“Reggie Rockstone Is wrong, he didn’t originate hiplife” - Abraham Ohene-Djan

Filmmaker says the title does not belong to Panji Annof either.

“Reggie Rockstone Is wrong, he didn’t originate hiplife” - Abraham Ohene-Djan
Reggie Rockstone

Popular Ghanaian filmmaker, Abraham Ohene-Djan, who shot the first hiplife music videos in Ghana has declared that Zapp Mallet is the closest thing to being the progenitor of Hiplife in Ghana.

He has now directly renounced the heavily contested claim that Reggie Rockstone started Hiplife in Ghana. Although Reggie Rockstone has worn the tag of "Grandfather of Hiplife" in Ghana for many years, Abraham Ohene-Djan has disproved his right to the throne.

The filmmaker, who was behind some of the hiplife music videos shot in the 1990s and made Reggie Rockstone's 'Twoo Boe' in 1994, explained the origins of Hiplife properly in an interview on Showbiz 927 on 3FM with MzGee.

 

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“I will say something; it may be controversial; I don’t think it was Reggie [Rockstone] and I don’t think it was Panji [Anoff]…,”

 “I think the person that we really need to look at is Zapp Mallet; seriously, because in terms of who defined the hiplife sound…it was Zapp who first put out what we refer to as contemporary, urban, or African or Ghanaian music. Yes, Reggie was the one who was on the beat…Pandji was doing his thing…”

The movie director further explained that it is the beat that defines a particular genre: “It is the engineer that creates the genre…a subject or a style of rapper or singing doesn’t define the genre…”

He however admitted that he does not remember who coined the phrase "Hiplife" as he is currently still researching it. He finally revealed that he is working on new material.

I’m putting something together. I need to digitize some old material… and I will make it all available online so people can go listen to interviews or at least research that information." He concluded.