Music of Ghana
Encyclopedia
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
has many styles of traditional
Sub-Saharan African music traditions
Sub-Saharan African music traditions exhibit so many common features that they may in some respects be thought of as constituting a single musical system. While some African music is clearly contemporary-popular music and some is art-music, still a great deal is communal and orally transmitted...
and modern music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
, due to its multiplicity of ethnic groups and its cosmopolitan geographic position in West Africa
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...
. The best known modern genre that originated in Ghana is Highlife
Highlife
Highlife is a musical genre that originated in Ghana in the 1900s and spread to Sierra Leone, Nigeria and other West African countries by 1920...
.
Traditional music
Ghana is home to numerous ethnic groupEthnic group
An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...
s that can broadly be divided into northern and southern. The northern region lies in the sparsely vegetated Sudan
Sudan (region)
The Sudan is the name given to a geographic region to the south of the Sahara, stretching from Western to Eastern Africa. The name derives from the Arabic bilâd as-sûdân or "land of the Blacks"...
and Sahel
Sahel
The Sahel is the ecoclimatic and biogeographic zone of transition between the Sahara desert in the North and the Sudanian Savannas in the south.It stretches across the North African continent between the Atlantic Ocean and the Red Sea....
grassland belts. Due to ethnic migrations in the time of the Songhai Empire
Songhai Empire
The Songhai Empire, also known as the Songhay Empire, was a state located in western Africa. From the early 15th to the late 16th century, Songhai was one of the largest Islamic empires in history. This empire bore the same name as its leading ethnic group, the Songhai. Its capital was the city...
and Mossi Kingdoms
Mossi Kingdoms
The Mossi Kingdoms, sometimes mistakenly referred to as the Mossi Empire, were a trio of powerful states in modern-day Burkina Faso. Each state possessed similar customs and government, but were ruled independently of each other...
and the indigenous Dagomba
Dagomba
The Dagomba are an ethnic group of Northern Ghana. They inhabit the sparse savanna region below the sahelian belt, known as the Sudan. They speak the Dagbani language which belongs to the More-Dagbani sub-group of Gur languages...
, and Mamprussi states, northern music styles may be included, along with Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso – also known by its short-form name Burkina – is a landlocked country in west Africa. It is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Côte d'Ivoire to the southwest.Its size is with an estimated...
, Mali
Mali
Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...
, Senegal
Senegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
, northern Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
and Niger
Niger
Niger , officially named the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east...
), in a larger Sahelian category. Peoples of this region base musical composition on a line of melody, a voice, stringed, wind, thought there is polyrhythmic composition with a variety of drums, xylophones and bells. As with other Gur
Gur languages
The Gur languages, also known as Central Gur, belong to the Niger–Congo languages. There are about 70 languages belonging to this group. They are spoken in Burkina Faso, southern Mali, northeastern Côte d'Ivoire, northern Ghana, northern Togo, northwestern Benin, and southwestern Niger.Like most...
and Mande groups in West Africa, a long history of griot
Griot
A griot or jeli is a West African storyteller. The griot delivers history as a poet, praise singer, and wandering musician. The griot is a repository of oral tradition. As such, they are sometimes also called bards...
praise-singing traditions exists among the various groups in Northern Ghana. Music in the northern styles are mostly set to a minor pentatonic scale, and melisma
Melisma
Melisma, in music, is the singing of a single syllable of text while moving between several different notes in succession. Music sung in this style is referred to as melismatic, as opposed to syllabic, where each syllable of text is matched to a single note.-History:Music of ancient cultures used...
plays an important part in both melodic and singing styles. Two main areas can be identified under the northern category:
The fertile, forested southern coastal region is inhabited by ethnic groups speaking Kwa
Kwa languages
The Kwa languages, often specified as New Kwa, are a proposed but as-yet-undemonstrated family of languages spoken in the south-eastern part of Côte d'Ivoire, across southern Ghana, and in central Togo...
and Gbe
Gbe languages
The Gbe languages form a cluster of about twenty related languages stretching across the area between eastern Ghana and western Nigeria. The total number of speakers of Gbe languages is between four and eight million. The most widely spoken Gbe language is Ewe , followed by Fon...
languages who were isolated from the Sudanic influences that dominated the north. Their music is in the Niger-Congo tradition, associated with social or spiritual function and relies on complex polyrhythmic patterns played by drum
Drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
s and bells as well as a harmonized song. An exception to this rule is the Akan tradition of praise-singing with the Seperewa harp-lute, a now dying genre which had its origins in historic influence from the griot
Griot
A griot or jeli is a West African storyteller. The griot delivers history as a poet, praise singer, and wandering musician. The griot is a repository of oral tradition. As such, they are sometimes also called bards...
traditions of the Mande empires to the north-west.
