ABK and Oumar took me back to Hush Hush Studios, where I met the owner, Daniel, and LIB Queen, one of Liberia’s top acts. She’s played for a UN concert, for Liberia’s first female president, and a number of other shows in Liberia as well as in Ghana where she now lives. She sings to hiplife, dancehall and reggae beat produced by some of Ghana’s finest, right here at Hush Hush.
Kofi is a Ghanaian highlife legend. We met today and I listened to a few of his albums. He formed the Okukuseku International Band in Accra in 1969, released music throughout the 70s and became one of Ghana’s top acts by the time he left for Nigeria in 1979. He kept recording in Eastern Nigeria, incorporating musical elements from this other highlife hotbed. He now lives between Ghana and Nigeria and occasionally plays for Ghanaians abroad, but has yet to truly breakthrough. Akwaaba’s hoping to re-release and probably remaster some of his great highlife. For the time being all we could find online were these – out of stock last time we checked, but the covers alone are worth checking!
Quophi has agreed to work with Akwaaba to further spread his music around the world. He also mentioned Akwaaba to his longtime partner Okyeame Kwame, with whom they record under the name Akyeame. He also hooked up Bradaz, Kwame’s new hiplife proteges, who’s song One Gallon was a huge hit in Ghana.
Ghana was once known as the Gold Coast, and it’s still full of sonic nuggets, many of which were shared with Akwaaba this week! I’ve been on a journey for a few days now with ABK and Prof, they’ve taken me all over Accra to meet with artists and producers in their homes and studios. Last night after I got back to my hotel, I started playing a stack of CDs with great tracks by local hiplife artists such as Dogo, Rabbi, Ntakra, Nana Nkramea, Papa Rasta… the list goes on. I met most of these artists directly, ABK hooked up the others, whom I still hope to meet before I leave if they are to work with Akwaaba.
It’s almost my last night here in Accra, and my local contact ABK is taking me to Osu to witness some bigger scale chop bar dancing action. I’ve been enjoying my nightly stops at Strawberry, right by my hotel in Adabraka. Strawberry is a small outdoor bar serving all the basics to survive a hot muggy night. They blast all the hiplife hits throught their tummy shakin’ subwoofers, and they serve grilled plantains and cold drinks, it’s perfect! I wish I had a night time picture, but that’ll have to wait til the next trip!
Strawberry by day… a sidewalk chop bar in Adabraka (Accra, Ghana)
