Today, Friday May 14, the laidback life of Ghana’s party King Promise returns to share his latest single ‘Slow Down’ via 5K Records.
A signature silky smooth blend of Afrobeats, high-life and R&B, ‘Slow Down’ is the first offering to emerge from a year of still; that whilst it began seeing a sold-out international tour covering London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Toronto and more put to an abrupt stop, serendipitously allowed him to get back in the studio to experiment and create his best music yet.
Dropping alongside today is a gorgeous Andy Matijey directed video that sees King Promise visit his girl after dance practice at an auditorium full of mesmerising, sensual movements and soft, warm lighting as it tells a story of love, adoration and devotion.
Speaking on the single, King Promise says: “This song is special to me and sounds like nothing out there. I wanted to go crazy with the video, so I told Andy to allow his imagination run wild with the concept . The concept is pretty easy and wavy, but the outcome of the video itself feels grand at the same time, and I love that about this video.”
Born and raised in Accra, Ghana, King Promise is an ardent storyteller inspired by life writing about love, hustling, partying, family and more over an irresistible blend of afrobeats, highlife, hip hop and R&B.
Since first releasing music officially in 2017 via Soundcloud, Promise’s fanbase quickly began to swell as word spread and a huge buzz manifested locally. Before he knew it, his career had taken off and he now counts fans with the likes of GQ, Complex, Boiler Room, BBC Radio 1 and more.
Though a humble guy not bothered by numbers, he has over 35 million streams on his top 5 tracks on Spotify alone and 2.6 million followers on his socials and claims Ghana’s most streamed album of all time with his 2019 album As Promised (which saw him share tracks with Raye, Wizkid and more). With his irresistible signature crooner lyrics and palpable warm and danceable energy, King Promise is somewhat of a hidden gem outside of West Africa.
Promise hasn’t always been making music though, as in classic child-of-African-parents form he was focused mainly on finishing school and securing a degree up until a few years ago which he achieved in 2017 in the midst of his ascent.
was never the plan that was until he jumped in on an impromptu friend’s studio session where his curiosity and raw talent was sparked in the booth – soon to be discovered by Killbeatz (Fuse ODG, Burna Boy, Wizkid and more).
At home though he still had a lush and diverse sonic upbringing. Enveloped in music from a young age where his “musichead” father inadvertently helped shape his genre and culture-spanning tastes: immersing him in everything from reggae to R&B to boybands to Ghanaian highlife, nowadays.
Promise finds himself pulling from and enjoying an incredibly wide range of sounds, both in his own sonics and also during his creative process. At the moment, he’s particularly feeling Ghanaian drill, the South African Amapiano scene and collaborating with UK artists like NSG and Headie One for his own music he has coming this year.