I’M NOT CONTROVERSIAL - ATUMPAN

Perhaps it is just as well that Afro Pop musician Atumpan has left the classroom to concentrate on his music career. The graduate teacher who used to teach at a senoir high school in Accra, has been generating controversies with every new song he releases.

In 2010, he came up with The Thing and then a year after, he dropped Sisi Mu Den and just recently, he has been out with Nyash. Besides the risque titles each of the songs presents, the lyrics also raise eyebrows.

Still Atumpan denies that he is controversial.

In an interview with Showbiz from his UK base, Atumpan said that contrary to the belief that he likes to be controversial in his songs, he is only committed to educating society about relevant issues that have been disregarded.

He said since artistes love to talk about different themes like love, family and other ills of society, he sees nothing wrong when he composes songs which carry “undertones of sex”.

“I am not controversial and I don’t know why people are hypocritical when the topic of sex comes up. We all agree that it is a very important aspect of life so why shield it?

“This is my contribution to the society. Besides, we can’t all preach about love and the ills of society. We all have different ways of expressing our feelings and passion and mine is to talk about women.

Giving his own definition of “Nyash”, Atumpan said NYASH represents the acronym of the qualities he wants to find in his woman which are Natural, Youthful, Adorable, Sexy and Humble.

“If you take a good listening to the song, you would notice that I am singing the praises of the qualities that I want in my woman to make her stand out among the lot. I want my woman to have a big NYASH and that is what I am telling the world. What is controversial about this?”

Atumpan, real name, Frank Elikem Cobbinah he, burst onto the music scene with his hit single The Thing which drew a lot of criticisms when he once labelled it as a gospel song.

Currently living in the UK, Atumpan said he had to take a break from the teaching field to concentrate on his music career.

For him, being in a limelight at a time when he was in the classroom endeared him to many of the students because they were privileged to have a celebrity as their teacher and “was a different ball game when in the classroom”.

He said that even though there was the tendency to bring his showbiz “elements” in the classroom sometimes, he was always cautious of the academic environment he found himself and never disregarded his commitment that he was nurturing future leaders of the nation who needed to be instilled with discipline and moral lessons.

He said he will be back home by mid-year to take a “glorious position” on the music radar after the release of his second album.