Join the ‘Save our highlife’ campaign - Critic

The nominations for this year’s Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMA), has reignited a thought that has been bothering me – and the earlier we address it, the better.

For a couple of years now highlife has not made a good showing in the VGMA and it should be the headache of well meaning Ghanaians if we seek to protect all music genres that constitute our culture, chiefly of which is highlife. This year for example, there are only three nominees in the Highlife Artiste category: Bisa Kdei, Becca and Kofi Kinaata.

For the past few years, this has been the trend. This is an ominous trend because it portends a future where the highlife genre may get extinct and that Highlife Artiste category scrapped.

There are a lot of organic highlife songs that have not received the necessary support from DJs and music promoters so are not able to make it to the VGMA. I would not blame the VGMA for this. I blame Ghanaians because for a song to make it to most of the categories in the award, it must have gained attention in the year under review.

Few weeks ago I did a piece titled “Let’s Push these Highlife Artistes” and it is prudent that I reiterate it in this article. In 2016, we had highlife artistes like Quarme Zaggy, Dada Hafco, Wutah Afriyie, Yaw Stone, Ekow Marvel, Talanku, Boggy Wednesday, Nana Yaw Kumi, Kobby Simple, Kay Wusu and the like do quality highlife songs but unfortunately they did not get the popularity that would serve as a trumpet card to gain nomination in the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards.

Quarme Zaggy, who is affectionately called ‘the man with a higher life to highlife,’ has it all great voice, endearing personality and coruscating stage artistry. He has great songs like Just the Two of Us ft. Okyeame Kwame, See Saw ft. Voltage, My Desire, Bohye, Temi Mole, Matide ft. Shatta Rako, Mennyae Wo ft. D Cryme, among others. He has recently released another new one titled Odo Mu Police which employs the old Aseibu Amanfi kind of touch. If you love highlife, you will love this song to the bone.

Dada Hafco was a member of the defunct Mframa group. Since he went solo, Hafco has also proven his mettle in the field of highlife. He has released beautiful songs like Ma Yen Ntena ft. Castro, Hini Me, Friends ft. Yaw Stone, Musuo ft. Okyeame Kwame, W’anim Ye Ha ft. Flowking Stone, Mensa Aka which features KK Fosu and See Saw.

Dada Hafco is admired by his forte in weaving deep proverbial Akan words into his lyrics. Hafco sees highlife as the soul of music and according to him, is poised to project that genre on his brand. Kay Wusu was shot into the limelight with the controversial Asore.

It was a very creative piece that employed pun and word play to stir controversy. After the release of Asore, the highlife Prince, as he is gladly called, has released onto the music market, songs like Daben, Bribi Beye Me which features Ghanaian music diva, MzVee and the latest Agoro.

Kumi Guitar was formerly known as Nana Yaw Kumi. Kumi Guitar got into the limelight in 2013 through a compilation by music producer Sugartone when his song One Litre became a smash hit. Later ace music producer Mark Okraku Mante took charge of his management and did a remix of the One Litre song and called it Break into Two. It featured Guru.

It even earned him nomination for New Artiste of the Year at the 2014 Vodafone Ghana Music Awards. Since then, he has been working hard and has produced songs like Mmaa Time, Scriptures ft. Kwabena Kwabena, Aware and Obra. He was recently signed onto Zylofone Media. Ekow Marvel is another highlife genius with a very soothing vocal prowess. He has done songs like Dor Me ft. Kesse, Carry Me Go ft. Boggy Wednesday, Daben and Taste. Ekow Marvel also has an electrifying stagecraft. He performs well to live band and his velvety voice calms nerves and melts stony hearts.

Ekow Marvel may not be known by many but he has done a lot for himself by performing at shows across the length and breadth of this country. He is popularly known in the Eastern and Central Regions and has earned nominations in the Central Music Awards a couple of times.

Lloyd Boateng, known in showbiz circles as Talanku is the youngest among all the potentials I have mentioned above. For a young guy of about 22 years to develop that kind of love for highlife is so heart positive sign for the future of highlife. About a year ago, he released a classic highlife song which received massive rotation on radio stations across the nation. The song, Mensei Da, features Big J Cartel of Praye fame.

He also has a song with Nero X called Blessings. Last year, he did Fake Friends with Dadie Opanka and is getting ready to release another banger called Wontia.I am not against the fact that highlife has evolved and that we now have half-caste versions of the original highlife that emerged during the colonial times. I agree that the highlife Koo Nimo, Dr. K Gyasi, ET Mensah, Nana Kwame Ampadu and the rest did is not the same as the Burger Highlife which was done by Lee Duodu, George Darko, Charles Amoah and the rest. They fused highlife with pop and rock rhythms, using more electric guitars.

Years on, the same style changed in the era of Daddy Lumba and co when they used very strong hip hop and R&B rhythms – but they are still called highlife. Even some of Amakye Dede’s highlife songs have reggae syncopations. Iron Boy is an example. Even Nana Ampadu and most of the veteran highlife artistes had such types of highlife. They did this through experimentation.

This is the reason I see no problem with the current style of our highlife which fuses rap and uses more computerized beats. xperimentation of rhythms births music hybrids which simulate original music genres. However, once the inherent features are not eroded, the hybrids qualify to be called by their dominant parent genres. That notwithstanding, I am worried about the fact that highlife doesn’t make a good showing in the VGMAs. To this end, I am embarking on a campaign called ‘Save Our Highlife.’ To all the DJs that keep whining about why this is so; I say you are a part of the problem. Let’s save our highlife. Give highlife the attention you give to song of other genres and forms.

Highlife is not the only genre we have in Ghana. We have dancehall, hiplife, Afropop, reggae, among others. All these form part of our music culture. However, highlife has some crude, undying traits that serve as foundation for most music hybrids. That is why we don’t need to sit aloof to let it get die off.