Ghanaian heavyweight rapper, Edward Kofi Agyemang Amoah popularly known as Kofi Mole, has asserted that Hiplife music no longer makes hits as a genre in the music industry.
Hiplife is a genre of music derived from American hip-hop, which fuses Ghanaian culture and the hip-hop genre. It is known to be originated by Ghana’s hip-life ‘Grand Papa’, Reggie Rockstone, and has been the claim to fame of many Ghanaian artists in the music industry.
The young rapper stated that hiplife in Ghana is no longer how it used to be due to the absence of active hiplife artists in the music industry. He further added that rap in Ghana has evolved and has changed from hiplife to more of America’s hip-hop.
“I don’t know; maybe it’s because we don’t have artists that currently make mention of hiplife in their music unlike Reggie Rockstone who persistently made mention of hiplife in his music,” he revealed.
In an interview on Y97.9FM’s Friday Nite Mix with host, HypeMan Ferggy, he indicated that the advent of the internet brought about more enlightenment regarding rap music and hip-hop culture which exposed many young Ghanaian rappers to hip-hop. Hence, rap music in Ghana gradually evolved from hip-life to hip-hop.
“Since the internet season came, we got so exposed to hip-hop and outside and the music outside of Ghana; their culture and everything; The young ones who came up now tried to vibe with the Hip-hop culture I mean the hip-hop from America’s culture,” he hinted.
Meanwhile, the ‘Don’t Be Late’ hitmaker noted that hip-hop in Ghana which also has fragments of Ghanaian culture in it stems from hiplife because both genres are rap genres but only thrive because there are currently more artists that represent the hip-hop genre in the music industry.
Source: etvghana.com