|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
While Kweku Smoke continues his total takeover of the streaming charts with his No Days Off album, he is proving that real hitmaking requires real soul. The Ghanaian rapper recently revealed the deeply personal, heart-wrenching true story behind one of the album’s standout tracks, “Survivor.”
Sitting down with Kwadwo Sheldon, Kweku Smoke opened up about referencing the tragic June 3 Circle fire and flood disaster in the song. As it turns out, the verse was not just creative artistic flair. It was built directly from the harrowing experience of his childhood friend, Paa Kojo.
The story itself feels like a movie script. Paa Kojo had just accomplished a huge personal milestone by securing a job with the Ghana Police Service. After traveling all the way to Konongo to celebrate the good news with his family, he boarded a trotro back to Accra. Upon arriving at Kwame Nkrumah Circle, torrential rains forced him to look for shelter, leading him straight to the gas station that would soon become the epicenter of the tragic explosion.
Kweku Smoke admitted that he actually had to trick his friend a little bit just to get the raw, unfiltered truth.
“I was looking for a story that would actually match the chorus. So I remembered my friend who is a victim of the Circle incident, called Paa Kojo. When I called him for the story, I didn’t let him know that I wanted to use it for a song, or else he could have added what didn’t happen,” the rapper shared with a grin.
During the interview, Kweku Smoke even played an audio recording of Paa Kojo recounting the terrifying moments of the blast, where the force of the explosion threw him under rising floodwaters before he barely managed to escape.
Paa Kojo required extensive surgery afterward, but his incredible resilience lives on. By channeling that raw survival instinct straight into the studio, Kweku Smoke created an anthem that resonates far beyond the beat.
