It exploded on the scene, and mopped the floor with doddering Highlife. A social invasion of beaches and homes, ‘concerto-conference’ halls and cars, it lured mad crowds to its Low-Fi gigs, and forged its own vibrant ‘inside’ culture.
Now, it appears played out. Hiplife practitioners serve twice-told tales in the same humdrum, borrowed beats of ancient global chart toppers. As with all fads in Ghana that quickly fizzle into thin air, Hiplife is creeping and crawling tired.
The problem could be, like bubble gum, hiplife mesmerises only within the first few chews...Our fathers had music which they called "Bubble Gum", get the gist?
ReplyDeleteI don't think Hip Life is played out all....I am getting into Hip Life more and more. I think those artists that do not originate will die out and the true innovators will get more and more recognition
ReplyDeleteLOL! Nana Yaw, maybe we are just getting older so it is all just becoming noise? Okay, maybe that's just me feeling old and projecting. But I do love the (now oldish) Quata hit "Baby" even if it has tinges of stolen dancehall hits of yesteryear.
ReplyDeleteBTW: I love the use of "practitioners". Only in Ghana can you have media practitioners and maybe even rap practitioners.
@Pen Powder; I though Brenda Fassie's early hits fell into the bumble gum genre? Then if "Your fathers" had "Bubble Gum" then that makes me fall into the category of "Your fathers" since I was quite the Bubble gum fan in my younger years. So it is really true; I'm oooooolllllld!
Bumble gum? I think I meant Bubble gum!
ReplyDeleteOooohhh.....colour :)
ReplyDeleteevery thing that is not rooted dies out. You can't mimic Busta Rhymes, or Tupac or any other for me to think that you are original. Nope! Music is creativity, let it come from within. Some call the old songs 'highlife' evergreen. Why? because it tells a story, it revolves around our lives and we can relate to it. People sing about things they don't have and won't have...about sex (raw), money (Bill Gates; Jay Z type); cars (Impala's and the rest)...now there is a trend of Nigerialising our songs and this I find detestable. South Africans have the Kwacho or whatever they call it...let's develop it from the roots and stop mimicking others.
ReplyDeleteKwaito
ReplyDeletehiplife or highlife or whatever other name don't mean much to me!
ReplyDeleteleft to me alone Reggie Rockston who claims to be the 'inventor' of this 'label' wouldn't have his 'self-praise' heard. before the 'noise' of Reggie Rockstone, we had way back in school a number of guys who were doing rap in the local languages anyway (my experience) but i love some stuff from Reggie like the the colab he did with KK Fosu for eg.
point is for me music is music (no matter the label: (pop, country or soul) and i either like it or i don't like it.
so i love some songs that some people would call hiplife (i don't mind! call it hip*SS if you want).
i don't know why but i don't like most of the songs of praye! i think they make too much noise for me. but i love a lot of the stuff from Wutah...sa sa sa kutu sa! big dreams, come on play me that song!
man like Obrafuo got some great tunes. man like Samini and man like Obuor and a few other men (men, lol) got some great rhythms. and i don't worry my heard about what genre people classify some of these songs into or what the musicians themselves call them.
did i forget to mention Okomfuor Kwadee???? i love the track 'nkran kwan so' by this guy. great rendition! it's a must heard!
omg! some of these songs are just nice and i'm never in a hurry to call them hiplife.
kwaito and hiplife got no difference... it's all rap in different languages with hip-hop beats and a mix of local rhythms and lyrics.
Hmmm....I've always had a problem with classifying music(come and see the struggle when I'm uploading unto my PSP/iPod) ; as far as I'm concerned music is an entity to be enjoyed more and categorized less....
ReplyDeleteThat said, I'd probably classify Hiplife as contemporary ghanaian music in local languages (for lack of a better definition). Based on this I'm going to have to disagree that its dying out...it's simply evolving. Its just that some of these practitioners involved in this evolution are, well, a bit deluded; simply and completely assimilating 'ancient global chart toppers' style and doing a bad, monotonous job at it. There are those who are doing a great job too, I think- Sarkodie, Asem, the like: great lyrics, powerful metaphors, original flavours.
Bottom line, much as nothing can beat the oldies, I think Hiplife is going to stay around for a loooong time....
Bubble Gum, huh, Pen Powder, I'll be sure to find out about it.
ReplyDeleteOk, Nana. Hiplife is always reinventing itself, huh? And blowing out the chaff!
ReplyDeleteAbena, thanks for that about Practitioners. And I also love some Hiplife 'oldies'. What surprises me is that, for such a young genre, we already have 'oldies' in Hiplife.
ReplyDeleteAnon, thanks for seeing the colour!
ReplyDeleteFair comment, Nana F, but what does it mean to 'Nigerialise' Hiplife?
ReplyDeleteProfound commentary, Novisi. I am a sucker for finding the pigeon hole in which to file away music. But I agree with your 'blind' relishing of good music. I also see great parallels between Hiplife (as you called it) and Kwaito.
ReplyDeleteHey, Antye504, it's been a while. I like your epithet "Contemporary Ghanaian Music". Now it only needs a parallel phrase with less syllables to catch on ;)
ReplyDelete