Veteran Ghanaian musician Reginald Yaw Asante Osei, better known in the music industry as Reggie Rockstone, the creator of Hiplife, a music genre that fuses Ghanaian Highlife music with Hip-hop, believes that Payola or Payo is one of the factors impeding Hiplife’s growth.
For those who do not understand the term, Payola is slang for paying or bribing DJs, radio hosts, or TV networks to promote musical works. Many countries consider this to be illegal in the industry.
Reggie asserted, while explaining this concept and how it hampered the progress of Hiplife musicians in promoting Hiplife songs, that paying Payola before having your songs played on air was one of the most significant factors that crippled artists and promoters who were promoting the Hiplife brand as a music genre.
His assertion comes after he was asked by Tony Best on Akoma FM’s entertainment 360 whether Hiplife is dead, as claimed by M.anifest, one of Ghana’s rap artists, in a recent BBC documentary, Hiplife Rewind.
“I can’t say that Hiplife is dead, and I said in the documentary that I can’t sit here in Ghana and say that something I gave birth and name to is quiet, 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.
Source: 3news.com
