Veteran Ghanaian musician Reginald Yaw Asante Osei, commercially known in the music space as Reggie Rockstone, the originator of Hiplife, a music genre that fuses Ghanaian Highlife music with Hip-hop, has opined that Payola is one of the factors that hindered the projection of Hiplife.
For persons who do not understand the meaning of Payola, it is slang for paying or bribing DJs, radio presenters or TV networks to promote musical works. This is usually illegal in the industry across many countries.
Reggie explaining this concept and how it hindered the progress of Hiplife musicians in promoting Hiplife songs, asserted that paying Payola before getting your songs played on air is one of the biggest things that crippled artistes and promoters who were promoting the Hiplife brand as a music genre.
This assertion comes after he was asked by Tony Best on Akoma FM’s entertainment 360 his opinion about whether or not Hiplife is dead, as acclaimed by one of Ghana’s rap artistes M.anifest in a recent BBC documentary, Hiplife Rewind.
“I can’t say that Hiplife is dead, and I said that in the documentary that I can’t sit here in Ghana and say that something I gave birth and name to is dead, even though I understand his(M.anifest) sentiments.
“The brand Hiplife has become quite unattractive to associate with for various reasons. One of which is radio stations demanding Payola before playing our music. This was what they were doing to us when we had just started laying the foundation of the genre where we had little to pay for the music to be played”, Reggie said.
The musician, who doubles as an entrepreneur, said he believes in appreciating a DJ or any network who plays the music of his free will rather than being forced to pay before playing his music on air.