Zapp Mallet Taunts Reggie Rockstone’s Claims Of Being The Originator Of Hip-Life In Ghana
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originated hip-life in Ghana continues—and I think these guys are making
unnecessary noise in our ears.
us to enjoy our peace as we thing about dumsor and hardships that has engulfed us in Ghana….
.
Rockstone has been credited as being the originator of hip-life; but Renowned
Ghanaian sound engineer and music producer, Emmanuel Zapp Mallet has
asserted that Reggie is not the who introduced the name.
interview with Flex News Paper that though Reggie was the first to release a
hip-life album Maka Maka but that does not make him the originator;
“When Reggie Rockstone came down from UK, he came
with his partner and they both had the hip-hop culture which was sweeping all
over the globes as it were at that time and some of us thought that we could go
to our root, our heritage and do something Ghanaian, more African and merge
hip-hop with our identity.
“An identity that will project the Ghanaian culture
so Michael Kuku who was an instrumentalist then and I decided to name that
class of music hip-life and it worked,” he said.
Zapp Mallet who remains one of the best recording
engineers and producers in Ghana stated that his decision to finally set the
record straight by adding his voice on the matter is not for recognition but
for the sake of history and for people to have a clear understanding of what is
making waves.
“I have been silent on this issue for this long
even though I knew it will come out one day. This was in 1994. It is a long
story to be told now but a lot of us were behind generating and promoting this
hip-life course and it is just fair we give them some credit, indeed Reggie
Rockstone founded that genre, made it commercial but a lot of people gave a
helping hand and he was not the one who introduced the name hip-life,” he
added.
Zapp Mallet also added that, it was at one of
their studio sessions when they argued over the name to give to that kind of
music and the word hip-life came in mind and Reggie was present at that
meeting.
