Hiplife 3:16, The gospel according to Reggie Rockstone

By Oral Ofori

The Exodus

(This is the 2nd of a 3part piece, here's the 1st part)

The Godfather of Hiplife wears a shirt that clearly defines him

'Makaa maka', the first ever hiplife album by Reggie Ossei, was figuratively the trigger that unleashed the hiplife bullet. Everyone--both younger and older generations in Ghana--found this or that track on the album that they could directly or indirectly relate to. The release of this album in Ghana in the year 1997 as talked about in the first series of this three part blog succeeded not only in bridging the gap between the young and old Ghanaian music lover, but also did so in a language that the average Ghanaian could comprehend.

Hiplife 3:16, The gospel according to Reggie Rockstone

The Genesis

Reginald Ossei; also known as Reggie Rockstone, 'the God-Father of hiplife', a Ghanaian music genre which is a fusion of authentic Ghanaian lyrics with a mixture of traditional Ghanaian language and hip-hop instrumentals believes Ghana music has not done enough justice to HipLife as a genre. To right this wrong, Reggie is about to embark on organizing the first ever hiplife music awards in Ghana.

Mutombo The Poet of Ghana presents Africa's spoken word to the world

By Oral Ofori

Mutombo The Poet during a recital in Ghana

Today my piece will be on Spoken Word; a form of poetry that often uses alliterated prose or verse and occasionally uses metered verse to talk about happenings in a society. This style of poetry is mainly in the first person singular and generally from the poet’s point of view, it is mostly themed on personal or current events. In entertainment, spoken word performances generally consist of storytelling or poetry. Noted practitioners of this art form are Hedwig Gorski, Gil Scott Heron, Spalding Gray and well known Ghanaian born spoken poets like Kwame Dawes and Mutombo The Poet on whom much will be revealed in this piece.