Hiplife

Hiplife music is an innovative Ghanaian fusion of highlife and hip hop. It can also be compared to a mix of reggaeton, dancehall, reggae and Ghanaian highlife music. Recorded in Ghanaian languages (Ga, Twi etc...), hiplife is rapidly gaining popularity throughout West Africa and abroad, especially in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada and Germany.

The history of Ghanaian hip hop goes back to the 1980s, when performers like K.K. Kabobo and Gyedu Blay Ambolley found a small audience performing highlife variations with fast spoken, poetic lyrics. With time, Ghanaians became influenced by American hip hop, reggae, dancehall and highlife pioneers like Samini, Ofori Amponsah, Reggie Rockstone, etc.

Hiplife's history dates back to the early 1990s when Reginald "Reggie Rockstone" Ossei began to craft this art form with producers Mike Cooke, Rab Bakari, Zapp Mallet and Coalhouse. In Twi, Reggie would flow over rap-like beats. Reggie Rockstone has been described as the "Godfather of Hiplife". Oddly enough, in several radio interviews in 2004, Reggie Rockstone stated that he does not perform hiplife. Other Ghanaian rappers like Lord Kenya, Obour, V.I.P, Obrafuor, The Native Funk Lords, Castro Destroyer and MzBel continued the trend of hiplife music which is now one of the most popular forms of music in West Africa.

The most popular Hiplife musicians include Tic Tac, the three person Vision in Progress (VIP), obrafour, castro and Batman Samini, who won a MOBO award for his contribution to hiplife in 2006. Since the rise of these popular musicians, hiplife has grown in popularity abroad.

It must be noted that hiplife can cover a broad range of musical styled fused together. Artist such as Samini combines the reggae/dancehall scat and patois-tinged sounds of Jamaica with Akan-language lyrics over reggae rhythms fused with Ghanaian melodies. His music is branded by the general populace as hiplife.

Then there are artists such as K.K. Fosu who do not rap or 'DJ' per se; but sing with a heavy R&B influence. Verses; bridges and choruses may be in Twi, but the structure and the rhythm fusion is suspiciously based on American R&B.

The majority of hiplife is recorded in a studio environment with heavy emphasis on computer-aided composition, arrangements and production. At this moment, hiplife artist are not known to use live instruments in their performances in front of audiences. Most performances are based on voicing over instrumentals and dubs on Compact Disc. This may be a leading reason why the latest incarnation of Ghanaian music has not reached the ears of World Music promoters or bridged the frontiers of countries across Africa such as Congolese music has done.

Famous hiplife artist include Reggie Rockstone, Daddy Lumba, Obrafour, Obour, Tinny, Tic Tac (musician), Mzbel, VIP, Buk Bak, KK Fosu, Batman Samini, Okomfour Kwadee, Lord Kenya, Castro (D'Destroyer), lazy dogg, and jazzy.

Producers include JQ, Appietus, The Last Two (Hammer), Zapp Mallet, Nana Quame, Hitz Factory, big dave, Kwam1, Panji, and seven.

External links

* [http://www.ghanamusic.com/modules/soapbox/article.php?articleID=38 Hiplife story]
* [http://stylusmagazine.com/articles/bluffer/hiplife.htm Stylus Magazine article on Hiplife]
* [http://www.ghanamusic.com/artman/publish/article_829.shtml ghanatimes.com] article: "Hiplife: A New Dawn; A New Day"
* [http://www.ghanamusic.com/artman/publish/article_335.shtml ghanatimes.com] article: "Hiplife Music Is Noise"
* [http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=82474 ghanaweb.com] article: "The HIPLIFE story"
* [http://thehiplifecomplex.blogspot.com/ The Hiplife Complex] Blog about hiplife in Ghana
* [http://www.ghanabase.com Ghana Base Music] Powering the Ghanaian Music Online.