Artistes don’t do hip life music because streaming platforms don’t have a category for it — Okyeame Kwame

Renowned Ghanaian Hiplife artiste and rapper Okyeame Kwame has revealed that young artistes shy away from Hiplife music because streaming platforms do not have such a genre.

According to him, their days in the industry were not about streaming platforms, but rather all they had to do to promote or make money was to sell their CDs. “Music and marketing these days are about money. Gone are the days when we used to sell our CDs to promote our music and make money,” he said.

Speaking in an interview on XZONE on TV XYZ, the rap doctor revealed that most streaming platforms have genres like hip hop, Afrobeat, neo soul, soul, alternative music, African music, and experimental. However, it makes it difficult to sell a genre which is not listed in their category of music on the streaming platforms.

“Now music is on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon. The online platforms have no genre called Hiplife. So, where are you going to sell your music when you call it Hiplife? There’s no Hiplife on streaming platforms; all they have is hip hop, Afrobeat, neo soul, soul, alternative music, African music, and experimental. So, if your song is not one of these categories, it’s more like creating a round product where the shelves are all in square shape,” he added.

Okyeame Kwame told host Afia Owusu that pioneers of Hiplife should have created a similar platform for Ghanaian music which would have made young artistes interested in delving into such a genre.

“As pioneers, we should have created a similar platform because these streaming platforms were created by man and we can also do the same. If we had done the same with all Ghanaian genres, the younger generation would have been interested in our genres, but the white man will promote his own with stuff he created,” he emphasized.