Hiplife Music Is Struggling

Rising musician Bra Kweku has reason to conclude that hiplife music is struggling against other music genres and has blamed Ghana’s music stakeholders including artistes, producers, DJs, and journalists, among others, for that.

According to him, the music genre, which has been in existence for over 10 years, is not recognised worldwide. Even in Africa, it is not that popular because Ghana has failed to market the genre, he noted.

Also, he thinks the preference for some other genres by some artistes is not helping hiplife and that it’s worrying because hiplife is Ghanaian and old enough to be marketed to the world.

“Hiplife is not what we even hear now. It is not like what we used to hear from Reggie, Obrafour, Lord Kenya and co. It is now a different genre all together. I can’t blame the artistes alone but the DJs too,” he said in an exclusive interview with NEWS-ONE.

“Hiplife was a modified highlife but we couldn’t put hiplife on the map. Now they say Twi pop, GH rap and so many other things. We are confused about so many things and I think MUSIGA has a role to play. It should organise seminars and educate the upcoming musicians. It is about time we had stuff like hiplife music festivals, highlife music festivals and others, not only in Ghana but outside Ghana. This will go a long way to support the brand. Five-year-olds now don’t know hiplife; they only know Azonto,” he added.

“Now the whole idea of hiplife has changed. Now, I will call it modified hiplife to Azonto. We don’t stick to ours.  We like to learn from people but we over learn. If we had really branded hiplife, it would have been one of the best to sell Ghana out there.”

Bra Kweku is a Ghanaian rapper, hiplife musician and also an Afro Pop artiste. He also does hip-hop and has been around for over five years.

He is currently CEO of Own Way Records. He has upcoming singles which feature SK Blinks and Yaa Porno among others. He will be dropping his next album in July 2016.

Kweku was born Kweku Hagan Arthur and is known for songs like Megye Wu Girl, Ohemekor and others. He was the hype man for Abodam crooner Kwaw Kese from 2009 to 2010.