Hail to the Chief

How, in 14 years of blogging, have I never written about Chief Kooffreh before. one of the most original, and most ‘outsidery’ of all outsider artists?

 

Alternatively known as Bassey Kooffreh, Bassey Kooffreh Bassey, and Kooffreh Bassey Kooffreh, the Chief has been making music since at least 2007, recording and releasing dozens – if not hundreds - of albums in the process. Hugely prolific, and anything but the shy and retiring type, at one point the Chief was claiming that he was ‘a voting member of the Grammy USA and the most recorded published music Star in the Eastern Sea Board of the United States East Coast of USA. 120 Albums, 2400 tracks 250 videos according to Itunes, Spotify and Amazon.com. Chief Kooffreh values Family and his millions of fans and friends worldwide.’

 

The typical Chief K track is spoken work polemic over a sampled loop or karaoke backing, with the Chief announcing himself and the title at the very start, usually something like, ‘Here comes Chief Kooffreh with my millions of fans… ’ before launching into a rap about anything from the evils of Viagra to the death of Diana, Princess of Wales or the dangers of cheating on your woman.

 

His biggest ‘hit’, if you can quantify these things, is the classic She Will Cut Your Balls Off, although Bitch Get Out Of My Life You Are The Devil is rather special too, as it Bad Medical Doctors Out Of Control Killed Michael Jackson, and the wonderful Stop Beating Gays, Stop The Violence Against Gays Oprah Denial Closet (Download Supporters And Fans). Confusingly, although he claims to have thousands of songs in his catalogue, many are identical: Doctor Viagra, for example, is the same song as Danger Viagra Can Hurt You, Doctor Viagra Hard Hammer and Viagra Can Hurt You Part Two, making it difficult and downright frustrating for Chief Kooffreh completists. To complicate matters even further, Big Viagra Hard Stone is the same song with added echo and eardrum-piercing police siren effects.

 

Originally from Calabar, Nigeria, the Chief married his wife, Elizabeth, in 2013 and although he claims to work in the financial district of New York, the couple appear to reside in Boston where he works as a supply teacher. In recent years, after studying online with Harvard, he has become involved in IT and software development. I can’t help but wonder if Chief Kooffreh is a character, a persona that Bassey inhabits for his musical forays (rather like Vince Furnier becoming Alice Cooper), and that outside of music he and his wife live a pretty ordinary existence.

 

In July 2020 Chief K published his first book, Cyber Security Intelligence Bible American Big Dark War Cost $400 Billion a Year, his masterwork on how the American government, and many American companies, are at the mercy of criminal hackers, whose unlimited resources allow them to steal classified information. This was followed shortly afterwards by Skills for Men and Women to Love, Live and Work Successfully with Each Other, credited to Chief Kooffreh Harvard Honors. Later the same year he filed to have his name recognised as a trademark: that application was granted in March 2021, which I guess ow means we have to refer to him as Chief Kooffreh tm

 

There are dozens upon dozens of Chief Kooffreh songs for you to listen to on YouTube, iTunes, Spotify and other platforms, but here are a couple of personal favourites: the brilliantly bonkers (and NSFW) She Will Cut Your Balls Off and, from the album STARRR, the original version of Tragedy of Princess Diana England, listed as one of ‘the 101 strangest records on Spotify’ by the Guardian in 2012.

 

Enjoy!

Download Balls HERE 

Download Diana HERE