Hiplife–a fusion of hip-hop and highlife–has come of age, spawning subgenres tilting to roots culture, international rap, and boldly humorous satire, not to mention azonto, a dance craze that has rocketed to global renown in just over a year. But for all that, the biggest-selling music in the country, by far, is gospel. On this whirlwind Hip Deep tour of Accra, we meet stars like Reggie Rockstone, M.anifiest, Efya, Soul Winners, and the genre-bending FOKN Bois. Jesse Weaver Shipley, anthropologist and author of the book Living the Hiplife: Celebrity and Entrepreneurship in Ghanaian Popular Music, helps untangle the complex world of award ceremonies, corporate endorsements, live music in church, and the emergence of women in Ghana’s male-dominated pop world.
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