Colonial period
During the colonial era, Africa's Gold CoastGold Coast (British colony)
The Gold Coast was a British colony on the Gulf of Guinea in west Africa that became the independent nation of Ghana in 1957.-Overview:The first Europeans to arrive at the coast were the Portuguese in 1471. They encountered a variety of African kingdoms, some of which controlled substantial...
was a hotbed of musical syncretism. Rhythms from across West Africa, especially gombe
Gombe
Gombe may refer to:Places* Gombe, Nigeria, the capital of Gombe State, Nigeria** Gombe State, Nigeria* Gombe, Angola* Gombe, Butambala, Uganda* Gombe, Wakiso, Uganda* Gombe, Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo...
and ashiko
Ashiko
An ashiko is a kind of drum shaped like a truncated cone and meant to be played with bare hands. The drum is played throughout sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas....
from Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...
, Liberia
Liberia
Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...
n guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
-styles like dagomba
Dagomba
The Dagomba are an ethnic group of Northern Ghana. They inhabit the sparse savanna region below the sahelian belt, known as the Sudan. They speak the Dagbani language which belongs to the More-Dagbani sub-group of Gur languages...
, mainline and fireman, Fante osibisaba, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an brass band
Brass band
A brass band is a musical ensemble generally consisting entirely of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles that include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands , but are usually more correctly termed military bands, concert...
s and sea shanties
Sea shanty
A shanty is a type of work song that was once commonly sung to accompany labor on board large merchant sailing vessels. Shanties became ubiquitous in the 19th century era of the wind-driven packet and clipper ships...
and Christian music
Christian music
Christian music is music that has been written to express either personal or a communal belief regarding Christian life and faith. Common themes of Christian music include praise, worship, penitence, and lament, and its forms vary widely across the world....
, were all combined into a melting pot
Melting pot
The melting pot is a metaphor for a heterogeneous society becoming more homogeneous, the different elements "melting together" into a harmonious whole with a common culture...
that became highlife.
Mid-20th century and the invention of Ghanaian pop
While pan-Ghanaian music had been developed for some time, the middle of the 20th century saw the development of distinctly Ghanaian pop music. Highlife incorporated elements of swing, jazz, rock, ska and soukous, and saw its first inroads into the culture of its neighbours in West Africa and across the rest of the continent. To a much lesser extent, Ghanaian musicians found success in the United States and, briefly, the United Kingdom with the surprise success of OsibisaOsibisa
Osibisa is a British Afro-pop band, founded in London in 1969 by four expatriate African and three Caribbean musicians. Osibisa were one of the first African bands to become widely popular, leading to claims of founding World Music.-History:...
's Afro-rock
Afro-rock
Afro rock is is a popular dance music pioneered in the late 1960s and early 1970s by such groups as Monomono, Osibisa and Alhaji K. Frimpong. It is a style of which relies heavily on the use of Western string instruments and guitar effects...
in the 1970s.
Guitar-bands in the '30s, '40s, '50s and '60s
In the 1930s, Sam's Trio, led by Jacob Sam, was the most influential of the highlife guitar-bands. Their "Yaa Amponsah", three versions of which were recorded in 1928 for ZonophoneZonophone
Zonophone, early on also rendered as Zon-O-Phone was a record label founded in 1899 in Camden, New Jersey by Frank Seaman. The Zonophone name was not that of the company, but was applied to the records and machines sold by Seaman from 1899-1900 to 1903...
, was a major hit that remains a popular staple of numerous highlife bands. The next major guitar-band leader was E. K. Nyame, who led the Akan Trio and sang in Twi. Nyame also added the double bass
Double bass
The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
and more elements of the Western hemisphere, including jazz and Cuban music
Music of Cuba
The Caribbean island of Cuba has developed a wide range of creolized musical styles, based on its cultural origins in Europe and Africa. Since the 19th century its music has been hugely popular and influential throughout the world...
. In the 1960s, dance highlife was more popular than guitar-band highlife; most of the guitar bands began using the electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
until a roots revival in the mid-1970s.
