Music
- Tuesday, August 30Ghana's urban music evolves
in the age of Bluetooth
Written by Boima Tucker. Originally published by, and republished here with permission of, Cluster Mag.
This is the first of a 3-part series by Chief Boima about music-in-context in urban West Africa.
I was sitting in the back of a parked car outside of a production studio in the Dansoman neighbourhood of Accra, Ghana, with my travel partner Benjamin Lebrave, owner and manager of record label Akwaaba Music. The car belonged to Ghanaian Hiplife super-producer Appietus; he was sharing a collection of new and not-yet-released tracks, and I couldn’t help but point out the unmistakable international influence in the mix. UK Funky, South African House, and post-Diwali Jamaican Dancehall all came together in a thick Ghanaian stew (served with Banku.) I asked Appietus, “What kind of music do you listen to?” He turned around with a smile and said, “Everything.”
Hiplife, a hybridized, digital offspring of the more traditional Highlife sound, came into being in the early 90’s when Reggie Rockstone, a Ghanaian MC living abroad, returned home and started making records locally. Initially, Ghanaians were slow to warm to the imported sounds of American Hip-hop. In order to connect with his countrymen, Rockstone had the vision to fuse his Ghanaian and American cultural influences, just as his Highlife predecessors had done eighty years before. He started rapping in local languages, sampling local sounds, and coined the term Hiplife.
[note from the editor: this tune had its official release through a 2004 compilation called "A Rough Guide to African Rap"]Ghana has always had one of West Africa’s most vibrant recording industries and its musicians are known for their ability to draw liberally from outside influences without losing touch with their local roots. If Hiplife comfortably resides in the realm of World Music 2.0, the country’s national popular music, Highlife, was its World Music Beta mother. Starting in the 1920s, Highlife musicians mixed traditional rhythms and melodies from ethnic groups in Ghana and other West Africa countries with genres like Calypso, Rumba, and Big Band Jazz, after recorded music from the Americas started to make its way to West Africa.
The original Highlife sound took Anglophone West Africa by storm, and eventually laid the foundation for countless Afro-pop permutations from Sierra Leone to Cameroon, most famously providing the base for Fela Kuti’s Afro-beat and Prince Nico Mbarga’s Anglo-Franco blend. I’ve even heard some boast that Gyedu-Blay Ambolley’s records, featuring a proto-rap vocal style, may have been circulating around the South Bronx (the neighbourhood with the highest concentration of Ghanaian immigrants in the U.S.) in the 1970s, influencing the burgeoning rap scene there (Cameroonian Manu Dibango’s “Soul Makossa” was certainly a staple of that era).
The spirit of international borrowing and exchange that birthed Highlife continues in Afro-pop today.
As the 90s drew to a close, and more artists and producers got involved, the sound of Hiplife began to change. A producer named Hammer emerged, and while he primarily made beats that sounded like underground New York tracks from artists like Mobb Deep or the Wu Tang Clan, he started to experiment using the same samples and drum-machine kits to create African and Caribbean rhythms that leaned towards the older Highlife sound. Hammer tapped into something with this innovation and touched something deep in the soul of the Ghanaian public.
You May Kiss Your Bride - Bollie (Hammer Production) from Sounds of Our Time
Around the same time that the U.S. was leaving behind its New York Hip Hop leanings for a more digital sound born in the American South, Appietus arrived on the scene in Accra. He started using synthesizers to craft compositions that sounded like the sweet older Highlife updated for the computer age. With the help of production software pre-sets his sound took on a crisper and more mainstream edge, bringing it into dialogue with other slick, high-production pop phenomena like American R&B or Reggaeton. He pitted electronic beats and steel drums against classic Highlife rhythms. The bass-lines interweaved with sweet melodic guitar lines, while synthetic horns vamped alongside. A grooving syncopated percussion filled out the rest as the vocalists rapped or sang in local languages. Appietus’ signature sound eventually became the prototype of the genre.
