Hip-Life Music On the Move

Barely a decade ago, a rap duo called "talking drums", exploded unto the Ghanaian scene with a blend of indigenous "high-life" music blended with contemporary "hip-hop" which became an instant revolution in the music industry.

Hip-life has gained deep roots ever since its inception and has become the most selling brand of music in the country.

Sampling views of the public especially music lovers, vendors, producers and the musicians themselves reveals interesting ideas about the direction and the future of Hip-life music.

The development of hip-life took absolute commitment and time before it was accepted by music lovers , after "talking drums" performed at a cultutal festival in 1992 dubbed "PAFAM" endearing themselves to their fans. The tone was then set for the fusion of rap into the country's indigenous style. In 1994 Reggie Rockstone came out with the hit album "Tsooboi" which is still recognised as one of the best hip-life albums that has been released.

After Reggie Rockstone released his album, Producers were still sceptical, as Panji Anoff music engineer and producer recalls, "when we introduced the new style to K.K.Duah, another Producer colleague, he was cynical about the sales and acceptance by Ghanaians yet the irony is that K.K later became famous for the production of Hip-life music."

Panji was the first Producer of hip-life music in Ghana and also produced Reggie Rockstone in England.

At the moment some of the hip-life giants in the country are T.H 4 Quages, Lord Kenya,Akyeame, Abrewa Nana, Obrafour, Tic-Tac, Sidney, Nkasei, Bukbak, and many other stars who are currently doing well in the music market. However, many critics of hip-life condemn the use of explicit lyrics and the theme of sex and violence which characterise hiplife music. This is seen as a menace and a threat to morality.

Ebow Taylor a veteran musician is impressed by the level of youth creativity manifesting itself in hip-life music. "Though most hip-life artistes try to blend our local high-life with the rap style, I'll still love to see them being more original in their presentation," Taylor said.

A leader of the defunct Namba band which featured prominent Musicians like Pat Thomas and Ebow Taylor who is currently Lecturing at the music department of the University of Ghana has made a prediction that in the years to come, live music will become popular as it was before and hip-life will have to climb from the level of miming to the use of live instruments on stage.

Most hip-life artistes are virtually ignorant of the technicalities involved in music, it is rather apalling that in all hip-life performances, the musicians are always limited to miming . It was however remarkable that recently, when Sidney launched his "Apuskeleke" album , he was backed by Gyidudu band and they played live hip-life sound to the amazement of all music lovers.

The recent situation is a far cry from the 1970's , during the days of "pop chain" era, when bands used to contest at the Arts Centre, displaying their creative abilities in music, but Hip-life has come with a digital programming, thus relying solely on what has been programmed. Analogue music has become a preserve for only choral groups and the traditional musicians in the country.

Apparently, hip-life Artistes are looking forward to sell their music to the rest of the world, just like Osibisa did in the 1970's but Ebow Taylor says that unless, the artistes create an African identity for their music, all their efforts will be in vain.

But then it will take a collective effort among all stake holders to ensure that the music reach heights. Radio presenters must put a stop to alleged collection of bribes popularly known as 'Payola'before playing music.

The government must support up and coming musicians through special schemes that can be channelled through the National Commission on Culture so that the country can attract foreign record companies who will bring in foreign exchange to support young artistes with creative skills in music.