Dance highlife in the '30s, '40s, '50s and '60s
Dance highlife evolved during World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, when American jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and swing became popular with the arrival of servicemen from the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. After independence in 1957, the socialist government began encouraging folk music, but highlife remained popular and influences from Trinidadian
Music of Trinidad and Tobago
Calypso music and steelpan is what Trinidad and Tobago is best known for, including internationally in the 1950s through artists like Lord Kitchener and Mighty Sparrow; the art form was most popularised at that time by Harry Belafonte...
and Congolese
Music of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Describing the music of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is difficult, due to vagaries surrounding the meanings of various terms. The country itself was formerly called Zaire and is now sometimes referred to as Congo-Kinshasa to distinguish it from the Republic of the Congo...
music. E. T. Mensah
E. T. Mensah
Emmanuel Tettey Mensah, best known as E. T. Mensah was a Ghanaian highlife musician.He began as a flutist with the Accra Orchestra, a schoolchildren band, in 1930. In 1948 he formed "The Tempos", a group he might be best known for, and toured West Africa. The group gained international attention...
was the most influential musician of this period, and his band The Tempos frequently accompanied the president. The original bandleader of The Tempos was Guy Warren
Guy Warren
Guy Warren of Ghana or Kofi Ghanaba was a Ghanaian musician, best known as the inventor of Afro-jazz and as a member of The Tempos.- Biography :...
, who was responsible for introducing Caribbean music
Caribbean music
The music of the Caribbean is a diverse grouping of musical genres. They are each syntheses of African, European, Indian and native influences, largely created by descendants of African slaves...
to Ghana and, later, was known for a series of innovative fusions of African rhythms and American jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
. King Bruce
King Bruce
King Bruce was a composer, band leader, and musician in Ghana.-Background:Composer, arranger, band leader and multi-instrumentalist made his mark on Ghana's dance band highlife tradition in a variety of ways. He grew up in a musical family. His mother sang in a choir; his two brothers played piano...
, Jerry Hansen and Stan Plange also led influential dance bands during the 1950s and 60s. By the 1970s, however, pop music
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
from Europe and the US dominated the Ghanaian scene until a mid-1970s roots revival.
1970s: Head revival
By the beginning of the 1970s, traditionally styled highlife had been overtaken by electric guitar bands and pop-dance music. Since 1966 and the fall of President Kwame NkrumahKwame Nkrumah
Kwame Nkrumah was the leader of Ghana and its predecessor state, the Gold Coast, from 1952 to 1966. Overseeing the nation's independence from British colonial rule in 1957, Nkrumah was the first President of Ghana and the first Prime Minister of Ghana...
, many Ghanaian musicians moved abroad, settling in the US, UK and Nigeria. Highlife bands like Okukuseku recorded in Lagos
Lagos
Lagos is a port and the most populous conurbation in Nigeria. With a population of 7,937,932, it is currently the third most populous city in Africa after Cairo and Kinshasa, and currently estimated to be the second fastest growing city in Africa...
or Nigeria's eastern Igbo region. In 1971, the Soul to Soul
Soul To Soul (film)
Soul To Soul was a concert held in Accra, Ghana on March 6, 1971 by an array of American R&B, soul, rock, and jazz musicians. It is also the name of a 1971 documentary film recording the concert.-Concert:...
music festival
Music festival
A music festival is a festival oriented towards music that is sometimes presented with a theme such as musical genre, nationality or locality of musicians, or holiday. They are commonly held outdoors, and are often inclusive of other attractions such as food and merchandise vending machines,...
was held in Accra. Several legendary American musicians played, including Wilson Pickett
Wilson Pickett
Wilson Pickett was an American R&B/Soul singer and songwriter.A major figure in the development of American soul music, Pickett recorded over 50 songs which made the US R&B charts, and frequently crossed over to the US Billboard Hot 100...
, Ike
Ike Turner
Isaac Wister Turner was an American musician, bandleader, songwriter, arranger, talent scout, and record producer. In a career that lasted more than half a century, his repertoire included blues, soul, rock, and funk...
and Tina Turner
Tina Turner
Tina Turner is an American singer and actress whose career has spanned more than 50 years. She has won numerous awards and her achievements in the rock music genre have led many to call her the "Queen of Rock 'n' Roll".Turner started out her music career with husband Ike Turner as a member of the...
and Carlos Santana
Carlos Santana
Carlos Augusto Alves Santana is a Mexican rock guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered rock, salsa and jazz fusion...
