is constantly rising and collecting valuable awards along the way. At the recent Ghana Gospel Industry Awards organized by Adom FM, the group emerged Artistes of the Year and also won the Album of the Year and popular Video of the year categories. It was adjudged Gospel Artistes of the Year at the last Ghana Music Awards.

Even if those awards had not come along, No Tribe had proven since about the beginning of last year that it was one of the most exciting live acts around.

Easily straddling both Christian and secular events, No Tribe has appeared at nearly all the major music shows in the country since early 2010. These have included the Amakye Dede Live Concert, Joy FM Nite with Stars, Adom Praiz, Kojo Antwi December 24 Bash, Don Moen Live Concert, Let's Go Missions Concerts and the Famous 5 Concert.

The group which has two albums to it credit: The Altar and Three was started sometime in 2007 by multi-instrumentalist, recording engineer and music producer, Nana Kweku Osei, better known as Nacy. He use to occupy himself with the keyboards or drum kit at No Tribe concert but now shares the frontline with lead singer, Lord Osei. They are formidable vocal pair, often bring on thrilling stagecraft. “I attributed our rise mainly to the commitment from everyone in the group," says Nacy. “We all go out there with a single purpose to tell the word of God but in a manner that is also entertaining for our audience."

One of the group's songs that audiences’ have found to be extremely entertaining is 'Bohye' from the three albums. It has a lovely, easy to sing along chorus and people always join in with glee when it gets to the famous 'Gbangblan ti Gbangblan', chorus. "People congratulate us and say they feel like they are in the presence of God anytime they hear us. We are glad to hear such comments because aim is to bring people closer to God through music," Lord Osei also says.

According to Nacy, the group takes a whole heartedly criticisms from their fans and incorporate suggestions that could make them do better on stage. No Tribe currently has a core membership of 10. It used to be a bigger outfit but the current size made it an even more effective group. “I like discipline and focused people. The experience is that more people can also mean more problems so we are satisfied with our strength for now," Nacy stated.

Apart from Nacy and Lord Osei, other key members in the group include, Shadrack Yawson on keyboards, Martison Larbi on guitar and Opoku Agyeman Sanaa on electric bass. One of the talking about No Tribe is how effectively Nacy jells with Lord Osei at live shows. Lord's full name is Lord Bondzie Amissah. The two worship at the International Christian Charismatic Center at Fadama in Accra.

"We don't rigidly plane the routine for shows. We are always particular about rehearsing the songs very well but it sometimes surprises us how we are able to render with all the attendant thrilling stagecraft," Nacy states. No Tribe has so far performed in Holland, Italy, Belgium, France and Germany. One of the group's biggest desires, Nacy notes, is to be widely accepted on the international stage.

There was sampling when the group recently won the Album of the Year Award at an African Gospel Music Awards ceremony in the United Kingdom. No Tribe is currently running what is describes as the ' Akyedee Promotion' to reward fans the buy copies of the Three album.

The promotion ends finally by early October when the group hopes to stage a big show to hand over the ultimate prize of a new saloon car. "We have managed to cultivate a legion of dedicated fans and the show will be a way to thank all the loyal support. We will hopefully bring down other acts such as Sonny Badu from England and Uche from Nigeria as guests so it is going to be a big affair," Nacy revealed.

No Tribe strongly believes that their source of inspiration as instrumentalist and vocalist will never dry up and that God will continue to grant them the grace to win more souls into his Kingdom through music.