Hiplife hits dead end

A decade of hiplife has come and gone with little or no fun fair. The Ghanaian genre of music, which started out as a promising star among all the genres of music in Ghana, is now melting like butter against sun.

The pessimist who said hiplife has no future from its inception may have been right after all. We’re approaching the end of 2007 and hiplife is yet to boast of one hit song or album.

Gone are the days when variety was the spice of Hiplife. Gone are the days when Reggie Rockstone, Obrafour, Lord Kenya, Tic Tac and the likes could shake the very foundation of our music scene.

Their music was everywhere and on the lips of almost everyone, young and old. Who couldn’t sing Obrafour’s Kwame Nkrumah or Lord Kenya’s Medo or even Hiplife Grandpapa’s Agoo at the time? You could feel it everywhere, the air of a music revolution, hiplife revolution.

Is it a surprise that the hiplife grandpapa, Reggie Rockstone is to make a come back to redeem the image of what he started? Those on top of the music scene in Ghana today are Christiana Love, Ohemaa Mercy, Kofi B, Ofori Amponsah and a few others. It’s not that Hiplife artists haven’t been releasing albums, the truth is that their albums are not flying as they used to.

The Hiplife songs being released lately are either of similar beats or subject matter. These days they don’t sing about love anymore. Can someone tell the Hiplife artists to stop confusing love with sex? There surely is a thick line between the two.

The reason why the Hiplife movement has lost it is that we seem to be spending all our energy on sex songs and music videos when there are more relevant issues around us to ‘rap’ about.

A-Plus can be singled out as one artist who engages fans with real issues in his music. The hiplife terrain is no longer interesting. Any keen observer of the scene can tell you we’re approaching what seems to be a dead end on the Hiplife road.

It will take an air of freshness and creativity to get rid of this dead end. Better still; the birth of a new music genre that will be accepted by all and sundry could be a good way to change the scheme of things.