Culture Curators celebrate Hip- Hop 50 on Sunday

HIP-HOP is 50 years old and the milestone is being celebrated globally. In Ghana, the genre’s golden jubilee celebrations, dubbed Hip-Hop 50, comes off at the Ghana National Museum on Sunday, August 27.

The celebrations, being organised by Culture Curators of Ghana in conjunction with the Ghana National Museum, aim among others, to highlight the influence of Hip-Hop on the various Ghanaian music styles, including Highlife and Hiplife.

Activities earmarked for Sunday’s celebration which come off from 3:00p.m.-9:00p.m. include industry talks, a cypher and live graffiti art.

There will also be two film screenings— Hip-Hop—The New World Order by Muhammida ElmuHajir and Living The Hiplife by Jesse Shipley & Ras Bakari to narrate the Ghanaian version of the Hip-Hop story.

Personalities who have had a significant influence on Hip-Hop culture in Ghana such as Reggie Rockstone, who is arguably credited to be founder of Hiplife music in Ghana, Kweku T and Bayku of Talking Drums, Panji Anoff of Pidgen Music and Eddy Blay of the defunct NFL group will grace the occasion.

There will be presentations by Hip-Hop producer, Eric Coptic Matlock, Jefferson Seneadza, CEO Aftown Ghana, DJ Kofi, Founder of Turntable Ent and Robert Klah, Public Relations Officer of Charterhouse, Ghana, and Gospel singer, Diana Hopeson, who is the CEO of Music Publishing and Management.

DJs who will be serving guests with hot Hip-Hop tunes on the day are MC LLBJ, also known as EnergyGod, DJ Kofi, DJ Miss Orstin, DJ Fui and DJ Dibz.

That is not all, Sunday’s event will officially open an exhibition of selected and prominent Hip-Hop works which will run till Friday, December 22, 2023, with monthly activations to offer museum patrons new and unique experiences.

According to the main organiser of Hip-Hop 50 and a creator at Culture Curator, Aretha Amma Sarfo-Kantanka, the exhibition will manifest the commitment of creatives and also celebrate their works for the establishment of Hip-Hop culture in Ghana.

“I am beyond amazed and excited about how this exhibition and event is manifesting itself solely by the works of creatives who love and grew up on Hip-Hop and are coming together to celebrate the milestone.

“Growing up in New York, this is what I saw and loved about Hip-Hop in its ability to unite artistes to be creative in different talents and just have fun in creating memorable and magical moments in time, for the culture,” she stated.

In an interview with Graphic Showbiz, a member of the organising team, Amara Wilson, said the event which was also in partnership with Accra Arts Week and Art Haus would provide the avenue to duly pay homage to Ghana’s inspiration and role in the successful story of Hip-Hop.

She narrated how the likes of Reggie Rockstone and Panji Anoff were pushed to introduce and experiment with a new rhythm, Hiplife, in the early 90s when they returned to Ghana after being influenced by the Hip-Hop culture during their stay in the US.

“HipLife Grandpapa Reggie Rockstone and Panji Anoff, marking their own years of return to Ghana, created and introduced a new genre of music called Hiplife that blended Hip-Hop with traditional Highlife.

“As America had its Native Tongues movement, Ghana also had the Talking Drum as the Hip-Hop group pushing their African roots through rap music,” she stated.

About Culture Curators

Culture Curators is a collaborative space and concept for curators of culture conceived by Global Fusion Productions Inc./GF Productions.