Ghana is comfortable perched on a musical landmine: it?s irrevocably only a matter of time before the dynamic-laced, aural force that is HIP-LIFE, voluntarily or involuntarily detonates! Though ?smart aleck? critics might cringe at the postulation the most impactive and relevant music-form in West Africa (dare I say Africa?) since the Fela Kuti inspired afro-beat movement of the late 1970s, the proof is bound to be in the near-cooked pudding.
Just as the aforementioned notorious Nigerian virtuoso?s music strong-armed its way out of the barrios of Lagos into the speakers of head-boppers in America and Europe beyond, so will hiplife. Infact, the revolution is already being televised: South Africa?s Channel O has recently added an entire hip-life show to its programming. Thus, on any given Thursday, you are more than likely to catch Tic Tac, VIP, Tinny, Batman or Reggie on a tube near you.
Indeed, what renders the prospect of hiplife?s universal ascent all the more promising is that the music itself is very much a hybrid: It?s the offspring of a rather rambunctious, promiscuous rendezvous between African-America?s potent Master Hiphop, and our very fertile Madame Highlife! Hiplife is thus automatically more palatable to unaccustomed, foreign taste-buds than say, the less transcultural-sounding highlife. Invariably, could hiplife be the true catalyst for the Pan-African dream W.E.B. Dubois so feverently championed?
Closely flirting with its ten-year-old birthday, hiplife was almost solely the brainchild of Reginald ?Reggie Rockstone? Osei. Memory lane: Whilst we were both in Accra from London on Christmas holidays in 1994, I vividly recollect meeting Reggie at a friend?s place and hearing him rap in Twi. I was quite taken aback, for I?d never heard it done before ? and it was effortlessly good. ?I?m not new to this rap thing,? hiplife?s founding father ? who also coined the genre?s name ? tells me almost nine years later. ?Basically, I just switched dialects.? Fair enough. Yet, why the switch? Reggie expounds: ?Coming home, and seeing all these kids who were down with hiphop, but not necessarily knowing what the American kids were saying, I figured the best way to express ourselves was in our own language!?
Not surprisingly, all who followed in the experimental path that Reggie had laid started rhyming exclusively in Twi also. However, being that dialects in Ghana are as varied and colourful as our nationally-cherished Kente cloth, it was only a matter of time before artists started rapping in their own tongues. Valiantly spearheading the new Ga school of rhyming slight-framed, charismatic, Tinny. ?My dad advised me to do strictly Ga, because everybody was doing Twi?, he animated reveals. ??Makola Kwakwe? was the very first song I recorded?At the time I was using pencils, and now I?m using pens!!?
Surely the significance of Tinny?s transition from lead to ink cannot be lost on us: HIPLIFE is poised for biggest and better things. Bet not against it.