Until recently, my exposure to Hiplife was mostly through compilations put out by European labels, blogs created by foreigners traveling in Ghana or Ghanaians living abroad, CDRs I bought traveling in other parts of West Africa, or through my friend and travel companion Benjamin. I had been hearing plenty of new music from Ghanaian artists who helped bring attention to Ghana’s wealth of musical talent - Wanlov the Kubolor, M.anifest, M3nsa, Blitz the Ambassador and Sway - but as artists focused on courting international audiences in particular, they aren’t considered as much a part of the local Hiplife scene. What’s more, with the dominance of a few producers and a radio network supported by payola, the sonic diversity of the scene started to dwindle. As a DJ, I would occasionally dip into some of the widely available hits like V.I.P.’s "Ahomka Wo Mu", but generally didn’t look for too much Hiplife to fill my digital crates.
But now all of that is changing.
Developments in Ghanaian music are reflective of the country’s growing role in the contemporary global economy. A change in sound and aim for distribution is happening alongside changes in Ghana’s communications and technology infrastructure. As studios become easier and cheaper to set up, a host of new producers have arrived on the scene. Computer technology is ubiquitous in Accra. In a city where cash-flow runs radio, tastemakers have come from unexpected places. Taxi drivers play songs directly from USB sticks that plug into their car stereos, people trade songs over bluetooth exchange on their mobile phones, and a host of bloggers have gone online to promote local artists. Internet speeds are increasing, cellphone companies offer a 3G network, and mp3s are the dominant form in which music is consumed in an industry that was dependent on a few tape distributors less than 10 years ago.
Taking a cue from the exploding Nigerian industry, as well as current sonic trends in the U.S. and Jamaica, the sound of today’s Ghanaian music is all synthesizers, heavy drums, and poppy hooks in English. It’s the kind of stuff that travels easily across the continent, and would blend into a DJ set in Dubai or Los Angeles. Benjamin and company tell me that in Ghana, the name Hiplife is in fact fading and artists and up-and-coming producers are calling their sound just Pop with an ascribed prefix, such as Afro-Pop or Tema-Pop. (Tema is the name of a popular American-inspired suburb of Accra where many of the newest artists and producers are based.)
With large diaspora populations in London and the Bronx, Ghanaians living abroad are shaping both the sound and the distribution of the music as well; Donaeo’s club anthem “Party Hard” is popular all over West Africa. But, what’s really fascinating about the song’s reception in Ghana is that the UK born Donaeo has Ghanaian ancestry, which probably had an influence on his sound in the first place. This makes for an interesting closure to the diaspora’s international circle of influence. Now you can hear UK based rappers like Sway proudly flying their Ghanaian flag and rapping alongside Hiplife superstars like Sarkodie over a Funky House track born in London. It is the same kind of feedback-loop between diaspora and homeland that exists between New York and places like Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic.
Inside of Appietus’ studio, Benjamin picked up a CD labeled “Miss Doctor Artfx! Remix”. In order to promote African club sounds in European and American clubs, Benjamin invites producers to remix the tracks, using one of their local popular styles. Last year he organized a remix campaign for Appietus’ collaborative work with Hiplife group 4X4. According to the producer himself, the sounds and styles brought out by these European and American remixers inspired him to expand his own sonic pallette, cultivating a new dynamic and exciting sound.
<a href="http://akwaabamusic.bandcamp.com/track/miss-doctor-artfx-remix" _mce_href="http://akwaabamusic.bandcamp.com/track/miss-doctor-artfx-remix">Miss Doctor (artfx! Remix) by 4X4</a>
Appietus is a confident, gregarious man. He carries the stature of a king, lecturing on everything from religion to music production techniques inside his studio, as his clients line up and patiently wait to record on the next Appietus (in the mix) hit production. Back in his car, we discussed his position within the changing Ghanaian music industry. He seemed convinced that more electronic sounds and influences from abroad in his productions were the way to compete with the upstarts from Tema, and gain some more international recognition. In an interesting twist to the story, and something I was unaware of at the time, he had recently been accused of stealing directly from South African House DJ, Cndo. I suggested he create a Soundcloud account and start releasing his instrumentals on there, and perhaps he would join the ranks of other African producers such as DJeff, Black Coffee and Killamú. He gave me an instrumental to share. Check it out below, and for more info on the original song check out Benjamin’s recent post at The Fader.
CLUSTER EXCLUSIVE: Appietus - Ayooo (Instrumental) by Cluster Mag
Be sure to check out Appietus’ releases on Akwaaba Music, and be on the look out for more Ghanaian music at a club in your local area.