Theophilus Tagoe popularly known as Castro, our Takoradi borga with his baggy shorts, American football jersey, shades, and headband was the king of Takoradi before Kofi Kinaata. His falsetto and catchy lyrics had all the hotties swooning and all the young men trying to copy his fashion style. Castro helped uplift the genre of hiplife music with popular songs such as sradenam, odo, toffee, personal person, and boneshaker. Castro could dance, rap, and write and was an exceptional stage performer.
Before his unfortunate disappearance, Castro was the hottest cake in the music industry and, was currently promoting hits like Adonai, do the dance, and seihor. Castro was booked for every important show in Ghana. Castro’s earthquake-like introduction to the music industry began with the popular hip-life song called Sradenam.
This song gave the industry an idea of what was to hit them but nothing prepared them for the talent that Castro was. Castro helped put the Western region on the map and also helped producers like Willisbeatz to be recognized and helped D-Black’s transition from being a rap artiste to a hip-life crooner. Castro gave Sarkodie his biggest hit up to date and they with that song currently hold the record for the most watched Ghanaian music video on YouTube. Castro was multilingual and hence could easily kill a song in Ga, Twi, Fante, English, and French. To date, Castro serves as a source of inspiration for many artists with an example being Kofi Kinaata.
These and many more are but a few of Castro’s achievements before his sudden disappearance on the 6th of July 2014.
How different would our current music scene have been if Castro hadn’t disappeared? In the era of multinational collaborations, Castro without a doubt would have been the most collaborated artist. His ability to add the needed pizzazz to any song was unparalleled; he could own your song to the point where you wouldn’t even recognize it song and you wouldn’t mind because he would have made an instant classic. Castro was not one to shy away from trying and owning various genres of music and with the inception of afro beats and drill, one would ask how many hits Castro would have had, had he not disappeared.
I dare say had he not disappeared, we would have a genre called afro hip life with him being the top dog. One of Castro’s goals after retiring from music was to be a producer. A man with a penchant for making quality music, he would have without a doubt produced quality music and would have been one of the top producers in the subcontinent. He would have won the artiste of the year which had so eluded him for many years and many other awards. Or perhaps he would have retired and not released any new music ever because in as much as he was talented, he was a private man who valued his peace above all things.
It saddens my spirit that Castro under fire never got his flowers before his untimely disappearance, and even up to date he doesn’t get the flowers he deserves. He carried a genre during a period where it was being overshadowed by azonto. He placed a whole region on the map and made Ghanaians consider the Western region as the home of quality musicians. He gave us Ghana’s most iconic collaborations up to date. We will never know what would have happened if he had not disappeared but at least we know what he did whilst he was here, and I pray we appreciate it.
Tell us your favorite Castro song in the comments.
Author-Ahanta Bred
