King Promise Has Always Been ‘True To Self’

The features came naturally, infusing variant perspectives while honing into Promise’s sensitive subject matter. Shallipopi delivers one of his most self-aware verses on “Continental,” following King’s lead over the amapiano-marked production. The artist Fridayy — who he hasn’t met in person — excellently taps into Promise’s vision on the soothingly affirmative “Paranoid” and a technically-superb verse from Sarkodie reinforces the duo’s longtime sonic relationship. Even Olive The Boy rises up to the occasion being on-wax with his more popular colleagues, making “Favourite Story” one of the best three-way collaborations in Afropop this year.

“If anything,” says Promise, in response to what has changed in his creative process since 2022’s 5 Star, “there’s more growth, there’s more tenacity, there’s more character, identity, to who I am as a person and an artist as well. I feel like you’ll hear that in the music.” That’s reflected in the colorful sound as much as the lyricism throughout the album: it’s honeyed, but suffused with earthy material, well-arranged with an overarching narrative in mind.

That narrative, of course, is being true to oneself. And if Promise has made anything clear across his catalog it’s that peace of mind matters the most to him. To achieve this, he takes care of his mental space and honors his relationships, especially those with women. Love makes up an enviable portion of True To Self, and in true R&B style, the artist goes through the motions before getting to the desired place in his life.

It’s fitting that the album ends with “Terminator,” whose appeal comes from its distinct melody layered over Killbeatz’s sunny production. “I’m at a point in life if you understand me or not / Misunderstand me or not, me I’m okay, I’m okay,” he sings in the record’s opening line; a lyric which reinforces the album title. “Following the truest version of yourself is the best thing you could do to yourself,” he says now. “I like my music to really resonate, and also be about what you’re saying”.

Born in 1995, Gregory Bortey Newman journeyed from his birthplace of Nungua to the port city of Tema. About 20 kilometers apart, the latter was however more industrialized and offered a better chance at linking up with other Ghanaian creatives. It was there Promise began recording, making his way out of the less-creative life he would otherwise have, if he’d stayed back in Nungua. “The most creative thing about growing up in Nungua was football,” he says with a light chuckle.

For a while he harbored dreams of being a footballer, but then his music caught wind in his last year of university. “It was like God’s plan,” he says with palpable glee. In the early stages of his career, Promise drew inspiration from Tema-raised creatives like Sarkodie, R2Bees and Killbeatz, the legendary producer who doubles as his business partner and who he credits the most for influencing his career. “I’ve always wanted to take it to the world,” he says, “I’ve had a clear idea of how far I want to take this from very early.”

That expansive musical interest also comes from an early influence. “My dad played a lot of Ghanaian classics [and] he would still play boy band music, dancehall, so it was literally all over the place.” As he matured, so did his taste in music, and for a generation of Afropop listeners — those who came of age in the streaming era — Promise is the most-idealized form of a global-facing Ghanaian musician. Singing in Twi, evoking the liquid deliveries of highlife — he knows home, but knows also the potential of flight.

Promise’s 2019 album, As Promised, was a watershed moment for Afropop. Throughout that album, his knack for the anthemic didn’t obscure his feeling for the intimate: The albums that have come after, 5 Star and now True To Self, have evolved upon those instincts — 5 Star especially, whose outwards-facing perspective was shaped by the pandemic and its aftermath. Its music carried the expectations of moving past uncertain times. It was gleeful, but not without introspection, reiterating the greatest lesson the pandemic gave us: that we need each other, sometime, somehow.

Uniting Afrobeats with the diaspora since that time, 5 Star saw Promise collaborate with Vic Mensa and Chance The Rapper, both American rappers of Ghanaian descent, and Headie One, the U.K. rapper who’s increasingly pulled towards his Ghanaian roots.Chance would later spearhead the arts and music festival Black Star Line, whose title is taken from the iconic shipping company started by Marcus Garvey in 1919, whose goal was to create a global Black network.

Considering how far Ghana has gone with its purposeful embrace of Black people all over the world, it’s easy to sideline the place of music in that rekindled fire. But Promise is really one of the frontrunners of this inter-continental relationship, and the stamp is reaffirmed in True To Self. “That's a combination of powers,” says Promise, “and I see strength in it because it really does go far. So collaborating across the waters with people from where we’re not from, you know, it’s special ‘cause it opens different audiences to your sound. The widening of your horizons is very important with this thing, if you’re trying to broaden your prospects. Just like you listen to people who are not from where you’re from.”

Promise continues to witness the rise of Afrobeats globally. Among other markers of success, he mentions Wizkid selling out the 70,000 capacity Tottenham Stadium, youngsters like Black Sherif and Ayra Starr representing across music genres and fashion, and himself, who recently became the first African artist to sell-out an Asian tour. “It’s just beautiful to see,” he affirms.

In the midst of all this prosperity, it becomes quite uncommon to delve the personal route as Promise has done. To remain the eager-hearted youngster as he came into the game, the one who walked those distances and took those buses to Tema. To be true to self.

“On this album, I’m just being my truest form,” he adds. “Not only being the new guy in the front-run doing the thing, but also being a vulnerable human being — celebrities or famous people are also human as well, and I just bare my truth out there and whoever connects with it, just know that you’re not alone.”