. With the exception of Mexican
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
-American Santana, these American superstars were all black, and their presence in Accra was seen as legitimizing Ghanaian music. Though the concert is now mostly remembered for its role as a catalyst in the subsequent Ghanaian roots revival, it also led to increased popularity for American rock and soul. Inspired by the American musicians, new guitar bands arose in Ghana, including the Ashanti Brothers, Nana Ampadu & the African Brothers, The City Boys and more. Musicians such as CK Mann, Daniel Amponsah and Eddie Donkor incorporated new elements, especially from Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
n reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
. A group called Wulomei
Wulomei
Wulomei was founded in 1973 by Nii Tei Ashitey with the encouragement of the dramatist and musician Saka Acquaye. Acquaye managed the band and wrote some of the music.Ashitey had previously been a percussionist for the Tempos led by E.T...
also arose in the 1970s, leading a Ga cultural revival to encourage Ghanaian youths to support their own countrymen's music. By the 1980s, the UK was experiencing a boom in African music as Ghanaians and others moved there in large numbers. The group Hi-Life International was probably the most influential band of the period, and others included Jon K, Dade Krama, Orchestra Jazira
Orchestra Jazira
Orchestra Jazira was an Anglo-Ghanaian band. The band consisted of Jane Shorter playing tenor sax, Sofi Hellborg playing alto, Nigel Watson, Kwadwo Oteng playing keyboards, Opata Azu playing bass and Colin Bass. They broke up in 1987....
and Ben Brako. In the middle of the decade, however, British immigration laws changed, and the focus of Ghanaian emigration moved to Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
.
The Ghanaian-German community created a form of highlife called Burger-highlife
Burger-highlife
Burger-Highlife is a distinctive form of highlife music created by Ghanaian immigrants to Germany. It is considered a German musical style.In the 1980s, Reggae music was gaining popularity worldwide and was carrying with it a growing popularity for other forms of world music that were easy to dance...
. The most influential early burgher highlife musician was George Darko
George Darko
George Darko is a Ghanaian highlife musician, who introduced the Burger-highlife with his first hit "Ako ti brofo" , which was very popular in the early 1980s....
, whose "Akoo Te Brofo" coined the term and is considered the beginning of the genre. Burgher highlife was extremely popular in Ghana, especially after computer-generated dance beats were added to the mix. The same period saw a Ghanaian community appear in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
and elsewhere in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. Pat Thomas is probably the most famous Ghanaian-Canadian musician. Other emigres include Ghanaian-American Obo Addy
Obo Addy
Obo Addy is an Ghanaian drummer and dancer who was one of the first native African musicians to bring the fusion of traditional folk music and Western pop music known as worldbeat to Europe and then to the Pacific Northwest of the United States in the late 1970s...
, the Ghanaian-Swiss Andy Vans and the Ghanaian-Dutch Kumbi Salleh. In Ghana itself during the 1980s, gospel
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
and reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
became extremely popular. The Genesis Gospel Singers were the most widely-known gospel band.
Hiplife
By the late 1990s, a new generation of artists discovered the so called hiplifeHiplife
Hiplife is a Ghanaian musical style which fuses highlife and hip hop. It is also influenced by dancehall and reggae. Recorded in Ghanaian languages such as Twi, Ewe and Ga, hiplife is rapidly gaining popularity throughout West Africa and abroad, especially in the United Kingdom, United States,...
. The originator of this style is Reggie Rockstone
Reggie Rockstone
Reggie Rockstone is a rapper of Ghanaian descent, born in Ghana but lived his early years in the United States. He has been living in Ghana continuously since he pioneered the Hip-Life movement in 1994. He pioneered the Hiplife art form and has played an important role in the development of this...
, a Ghanaian musician who dabbled with hip-hop in the United States before finding his unique style. Hiplife
Hiplife
Hiplife is a Ghanaian musical style which fuses highlife and hip hop. It is also influenced by dancehall and reggae. Recorded in Ghanaian languages such as Twi, Ewe and Ga, hiplife is rapidly gaining popularity throughout West Africa and abroad, especially in the United Kingdom, United States,...
basically was hip hop in the Ghanaian local dialect backed by elements of the traditional Highlife. It was dominated by the Akans until Ace music producer Hammer of The Last Two
Hammer of The Last Two
Hammer of The Last Two, born Edward Nana Poku Osei is a record producer in the Ghanaian music industry. He is the founder and CEO of The Last Two Music Group and is also known for grooming some of the best artists Ghanaian Hip Hop or Hiplife has ever produced such as Obrafour, tinny, Kwaw Kese,...
