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Gregory Bortey Newman, now known by the pseudonym King Promise, earned his fame only based on musical talent, infectious energy, and lyrics that resonate with the listeners.
He was born on August 16, 1995, in Nungua, in the Accra region. Young Gregory was fortunate with his loving parents. His mother was a trader, which allowed her to earn good money, and his father was a businessman. Despite financial success, children always remain a top priority for parents. Probably the father was the first who tied the boy's love for music. The fact is that Gregory's father was fond of classical music, and although the music that King Promise now performs cannot be called classical, it was classical music that became his first hobby.
As a child, King Promise was not so interested in music and therefore tried himself in everything in a row. The first years Promise studied at De Kings Academy, which now fits his nickname even better. After graduating there, he moved to Nungua Senior High School. It was there that his passion for music began to grow. He began to create his own songs and gradually gained the necessary experience, although, at that time, he did not suspect it. After graduating from Nungua Senior High School, King Promise decided not to immediately enter the university for his reasons, but after a while, he decided to join Central University, where he studied economics. Although this profession could provide him with a stable financial income, yet his heart directed him towards music. It was this urge that made him look for options to get into the music business.
King Promise has begun to actively develop his own songwriting and music style, which eventually resembles a mixture of traditional Hip-Hop music and highlife. Periodically also pronounced elements of afrobeat are also noticeable. Fuse ODG and producer Killbeatz helped him create his first full-fledged song. The song called "Thank God", despite being the first in King Promise's career, became quite popular, and more importantly, introduced a new artist. The producer Killbeatz liked the way the guy performed, and in the same year, he offered King Promise to sign a contract with his music label called Legacy Life Entertainment. This contract gave him the opportunity to engage a team of talented people who helped him gain a foothold in the music business.
His first official single under the Legacy Life Entertainment label was called "Oh Yeah" and was released in 2017. Considering that it was a debut single, "Oh Yeah" was liked by quite a few people, and a little later, King Promise even recorded a remix of this song with Mr Eazi. Next in line was an afrobeat-style song called "Hey Sexy" (feat. Stonebwoy). In the same year, 2017, a DJ Vision song called “Double Trouble” (feat. King Promise and Sarkodie) was released. This song was a real hit and became the first to glorify King Promise across the country. From that moment, the listeners began to watch his work more closely and wait for new songs.
Over the next few years, King Promise participated in many collaborations and managed to work with such giants of the music industry as Sarkodie, M.anifest, Joey B, R2Bees, and others. This number of collaborations and the release of additional singles gave him confidence in what he was doing, and in 2019 he released his debut album called "As Promised". The album included 15 songs, including some singles released earlier, including "CCTV" (feat. Sarkodie and Mugeez), "Tokyo" (with Wizkid), and "Bra" (feat. Kojo Antwi). King Promise himself did not expect such success, but the album became a mass hit, not only in Ghana.
The album was the most successful on the music platform Spotify, where it became the most listened Ghanian album and crossed the threshold of as many as 24 million streams. It was just a phenomenal result. If we take into account not only Spotify but also other music streaming platforms such as Apple Music, Deezer, and others, the total number of listens exceeds 65 million.
In 2020, King Promise's primary growth as an artist took place, and he wisely approached it. Given all the pros and cons, he decided to slow down the release of singles in 2020 and focus as much as possible on improving and preparing for the release of his next album, which he said will be released in 2021.
However, despite the difficult situation in the world, King Promise did not leave its fans without hits in 2020. The first single released in 2020 was "Sisa". Listeners liked this melodic and, at the same time, energetic song. Music video on YouTube already has more than 3.6 million views. Also, a pleasant surprise was the release of a full-fledged EP "Love and Happiness", which King Promise recorded with Killbeatz and Ofori Amponsah. This EP consists of 4 songs, 2 of which made in collaborations, mainly "Sweetie Jorley" featuring Sarkodie, and another "No More" featuring Joey B and DarkoVibes. The latest hit to date released by King Promise is called "Alright", which he performed with Shatta Wale. The music video for this song, although released recently, has already managed to break the mark of 1 million views. The melodic and relatively slow rhythm of the song mixed with pleasant voices and semantic lyrics create a real mix, which as a result, forms a song that is nice to listen to.
For his achievements in the music business, King Promise has already received a large number of nominations and even several awards, namely Best Male Vocalist at the Ghana Music Awards UK in 2018, Songwriter of the Year on Vodafone Ghana Music Awards in 2019, and Hiplife Song of the Year on 3Music Awards for the song “CCTV”.
At the moment, King Promise has a lot of plans for the future, and of course, the number one task for him now is to work hard on the second studio album. Besides, he plans to release a large number of singles, collaborations with other artists, more live performances, and other unannounced projects. One of the leading creative features of the performer is the unpredictability of genre use. Indeed, listening to his songs you can see how skillfully he mastered not only hiplife and highlife music, but also other genres such as ordinary hip-hop, traditional afrobeat, and inflammatory R&B. If King Promise approaches the second album with the same love as the first, then we may have a new record-breaker, but regardless of whether he breaks the record or not, we can say with confidence that we have great songs.