Black Stars - and in turn the Ghana hiplife sound - has been growing on me steadily since this superb compilation from Out Here Records arrived on the Left Hip doorstep. The record purports to compile the best and brightest of the Ghanaian hiplife scene. I can't say I know enough about the genre to disagree and the music certainly seems to back the claim, with a rich bounty of killer tracks. 14 artists are represented here over the course of 14 songs, including the founding father of the genre, Roggie Rockstone
Hiplife, which sprung to life around 1998, is a blending of highlife with hiphop. So imagine highlife guitars, rhythms and bouncy chord progressions fuelling the Ghanaian take on rap and you have an idea of the sound. Related subgenres also included on the compilation include raglife which takes - as the name suggests - ragga into the fold and there's also a reggae-inspired track or two.
Highlights include King Ayisoba, V.I.P, Tony Harmony, Afroganic, Terry Banchaka and my vote for the finest track on the album is Tic Tac's Kangaroo. While these are my personal favorites, the record is top-notch from start to finish, with nary a dud anywhere in the mix.
Black Stars is an excellent, addictive introduction to the hiplife genre, with tracks that exhibit the melodic and rhythmic brilliance of the music - which far surpasses your standard-issue US hip hop, I might add. It’s the highlife aspect of the sound that’s to thank for that and it makes the music infectiously danceable. English speakers aren't going to get much from the lyrics of course, which are largely sang in one of at least a few African languages. But the rhythmic flow and timbre of the vocals is strong nevertheless and the melodies are perhaps richer than those in American hip-hop.
Hip hop fans with an interest in the spread of the music worldwide will find few if any better outcroppings than hiplife and this collection is a great introduction to the scene. But highlife fans will also find the sound of hiplife a refreshing infusion of new energy into the sound. Very good record...
