Who brought Highlife Music to Ghana?
We don’t know and it would end up in heated debates without an end. Check the Internet and you won’t find the name of legends like E. T. Mensah who is the true “King of Highlife” and the earliest Artists to be known for the genre.
So we can’t even do a conscious research to name and honour those who formed the Highlife sound we have.
So the Nigerians write narratives to make it sound like they evolved this sound and I don’t fault them.
Who brought Hiplife music to Ghana?
This would also end up in another heated argument without an end.
Funny how we can’t just accept to give Reggie Rockstone the title and celebrate him for being the first to bring hiplife. And then if he isn’t the first one then let’s do a proper intellectual research with dates to see if anyone was doing RAP even underground before #Reggie!
Artist like Obrafour can speak on who inspired them before Reggie came. This won’t be difficult to research and find a lasting conclusion. But we no go do.
We don’t celebrate Osibisa despite their outstanding achievements on the world stage. This guys made a huge mark on the world stage with Afrobeats long before Fela Kuti came around.
And Fela himself acknowledged this that he came to Ghana in 1967 and that was when he tuned his music to Afrobeats.
And Fela formed a band in the 70s when Ghana had talents like Teddy Osei, Mac Tontoh, Ebo Taylor etc who played Highlife in the 1950s before moving to London in 1962 on a Government scholarship by Dr Kwame Nkrumah. And they consequently formed #Osibisa in the 60s.
But then Nigerians celebrate Fela Kuti in a unique ways and then modern Artists like Burna Boy have even sampled his works on the international stage.
How hard would it be to have a #Highlife_Musuem to celebrate all this outstanding Musicians from as far back as 1920 when Hiplife evolved.
But in Ghana we’ve absolutely forgotten about Osibisa and the crop of Highlife musicians who Nkrumah sent to London to study music in the 1950s.
This are the people who blended #Jazz #Funk and then #highlife which is a pure Ghanaian genre, with other African rhythms to create #Afrobeats.
We’ve completely forgotten Ebo Taylor who was also part of the #Stargazzers band who made Highlife popular in the 50s before they all left for London to form bands in 1962.
And he has collaborated with Fela as well but then we don’t celebrate him. And he’s still alive and playing shows still.
Why don’t we make this man tell us the stories of those who inspired him and the Highlife genre huh???
Someone should find the list of Musicians and Instrumentalist Nkrumah sent to London to study music on scholarship in the 1950s and we would be able to get the true and beautiful history of Ghana Music over the years.
And they say a country that refuses to honor her heroes is not worth dying for. So Ghana needs to do a proper research and honour the many great Musicians who paved the way and mounded Ghana Music into Highlife and then Hiplife and then Afrobeats.
Or else our Nigerian brothers would keep tapping into our blessings and changing the narrative to suit them.
Even Azonto they took it from us and gave it to WIZKID because we refused to accept that Sarkodie made Azonto an international brand. So Naija take an cool cos we were fighting amongst ourselves.
If you know the things I read when researching on the internet ehhhh. You go vex about how others have claimed the history of others and beautiful twisted the narratives.
Even a Ghana Music Article on a very popular platform has the picture of Fela Kuti attached and not that of #ET_Mensah who is the true King of Highlife.
#YouIssokay
Credit: Selorm Ameza
#EwedukorTv Online
0 Comments