Urban gospel in Ghana is finally gaining ground in the Ghanaian music industry. This type of genre has been accepted by the youth in lots of churches and some old folks are developing a liking to the genre.
This modern form of Christian music expresses everything about the gospel of Christ, like any other gospel song, but this time has got pop culture, and rap added to it.
We cannot talk about urban gospel music without listing the following people:
Kingzkid
Kingzkid who recently won ‘Pacesetter of the Decade Award 2021’ doubles as the CEO of Gifted Records, one of the biggest independent gospel music record labels in Africa to which he is signed and is also the CEO “AMPLIFIED”.
The ‘I got my Jesus on’ artist whose song was released in 2016 is considered a pioneer of urban gospel music in Africa and was the first Ghanaian to introduce gospel music through different genres, such as Azonto, Pop, and Electro Gospel .
He is an award-winning artist who shared stages with famous musicians such as Mali , Lionel Petersen, Micah Stampley, No Tribe, Danny Nettey, Joe Mettle, Cwesi Oteng, and many more.
From his entertaining and creative music videos and songs, the Christian music world loves more of Kingzkid’s talents and testimony and looks forward to seeing more of his songs even after many years.
Pastor E-Rock
Now turned preacher, Enoch Ofori Boamah, known artistically as E-Rock is a member of the Believers’ Loveworld Family. He is now a lead pastor for Christ Embassy Youth Church, Airport City.
He started his journey of active gospel music singing in the choir but in an interview with Rep Jesus Entertainment, Pastor E-Rock pursued secular music right from his teenage years until he was born again in 2008 – an experience he loves to share in conferences and different meetings.
The preacher is charismatic, energetic, and passionate about what he does. His mission is straightforward and he never misses any chance he gets to profess his love for Jesus.
He debuted an album; ‘The Necessity Project’, which sought to push the boundaries and break stereotypes within the gospel music terrain, and not long after his next album ‘Love Songs Project’ was released on December 22, 2016.
Preachers
Preachers are a group made up of three men: Obed Psych, Emani Beats, and Edmund Baidoo. Since 2009, trendsetters of the urban gospel movement in Ghana have toured locally and internationally to preach the word of God through their music.
They are one of the notable pioneers of the urban gospel and hip hop genre in Ghana and continue to set the pace for the new generation of gospel music.
The group came in 2009 to form a gospel rap set which they named ‘Preachers’. Preachers started as a group of five namely Michelle Majid-Michel, Dennis Enim (lead singer at the time), Obed Nzuh(also known as Obed Psych, now the lead singer of the group), Edmund Baidoo, and Emmanuel Awuni (also known as Emani Beats).
The name Preachers was derived from the bible verse Mark 16:15 which says “Go ye into the world and preach the gospel to all creation”. They recorded their first mixtape “Very Special” in 2010 with almost all songs produced by record producer and multi-instrumentalist KODA.
