<<Print>>

According to sources (not wikileaks), the founder of hiplife, Reggie Rcokstone is set to meet with President John Evans Atta Mills over the recently published leaks that made mention of Reggie Rockstone and the hiplife movement � so far the only positive information released about Ghana in latest leak. It isn�t clear what the meeting would be about but surely it will be an opportunity for Rockstone to make a point for hiplife and the Ghanaian music industry which has received little attention by government over the years. Improving and enforcing copyright laws and other policies such as paying to air music videos on the national broadcaster, GTV should perhaps take centre stage at the meeting. Wikileaks, known for releasing confidential diplomatic information from several governments in the world, touched on the fastest growing music genre in Ghana, Hiplife in cable No. 66 as follows �Shipley�s Film �Living The Hiplife: Reggie Rockstone and Ghanaian Popular Culture� uses interviews with younger Hiplife musicians, Disc Jockeys and Record Producers, to show how the well-known singer Reggie Rockstone, became known as the �Godfather� of Hiplife music. One Record Producer in the film is Rab Bakari, who grew up in New York and who helped Reggie Rockstone to develop his unique music style. �Living The Hiplife� is a highly-engaging documentary shot in Ghana from 2003 to 2006. The film looks at the Hiplife genre as a youth cultural movement that came about with the intersection of many musical influences, from indigenous music, to African American and afro-Caribbean music. It goes on to explain that interestingly enough, Hiplife emerged out of elite prep schools, because it was in these schools that the young people had access to hip hop through family members that traveled abroad. �Living The Hiplife� directed by Jesse Weaver Shipley, was featured at the 2007 FESPACO (Pan African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou) and could be used in classes to discuss topics such as syncretization, popular/youth culture, the globalization of hip hop, Africa�s relationship to the Diaspora, and music history in Ghana.