OG Abrantie, a prominent Hiplife artist, warned on Monday that Ghana has not truly owned the genre that once dominated the nation’s music scene. He said Hiplife is neither dead nor dying, but it has slipped into the background because industry stakeholders have not done enough to protect and promote its identity.
“We are all to be blamed, all industry players. We have failed to lift the banner of Hiplife high,” the rapper told the Graphic Showbiz. He added that newer movements such as Asakaa have secured distinct categories on global platforms like Spotify, while Hiplife—shaped in the late 1990s and early 2000s—lacks comparable recognition.
OG Abrantie, who released the Hiplife‑focused EP Is It Elementary? in May, urged the music industry to take collective responsibility for preserving the genre. He praised veteran Hiplife icon Reggie Rockstone’s recent efforts to reignite conversations around the style but cautioned that Reggie should not carry the advocacy alone.
“The grandpapa, Reggie Rockstone, is making some noise lately, but we will need almost everyone on board,” he said. “We all have a role to play—veterans, established artistes, rappers and emerging Hiplife acts.”
OG Abrantie also criticised the tendency to label contemporary Ghanaian music with foreign sounds. He argued that Ghana risks losing its musical identity when artists chase trends instead of strengthening what the country already has. “What’s Nigerian sound? Though they may have their indigenous sound, we can arguably say their forefront sound has been Highlife with contemporary beats named Afrobeats, which is Ghana’s sound also,” he said.
He stressed the importance of documenting Ghana’s contribution to the sounds being popularised across Africa. “Documenting, having the identity stamped and sealed, and claiming it and not waiting for foreign entities doing that for us,” he added.
OG Abrantie’s new EP is intended to announce his identity as a Hiplife artist and to keep the genre visible and relevant. “Is It Elementary? is to explicitly show my musical identity, a genre I love so much,” he said. He noted that releasing a single or two Hiplife tracks would not suffice to communicate the genre’s meaning to him.