unveiled artistes like Tinny and Ayigbe Edem
Ayigbe edem
Denning Edem Agbeviadey , is a Ghanaian recording artist and entertainer who performs under the name Ayigbe Edem or Edem for short. Edem is his middle name and Ayigbe is a local Akan word with reference to the Ewe ethnic group that occupies most part of the Volta Region of Ghana...
who popularized the Ga and Ewe languages respectively. Hiplife
Hiplife
Hiplife is a Ghanaian musical style which fuses highlife and hip hop. It is also influenced by dancehall and reggae. Recorded in Ghanaian languages such as Twi, Ewe and Ga, hiplife is rapidly gaining popularity throughout West Africa and abroad, especially in the United Kingdom, United States,...
has since proliferated and spawned stars such as Reggie Rockstone
Reggie Rockstone
Reggie Rockstone is a rapper of Ghanaian descent, born in Ghana but lived his early years in the United States. He has been living in Ghana continuously since he pioneered the Hip-Life movement in 1994. He pioneered the Hiplife art form and has played an important role in the development of this...
, Obrafour, Akyeame, Tic Tac, Lord Kenya, Kwaw Kese, Obour, Tinny, Ayigbe Edem
Ayigbe edem
Denning Edem Agbeviadey , is a Ghanaian recording artist and entertainer who performs under the name Ayigbe Edem or Edem for short. Edem is his middle name and Ayigbe is a local Akan word with reference to the Ewe ethnic group that occupies most part of the Volta Region of Ghana...
, Asem, Samini
Samini
Emmanuel Andrews Samini , known in show business as Samini , is a musical artist....
and Sarkodie.
Producers responsible for steering this genre to what it is today were Zapp Mallet, Jay Q, Panji Anoff, Hammer of The Last Two
Hammer of The Last Two
Hammer of The Last Two, born Edward Nana Poku Osei is a record producer in the Ghanaian music industry. He is the founder and CEO of The Last Two Music Group and is also known for grooming some of the best artists Ghanaian Hip Hop or Hiplife has ever produced such as Obrafour, tinny, Kwaw Kese,...
, Morris Da' voice, Richie Mensah, Appietus and Killbeatz.
Ghanaian charts
The official Ghanain charts were started in 1990, it's first number 1 single was "Oh Lord (Please Help Me)" by No Man's Land.The first number one album was Where Have All the Lovers Gone by The Orlans.
The current number 1 is "Born This Way
Born This Way (song)
"Born This Way" is a song by American recording artist Lady Gaga, from her second studio album, Born This Way. Written and produced by Gaga, Fernando Garibay, Jeppe Laursen and DJ White Shadow, "Born This Way" was developed while Gaga was on the road with The Monster Ball Tour...
" by Lady Gaga
Lady GaGa
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta , better known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American singer and songwriter. Born and raised in New York City, she primarily studied at the Convent of the Sacred Heart and briefly attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts before withdrawing to...
.
The current number 1 album is Universal Dance Machine by Rowen & the Boiz.
See also: Ghanaian hip hop
External links
- AllGhanaMusic.com Ghana Music News, Latest Ghana Music Videos, Photos, Reviews, Lyrics, User Profiles, Chat Room
- Ghana Music.com Ghana Music News, Latest Music Videos, Photos, Reviews, Lyrics
- http://www.ghanamotion.comGhanaMotion.Com Latest Ghana Music Audio, Videos, Lyrics, Mixtapes and more
- Ghana Music Videos
- BBC Radio 3 Audio (60 minutes): Koo Nimo and King Ayisoba. Accessed November 25, 2010.
- BBC Radio 3 Audio (60 minutes): Serena Owusua Dankwa and Batman Samini. Accessed November 25, 2010.
- Ghana music lyrics, audio, blogs, more Museke Ghana.
- Ghana Base Music Powering the Ghanaian Music Online.
- Ghana Music Online.com Ghana Music News, Latest Music Videos, Photos, etc
- Ghana Music.co.uk Latest Music Videos, Photos,
- Most Popular Site for Ghana's Entertainment
- Music in Ghana Music in Ghana.
- Traditional Ghanaian music group Hayor Bibimma
- Ghana Music videos on ZedClips.