Ghanaian heavyweight rapper, Edward Kofi Agyemang Amoah, popularly known as Kofi Mole, has asserted that the hip-life music genre no longer makes hits as a genre in the music industry.
Hip-life is a genre of music derived from American hip-hop that fuses Ghanaian culture and the hip-hop genre. It is known to have been 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.
Hip-life in Ghana, according to the rapper, is no longer what it once was due to a lack of active hip-life artists in the music industry. He went on to say that rap in Ghana has evolved over time from hip-life to more American hip-hop.
“I don’t know; maybe it’s because we don’t have artists that currently make mention of hip-life in their music, unlike Reggie Rockstone, who persistently made mention of hip-life 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. As a result, Ghanaian rap music has gradually evolved from hip-life to hip-hop.”Since the internet era arrived, we’ve become so exposed to hip-hop and music outside of Ghana, their culture, and everything; the young people who grew up now try to vibe with the hip-hop culture, I mean the hip-hop culture from America,” he hinted.
However, the ‘Don’t Be Late’ hitmaker noted that the hip-hop in Ghana, which also has fragments of Ghanaian culture in it stems from hip-life because both genres are rap genres, but only hip-hop thrives because there are currently more artists that rep the hip-hop genre in the music industry.
By: Kobina Badu Baidoo
