Today is the 21st day in the month of September, 2012, and a day to mark the birthday of one of Ghana’s freedom fighter – Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. This is a day the Lord has made and we shall be glad that we met it, because it is coming with loads of remembrance, especially to those of us (guys especially) who were still walking in the ‘tinko tinko’ style, clutching our left hand under ‘somewhere’ and saying the ‘what’s up meeehn’ trying to imitate the ‘Yonkee’ people as we put it ‘Back In The Day’.

If there was introduction of the music genre HIP LIFE yesterday, today will have being fruitless. Thanks to the originators who have stood their feet firm on the ground to give us Ghanaians and Africans, a sense of belonging and identity. We salute you.

The list of performers who rocked our hearts back in the day is just endless. Tonight at 7pm, the Accra International Conference Centre (Dome) will come alive, as we enjoy the tunes that made us hop, bounce and scream, ‘yeeeeeeeeei’.

Whosoever will be igniting the fans tonight must always have the thoughts of what I punched at early this week, that, there can be no ‘Sarkodie’ without ‘Obrafour’, there can be no ‘Eazzy’s Wengezze’ without ‘Abrewa Nana’s Odo Fila Fila’, there can be no group as ‘4x4’ without ‘Buk Bak’, there can be no ‘now’ without ‘was’, there can be no ‘present’ without ‘past’, there can be no ‘today’ without ‘yesterday’, simple!

Back in the day when the baggy jeans, durags, hefty chains, combat shoes and the pinpinnis and otophistas were on the move; who would forget so easily the days when inter-school competitions where the toast of the day, at least if not for anything but to listen and see your favorite ‘kill it’ as it was said then on the beat.

Back in the day when the groove was smoother, tighter and fun, those were the days every Tom, Dick and Harry wanted to represent his or her school and prove to the next person that “charleeeey I know those lines of T-Blaze’s ‘wosisi ye wo ya’ better than you do”.

Back in the day when the DJ hits ‘Sika Baa’ by Lord Kenya, one could not help but nod the head until it nearly falls off the body. When you hear ‘Davi mede kuku’, then you smile at the language and make a thumb up sign at Ex Doe. When you attend any Sallah festival and don’t hear ‘Rana Sallah ka ka yi ko’ by VIP then with the Ox-Bone plus Friction, then that wasn’t the place to be. The list is just so endless.

Back in the day when there was this HIV/AIDS abstinence advert on the television featuring the All Stars then; when you see Obrafour and Tic Tac come in their white shirts to dance their azan crib walk dance promoting one foam company, advert be what? Being the first to learn the lyrics was always paramount because we loved our stars.

Back in the day and I mean in the late 90s and early 2000s, when Bop TV was watched by everyone in Ghana, a beautiful year when the yoo-yoo was getting deep into our main brain. This was when the rapid change in the Hip Life community was emanating, and then the music selection shifted to local hits like Sweetie Sweetie, Maka Maka, Yaanom, Komi Ke Kena, Feeling No Ye Deep, Philomena Kpitinge, Kokooko etc.

Back in the day when the most populous places where you can get to see and feel these ‘old soldiers’ were the Pool sides, Children’s Parks, National Theatres, Inter-schools (perhaps there were other places which I didn’t know of or mention here). Those were the days everything seemed pure and crooned fresh from the pot.

Years and decades perhaps later, with the initiative like this, we cannot but doff our hats to the organizers for evoking what now stands as a true purification of what has ushered the ‘new born babies’ into the limelight today. With no disrespect, I am going to implore the organizers to invite all the ‘new born babies’ to come, sit, appreciate and applaud to every tune that made the word HIP LIFE in every sense a household name today.

Do you still remember Philomina Kpitinge from Tic-Tac then?