HipLife

Shelter day 343, February 26th, 2021—installment 52 of live-streamed, all-vinyl DJ sets during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hiplife has become a catch-all genre for Ghanan vocoder-laden West African Pop and Hip Hop, but it was originally all about the spirit of Highlife music infused with Hip Hop. Similar to how Hip Hop first emerged from spoken word over Disco and Funk, HipLife began as a semi-rap spoken form of Ghanan and Nigerian Highlife music. Gyedu Blay Ambolley, a popular Highlife artist, is considered the father of HipLife, and potentially the original influence for Hip Hop with his 1973 song Simigua-do. Most of the songs in this mix are sung in Akan — the dominant language of Ghana. Enjoy!