One of the reasons why Akwaaba decided to relocate to Ghana was actually to be closer to Liberia. A country we seldom hear about for its music. But last year we were introduced to Liberian music at the Buduburam Refugee Camp just west of Accra, where Shadow and a large crew of artists have been keeping their LIB music fresh and lively.
Fast forward to this year: over the summer our longtime friend and African dance music expert Chief Boima spent some time in Monrovia, where he identified key artists. After meeting briefly in Accra, he invited our own Benjamin Lebrave to fly to Monrovia, for the two to put together a sample of the exciting sounds of Liberia today.

Hipco is hip hop sung in colloquial English, the form of English you hear on the streets of Liberia. Although colloquial English retains a lot of English syntax, it can be a bit daunting at first because it is spoken very fast, many consonants are not pronounced, and a lot of words are borrowed from other local languages. But it has become the language of choice for young rappers. And much like hip hop, hipco has grown into its own culture, with its own lifestyle, dance moves and music. Today hipco often refers to more than just a type of rap, it’s a way of life.

Gbema is the generic term given to electronically-produced traditional music. So it covers a wide range of rhythms, most of them very high paced, reminiscent of Sierra Leonian Bubu or South African Shangaan. It’s also quite common for the rhythms to jump into half or double time..

This music, hipco and gbema, is having a profound impact on Liberia. Much like early day hip hop, hipco is a significant vector of social change, while gbema’s intricate rhythms are relentlessly challenging listeners and dancers. We called the compilation Lone Stars not only because it is the nickname of Liberia, but also because these artists are often left without much of an industry to survive. They are truly alone, with their music, striving to survive in a country still recovering from decades of destructive conflict.

Album is out today in iTunes and Bandcamp, and next week at other major retailers such as Amazon.

Junior Freeman & African Soldier – “Damyarea” (area song) by Akwaaba Music

Today Liberians vote for their next president. Just four days after the Nobel Foundation decided to let the world – and in particular Liberians – know how much they like Ma Ellen. We prefer sharing with the world a song that has been the soundtrack of an entire summer in Liberia – although summer there is the rainy season, which feels much more like winter. But meteorology aside, the “area song” has been an unavoidable sonic leitmotiv in all corners of Liberia. And we feel today’s a pretty OK day to share it: it’s also a sneak peak for our hipco and gbema compilation coming out… next week!!!!

Lone Stars Mix by chiefboima

About one year ago, Akwaaba’s own Benjamin Lebrave discovered gbema at the Buduburam Refugee Camp in Ghana. There he met Shadow, who gave him a thorough update on Liberian music. One song stood out in particular: the high-paced, auto-tune-heavy song Killing Me – and right then and there, Akwaaba was introduced to Liberian gbema and its fast, complex rhythms. A year later, Boima invites Benjamin to connect with him in Monrovia, where he’d spent the last two months soaking up the local musical flavors, and connecting with all kinds of artists. Read the first part of Boima’s Liberian experience at Cluster mag.

The result of this trip is a 15 track compilation highlighting the best in Liberian hipco and gbema. To get your feet wet Boima has pieced together the songs into an extra potent mix. Wait another 2 weeks for the full songs!!!

Tracklist (as experienced by Boima)

1. Takun J-Tu-ka-ka-ya-tu feat. Byronic and Nasseman

I heard this song on the radio during a Monrovia traffic jam the first week I arrived in Liberia. It has a special place in my mind and heart as the first song I recognized, and had to track down.

Takun J is one of if not the most popular Hipco artist currently in Liberia. With lines like “said she want me email, but the email didn’t work”, Takun always manages to come up with subtle and inventive lines (off the top of his head) that depict daily life on the ground in Monrovia. I also love the chipmunk high voice that Liberian producers tend to play with. Nasseman, also featured on the track has his own style that borrows from Jamaican Patois, and is just as popular. This was produced by Infectious Michael.

2. F.A.-Bump It Remix featuring Takun J, K-Zee, and Cypha D’King.

A really great song from a group of Liberia’s most popular artists. This song comes from the powerhouse studio Bluelinks in downtown Monrovia. Bluelinks also has a radio station called Hot FM, which is run by DJ Blue a repatriated Liberian from Monrovia. The Bluelinks crew throws a lot of events, and they’re probably the most avid promoters and supporters of Liberian artists.

3. Genesis Crew-Champagne

I got this track from DJ Cole at the Heritage studio in Gbarnga, Bong County. I came to find out that there was a recording studio located in the center I was lodged in on a visit there. It was truly a surprise that in the war torn former capital of Charles Taylor’s I found the most technologically advanced studio in the country (running Logic Pro on an Apple Mac Tower)! The area I was staying also had really good palm wine, but I didn’t try their champagne.

