The trend of music in Ghana is very fascinating. Taking a good look at how it all started.
Hiplife is a
Ghanaian musical style which fuses
highlife and
hip hop It is also influenced by dancehall and reggae. Recorded in Ghanaian languages such as Twi, Ewe Ga and fused with a bit of English or even French, hiplife is rapidly gaining popularity throughout West Africa and abroad.
The origins of
Ghanaian hip hop
goes back to the 1980s, when performers such as K.K. Kabobo and Gyedu
Blay Ambolley as early as 1973 with Ambolley's release of his first
record, The SIMIGWADO ...a "semi-rap style hi-life" to a small audience
which showed him performing highlife variations with fast spoken, poetic
lyrics. Ambolley would go on to be held the "father of rap" not only in
Ghana but in the world. With time, Ghanaians became influenced by
American hip hop, reggae, dance hall. There was an emerging
underground hip hop collective in the capital Accra
 |
| Gyedu
Blay Ambolley |
  |
| K.K Kabobo |
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 Coal house. Chief G and the Tribe was one of the first
rap groups in Ghana consisting of Chief G (now known as
Jay Ghartey),
Abeeku and Kwaku T. After they broke up before Reggie's foray into what
is now termed hiplife, Talking Drums, consisting of Kwaku-T and Bayku,
experimented with choruses and hooks in local languages. In Twi, Reggie
would flow over hip-hop beats a style that had been used previously in
Mahoney P's debut album Kofi Babone. That same era Native Funk Lords
group (NFL) came out with the pidgin rap; the originators of the genre,
from the Kay's Frequency camp: Tinniequaye, Cil, Jake & Eddy Blay;
this group also took inspirations from bands like the Osibisa and
Ghanaba of Ghana. It is also to be noted Rapper and Producer Cavell was
also part of the original NFL collective and is now known to many as The
Mantis. Reggie Rockstone has been described as the "Godfather of
Hiplife" since he spawned a new music genre in the country, After his
debut album Makaa Maka, with the hit single Choo boi, several hip life
acts followed. Oddly enough, in several radio interviews in 2004, Reggie
Rockstone stated that he does not perform hiplife this could be mainly
attributed to the fact that he now prefers to rap in English. A new era
was born late 1998 when a young producer
Hammer of The Last Two emerged with original beats plus precision rap artistes. Hammer, born Edward Nana Poku Osei was only 22 years old.
Hammer of The Last Two
managed to fuse hip hop grooves with local tempo and sweet melody which
caught up with both the elite and masses instantly. Known for his heavy
drums and lead trumpets, Hammer's originality elevated hiplife to
greater heights and inspired and influenced a whole generation of
producers like
Richie, Kill Beats,
Jayso,
EL etc.
Hammer of The Last Two's groomed artiste line up also eventually became some of the biggest artiste in hiplife today...e.g. Kwaw Kesse,
Ayigbe Edem,odeshi, Obrafour, Tinny,
Sarkodie
etc., Other Ghanaian rappers like Lord Kenya, Obour, V.I.P, The Native
Funk Lords (Rapping mainly in pidgin English), 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, Sarkodie, Vision in Progress (VIP), Asem, Obrafour,
Ayigbe Edem,odeshi, D-Black, Castro and
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
said though artists like
Ayigbe Edem, Kwaw Kesse, D-plan,
Richie, ASEM, Sarkodie, Yaa pono, Keps, Lil Pope, Dirgen, Bra Kevin Beats, Greenfield,Iscream.
In 2009 Ghanaian filmmaker, Mantse Aryeequaye, released a documentary
focusing on the political history of the hip life movement in Ghana as
well as hip-hop music amidst various political climates in the nation.
In his film,
Rhythm Rising, Aryeequaye also examines many famed
Ghanaian artists such as Kwaw Kese, Kwaku Tutu and Obrafour through
their experiences within hip life or hip-hop movement. The film works to
explore and expose the culture of the hip life movement against the
backdrop of Ghana's political environment.
Hip life in Ghana is sticking to a new trend of rhythm and this is
mainly being influenced by great music engineers like Kill Beatz,
Dj Dijoe Pie-Sie, Jay So looney,
Richie, Kaywa and Hammer of The Last Two
and many others.
It must be noted that hiplife can cover a broad range of musical styles
fused together. Artists such as Samini combine reggae/dancehall/ragga
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 Fritz, Chempe and some others
who do not rap or 'DJ' per se; but sing with a heavy
R&B
influence. Verses; bridges and choruses may be in Twi or sometimes mixed with english, but the
structure and the rhythm fusion is suspiciously based on American
R&B. But he and other artiste like himself can fall under contemporary
highlife.
Second Part would be out soon.
