Veteran record producer and founder of The Last Two Music Group, Edward Nana Poku Osei, known in showbiz circles as Hammer, has without mincing words blamed the “death of Hiplife” on the actions and inactions of Ghanaians.
This comes on the back of some statements made by Ghanaian rapper, M.anifest, on a documentary dubbed “Hiplife Rewind” produced and aired by BBC Africa.
The documentary which sought to chronicle the history and trajectory of Hiplife featured some Ghanaian artistes who represented the past, present and future as far as the 30 plus year old genre is concerned.
In one of the scenes of the documentary, the “Maka Maka” crooner intimated that Hiplife is dead and went further to buttress it with the assertion that the younger generation or people who are arguably the driving force of music do not identify with the genre
“Hiplife is dead because the driving force of the music is the younger people, and the younger people do not identify with Hiplife”. He categorically stated.
He without fear or favour attributed the supposed death to what he thought was a lack of acknowledgement of evolution on the part of the “gatekeepers of Highlife “.
According to him, the originators of Hiplife were so precious of what the genre was supposed to be, consequently, were not ready to embrace any form or shape which evolved out of it
“Those that were gatekeeping the Hiplife were refusing to acknowledge the evolution”. The Suffer hitmaker opined.
Following his comments, Hammer of Last Two took a rather contrasting position. Speaking on Peace Fm’s entertainment review on Saturday, 11th February 2023, the prolific producer disagreed passionately with the claim that Hiplife is dead and suggested to people like M.anifest to rather say that the brand name “Hiplife ” is dead and not the genre.
The host of the program, Akwasi Aboagye sought to seek clarity on Hammer’s statement. He( Hammer) expounded: Hiplife is not dead, it is the brand name instead, whatever the younger artistes are doing now is as a result of Hiplife, unfortunately, unlike Afrobeats, the name Hiplife couldn’t be entrenched and certified, however, the elements in the genre are still relevant and prevalent in almost all the songs we hear now. Nigerians had Afroabeat, and later added “s” to it to rebrand, but the elements never changed; So it’s about the name and not the genre in its entirety – Paraphrased.
He, however, sided with M.anifest on the death of the name and quickly pinned it on the attitude of the music Industry. To his mind, we didn’t have a collective and unanimous voice on the Hiplife conversation; the origination of the genre has even been debated on several occasions; and we as a people refuse to own the genre.
“If Hiplife is dead, we killed it” He passionately asserted.
Reggie Rockstone somewhat conceded to Hiplife’s defunctness in the documentary due to the failure of “us” to stand by the brand.
“We dropped the soap; we should have stood by the brand because our cousins next door did the same thing with Afrobeats and they did not budge, and here we are today; You see!!? They are baking the cake and we are begging for a slice”. He remorsefully told.
Despite everything, he didn’t betray his first love; he owned and attested to the life of Hiplife.
“I will be a fool to say on BBC that Hiplife is dead, Hiplife is not dead” the Grandpapa boldly maintained.
M.anifest in the same documentary humbly confessed that he “wouldn’t have fathomed being a musician if Hiplife didn’t happen “.
Hiplife as a genre has indeed been a source of life to many great Ghanaian artistes like Obrafour, Tinny, Kwaw Kese, Sarkodie, Edem, Praye, Okyeame Kwame, Castro, Akatakyie, Asem, Kuami Eugene, M.anifest etc.
Can we as a country sustain the brand name? If it is dead as claimed, is there a way to resuscitate it? Yes, like Veteran movie producer, Socrates Sarfo, advised: a conscious effort can be made by industry players, gatekeepers and all and sundry to make the name “Hiplife” a Ghanaian thing.
To paraphrase him, he said, artistes could add that as a genre to their profiles on Wikipedia and other portals, so that each time their names are searched online, Hiplife will be part of the conversation at all times.
“I want hiplife to be that good story that lifted black folks In Africa and all over the world; gave young people the voice” – Reggie Rockstone.