When Benjamin and I were going through tracks to include on the comp, I felt that this song was a unique addition, something unlike anything I’d heard in rest of the country, but I wasn’t quite sure it was polished enough. After a few listens the catchy chorus and the raggamuffin style verse really grew on us. But in the end, two words can sum up what really convinced us to include this one: Auto-tune breakdown!

4. Deboy’s Crew-Polo Mabo

Deboy could be considered an innovator of the Gbema-Hipco fusion. He was running one of the original home studios right after the war years. Benjamin and I visited him and the crew after a long series of shared taxi rides to the northern suburbs of Monrovia.

I had heard this song on repeat at my favorite drinking spot in Paynesville, Club 704. It became one of my favorite songs during the months I stayed in Liberia. I loved the play between the halftime bass drum kicks at 180 BPM, especially the part in the middle when they suddenly sing in English “somebody positive, and somebody negative”. Being able to include this song on the compilation made the journey worth it.

5. Junior Freeman & African Soldier-Damyarea

Number one heard song in Liberia this summer all over the country. I went to a market in a rural area, and the tapes for this album were moving like hotcakes. It was so popular the current president even used the song to kick of her re-election campaign.

6. Big J-Kalaman

Another one from Heritage stuido in Gbarnga. Big J is from Lofa county in the remote, northern tip of the country, bordering Sierra Leone and Guinea. The song clearly takes elements from Sierra Leone, including the word Kala which means money in Temne, a Sierra Leonean language. If you can get the meaning of the chorus it’s pretty hilarious. The daughter telling her father she wants money (“I want eat Kala”) to go to the market, and if she doesn’t get it she will, “holla”. The father simply replies “go and tell yo ma.” Brilliant!

7. Master Black-Dakamaly

Kpelle Rap!

Master Black was in Ghana for much of the war, where he was able to pick up some computer training and music production skills. Now he runs a little computer lab in his neighborhood (on my visit I saw folks editing a movie, Lollywood!) While Master Black mostly does his own production, this song was produced by Infectious Michael, who was also in Ghana. While in Ghana, Michael went to music school where he learned engineering and composition. This is the sound of the new Liberia.

8. 2 Kings-Fine Girl

2 Kings representing the Liberian diaspora in Ghana. The song was recorded at Shadow’s studio in Budumburam Camp outside of Accra. I love the rhythm and interplay of the vocal delivery of this tune.

9. K-Zee-Kountry Chicken feat. Pepsi and Skinny

Another song produced by Deboy that I had to track down, after seeing the video

on local TV, and it really is a popular tune. Benjamin and I got to see how popular one evening, when K-Zee performed at Groovies, a local bar. Every Friday night a live house band holds an open mic session and local singers and rappers perform their own songs and classic Afro-pop hits from places like South Africa, Congo, Ghana, and Nigeria. When K-Zee performed this Jump-up Soca inflected Gbema-Hipco hybrid, the crowd’s enthusiastic singing along and hand-waving participation made me feel like I was on the road at carnival. Since recording this song K-Zee has become part of Infectious Michael’s crew.

10. Noy-Z-4 Noy Z Bizness

Hipco artist John Bricks told me and Benjamin that Noy Z’s “I’ll Boke You”, and it’s message derailing the political corruption of the post-war transitional regime, really ignited the spread of Hipco across the country. On this song Noy-Z takes his turn at the Gbema-Hipco style, with fine results. Noy-Z’s brother Alonzo is a popular reggae singer based in Freetown.

11. L 2 Sweet-O Gye

I saw L 2 Sweet perform this song while I was DJing an Anti-gun rally run by Youth Crime Watch of Liberia in the Red Light market on the edge of Monrovia. His crew really impressed me with their coordinated dance routine, and the quality of their songwriting and productions. When we were looking for songs for the compilation, this is another one that I chased down, asking everyone I could about where it came from. Of course, it’s another Infectious Michael production.

12. David Mell-Hero

David Mell is Liberia’s R&B heartthrob. He mixes the crooning of American and Nigerian R&B singers to come up with a style he calls Soul-co. This was the only song included on the compilation that I actually heard about before getting to Liberia, thanks to the nice video

of it on youtube. Another Infectious Michael production he told me he used a Ghanian rhythm to construct the Gbema backbeat.

