
Hi-Life is probably the biggest genre of music in Ghana. In fact, it is the ‘birthmark’ of Ghana as far as unique music is concerned. At the intial stages, it was known as the burger Hi-Life. As a vigorous fan of Hi-Life music, I used to tune in to vast majority of AB Crenstil’s songs particularly ‘I Go Pay You Tomorrow’ and another titled-‘Memba bio‘ This track which is six minutes, fourteen seconds long, talks about life, and it’s incredible how Mr Crenstil coins his words to appeal to music lovers. AB Crenstil is the man behind these excellent tunes that has the guitars, dondos (a special drum played under the armpit), saxophones and many more of the African instruments that makes a tune worth tuning in.
Alfred Benjamin Crenstil Jr. (AB Crenstil) has for quite some time been in the Hi-Life music industry for almost three decades and still tallying.
As one of the “Big Guns” of contemporary Ghanaian vocalists, AB Crentsil is a fine artist who doesn’t disenchant whenever he is given the chance to substantiate himself even at his age at 76. He has won various music awards, including the Fontomfrom Evergreen Award, an uncommon honor offered to a performer with fifteen to twenty years of nonstop music experience.
Watching AB Crenstil perform the vast majority of his melodies in front of an audience is essentially fantastic. He captures your entire body with his guitar and dondo aptitudes. Obviously, the guitar is by all accounts perhaps the best instrument he gets a kick out of the chance to mess with in front of an audience.
All things considered, AB was acquainted with the guitar by a certain man, Mr. Thedoh during his middle school days. As youthful as he might have been, he was very skillful on the guitar. He has played with such a significant number of music groups including El Dorados, Sweet Talks, Strollers, Ahenfo and a couple of others. Through all these bands, he gained the most extreme experience to be on his very own after quite a while.
Truth is that, at the point when burger highlife sprung up in Ghana, everyone cherished it, thus the greater part of vocalists including AB himself chose to participate in the genre. AB joined in light of the fact that, he needed to make money, however after that aim, he changed his mindset about Hi-Life music. He understood that, highlife is a unique type of music for Ghanaians and even Africans in general so he was then genuine about being a part of its start.

AB Crenstil started releasing hit after hit collections with one of them being a 16-track studio recording in 1990. ‘Anyen’ (Devil) was one of the popular tunes of AB Crenstil that traversed the length and expansiveness of Africa. The Western district, precisely Prestea Born Hi-Life vocalist has a few collections to his credit and these include: Hollywood Highlife Party/Moses, The Best Of High-Life, Vol. 1, Gh Mixology, Vol. 18, and some more.
However, some of his hit melodies additionally include:
Atia – released in 2002
I Go Pay You Tomorrow – released in 2002
Ye Wo Adze Oye – released in 2002
‘Atia’ which was one of the controversial melodies besides ‘Moses’ reminds me of an occurrence that emerged after the release of the tune. AB Crenstil was about whipped by the people of the Northern part of Ghana. This move was in light of the fact that, the verses in his tune was a way to make fun of Northeners.
To crown everything, AB’s mom also couldn’t stand the ‘heat’ when people started pointing fingers at her for the interesting verses in the ‘Moses’ melody produced by her son. Her mum had to stop going for Church services for that reason. Apart from the classic nature of the ‘Moses’ melody, people rather think it was explicitly intriguing and that can’t be played consistently on radio and TV.
All in all, AB Crenstil is one of Ghana’s overly gifted artists who has massively helped grow the class of Hi-Life music. His commitments has been significant and still has a great deal to offer Ghana and the world. He is skilled with ‘crazy’ verses in his tunes and you would prefer not to miss a touch of it any time he performs.