My father sponsored my career – Reggie Rockstone details the genesis of Hiplife
Veteran Ghanaian musician and pioneer of hiplife music, Reginald Yaw Asante Osei, known by his stage name, Reggie Rockstone speaking on Onua TV’s “Biribi Gye Gye Wo”, reveals how his determination transformed the Ghanaian music landscape.
Reggie Rockstone disclosed how his father and fashion designer Ricci Saint Ossei played crucial roles in the history of Ghanaian music.
He mentioned that they advised him not to use hip-hop as the name for hiplife when he was working on bringing up the genre.
“My father did for Ghana exactly what I did for music. In fact, the hiplife we listen to, my father sponsored hiplife. He put his money into it. At the time we were about to give it a name, he was the one who told me, ‘Yaw, do not call it hip-hop. Own it.’ We were on a veranda in Labone one afternoon when he told me that what I was doing was going to be huge because he felt it. He did not live long enough to see what Hiplife did. But he saw the vision. He even built a studio for me.”
Reggie also revealed that the rap genre is African, as descendants of African slaves taken to America are the ones doing it.
“If you will pay attention, rap itself is from us. It is African. Our people who were taken away due to slavery are the ones doing it. So, it’s from home,” he continued. “So, don’t ever think there is any difference between your brothers and sisters over there. It is just a separation via slavery. We are family. But the blueprint is from here.”
The Veteran also disputed rumours that he was born into a rich family, explaining that he was already grown before his father became a rich man.
Reggie Rockstone has been nicknamed The “Grandpapa” for his enormous contribution to the Hiplife genre.
Hiplife is a musical genre in Ghana that combines Ghanaian culture and hip-hop. Hiplife, primarily recorded in the Ghanaian Akan language, is rapidly gaining popularity in the 2010s throughout West Africa and abroad, particularly in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, and Germany.
source: 3news.com