13. Marie Nyenebo-Joya

Infectious Michael was actually the first producer I met in Liberia after linking up with Tan Tan another one of the rappers in his stable. He gave me this tune in a collection of songs for me to check out, and I was instantly drawn to this 218 BPM scorcher!

14. Shadow-Killing Me

Shadow is a producer, singer, and rapper based out of the Budumbura Camp in Accra (known locally as “Liberia Camp”.) Benjamin sent me to visit Shadow and his crew when I visited him for a week in Ghana. I was really amazed by what he was able to accomplish with the limited equipment that he has. All of the Liberian producers, Michael, Deboy, and Shadow are working on virus laden PC’s and pirated production software. It goes to show that you really don’t need the best and most expensive equipment to make it sound good! Shadow won best song with this tune at the 2010 All African Traditional Music Awards in Benin.

15. Shadow-Killing Me (Chief Boima Remix)

16. J.P. & De Royal Force-Make You Dance

This song blows my mind and my body. The bass kick interplay, between the American Crunk (or Juke) sensibility and the traditional rhythms at blazing speed, really makes me want to dance every time I hear it. This Shadow produced track might the pinnacle of the Bubu-Gbema-Hip Hop cross breed I’ve been looking for since I first heard it at a Sierra Leonean wedding years ago.

In case you missed the first installment of our new Lungu Lungu column over at Fader Mag, here’s the second piece, this time about one of our current favorites down here in Ghana, Shadow, the one man operation that is literally lifting the entire Buduburam Liberia Refugee Camp, and bringing Liberia’s sounds to Ghanaians, and now to you, worldwide! Grab his sick gbema track “Killing Me”: gbema is a traditional rhythm, which Shadow has successfully carried into the Fruity Loop age. Think Shangaan electro, but this time a weeee bit more musical. Shadow you are the MAN!!!!

And in case you miss it, the first freebie we shared with Fader, a lil’ sumfin from the FOKN Bois, which gave its name to the column:

This here is a 2 hour roundup of some of our favorite sounds coming from Africa. With a definite emphasis on sounds to make your hips move, and also definitely not an exhaustive line-up of genres – we are heavily biased towards Ghana, Angola, the Congo Kinshasa and Ivory Coast… what can you do!

BBRAVE put this mix together for This Is Africa and Nairobi-based Ghetto Radio who will air the mix… shortly. In the meantime, cop it here, and make sure to check out the full playlist below. And make sure to play loud and warm up the tip of your half-frozen feet!!

Monalisa – Ruff-N-Smooth Site | Buy
Simple – Bradez Buy
She De Bee feat. Guru – Old Sodja
So Cold – DaSoul
Ratata feat. K. Switch – R2Bees Buy
Extra – Just A Band Site | Buy
No Time feat. P Square – Bracket Buy
Swagger feat Stay Jay – Ruff-N-Smooth Site | Buy
Dome Na Mendowo feat. Castro – Appietus Site | Buy
Pipi – Marlaw
Fall In Love – D’Banj Buy
Yori Yori- Bracket Buy
Essabel feat. Mike & Old Sodja- Appietus Site | Buy
Boom Back Remix feat. Jose Chameleone – Bebe Kool
No One Like You – P-Square Buy
? – Les Garagistes Buy
Coeur Blanc - Les Patrons Buy
Do As i Do – Bracket Buy
Ma Alomo feat. KK Fosu & Reggie Zippy – Appietus Site | Buy
Eha Ye De (Bebia Awo) feat. SK Blinks - Nana Boroo Buy
Femme Africaine Lutchiana 100%
Elegom Bounsa feat. Maskarado (Radio Mix) – DJ Djeff Site | Buy
Relela – Skeat Site | Buy
Miss Doctor feat. 4X4 – Appietus Site | Buy
Kiss Ur Hand feat. Wande Coal- R2Bees Buy
Usinibore – Just A Band Site | Buy
DJ’s Mortel (2) – Polio – Kiloko
Sentiment Moka – ?
Wengeze – Eazzy
Windek – Cabo Snoop
Tchouchou Tchoucou – Kedjevara Site | Buy
Coupe de Tête de Zidane – DJ Menza Site | Buy
Asta Di – Aurlus Mabele Buy
Django – DJ Bonano Site | Buy
Som Do Zoca – Zoca Zoca Site | Buy
Tabouret Baoulé – Pat Sexy
Celimania Remix – Gadji Celi Buy
Sukuma – Killamu Site | Buy
Tiramakossa - Noite e Día Site | Buy
Number One - Fofandó & Saborosa Site | Buy
Aladin Mix – DJ Znobia
Kassumuna - Game Walla