Hiplife in the Hood
Roots and Mobility of West African Contemporary Popular Music
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jwpm.25325Keywords:
Nigerian hiplife, highlife, Translocal music scene, West African hiplife, hip hopAbstract
This article discusses the roots and mobility of West African hiplife music following decades of music collaboration within the region. The affinity between the popular music scenes in West Africa dates to the post-World War II era as highlife music became the dominant popular music style. Following the adoption of American hip hop in the 1990s, the hiplife genre emerged through the fusion of some elements of highlife and hip hop and developed as a translocal and transcultural art that characterizes the indigenized hip hop music of Anglophone West Africa. This article provides a historical and descriptive review of hiplife in Ghana and Nigeria, as well as cross-border mobility and current trends, arguing that hiplife culture emerged in disparate West African communities as artists appropriated hip hop to accommodate generational social realities.
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