Tell me everything: Hiplife

Do you have the Blackstars comp?

Cuz that's the obvious starting point. There was a primer in Stylus a while back too IIRC.

No, I'll get right on it though!

blackstars comp is pretty good but some of it just feels like american rap pastiche which were i interested is readily available domestically.

Yeah it's not perfect. But it's the best available introduction.

To be honest a lot of hiplife is blatantly ripping off American rap. That black stars comp is a decent introduction but the music on it is a bit old.

I only spent a couple of weeks in Accra and Cape Coast two months ago, and the biggest hiplife artist at the moment is Kwaw Kesse. Everywhere I went people were talking about his new stuff and imitating the dance move that went along with one coupe-decale song a few years back. It's decent, nothing mind blowing.

Define old. I was led to believe most of the stuff on it was of fairly recent vintage (last couple of years.)

I'm barely familiar with hiplife and don't want to issue blanket statements based on such a short time in the country, but before I went to Ghana I listened to the comp and wrote down the artist names in hope of getting some of their other stuff; at the cd stalls it was all other hiplife artists, and when I asked about the artists on the black stars comp the dudes selling the cds either didn't know the artists or told me that those songs were old. I didn't ask what 'old' meant so the compilation songs might be, and probably are, only a couple of years old.

Also, I was surprised as to how little hiplife I actually heard in Accra. Even in the little shacks acting as bars most of the music was way more gospel influenced...weird kinda.